Signum University

The AM program is designed for adults with an intermediate to advanced knowledge of the English language who want to learn for the joy of learning and do not need a formal degree. AM students should have at least one specific learning goal that aligns with our available pedagogical offerings. We welcome students from around the globe, including those who have not previously completed any form of higher education

Our application form is coming soon! You will need to sign up to Blackberry to access it. Prospective students will need to provide a writing sample, a statement outlining their personal goal(s), and complete our application form.

Courses, workshops, mentorships, and other paid offerings from the AM program are purchased with Signum Tokens (available in our Blackberry system). A single Token costs $175 USD and can be used for advising or mentorship, two tutoring sessions, or four Writers’ Forge sessions. Individual modules will cost two Tokens; most semester-long classes will cost 6-8 Tokens. Master Tokens can be purchased in bulk at lower rates. There is no minimum number of tokens, modules, or classes you need to take, and no required speed at which to complete the program, so you can study as a part-time AM student for a few hundred dollars a year, or take dozens of classes every month and pay proportionately more.

AM courses, like our for-credit graduate program, offer live or recorded lectures, interactive sessions, asynchronous discussions, and assessments, structured around 15-week semesters with instructional and application periods. Students will engage in weekly readings, video lectures, and live discussions, with options to take full courses or shorter five- or seven-week modules. The two-tiered curriculum includes foundational training in humanities research, writing, and language skills, along with content-specific courses in literature and translation. Tier 1 courses cover practical skills like essay structure, citation, and language fundamentals, while Tier 2 courses are content-focused, allowing students to apply these skills to specific texts. Our mastery-based approach encourages students to revisit courses or modules as needed for confidence and depth, emphasizing true understanding over mere rote completion.

Like our other programs, we will be offering classes in imaginative and speculative literature (including Tolkien); classical, medieval, and early modern literature; and Germanic Philology. We hope to add creative writing classes shortly after launch. Please see Blackberry (coming soon!) for current and upcoming classes.

AM students are encouraged to enroll in Signum’s ungraded continuing education modules (SPACE) and to avail themselves of the Writer’s Forge (both available to all members of the Signum community). AM students may choose to enroll in guided feedback and accountability groups with their peers, even in months in which they are not actively enrolled in courses, or to develop research projects under the individual supervision of a faculty mentor (after meeting certain prerequisites).

Our Graduate Diploma and MA programs are designed for students who need a formal degree or official certificate. Because the MA is a formal degree, it comes with specific state standards with which we must comply in order to be approved to offer those degrees in the state of New Hampshire. While the AM program shares its faculty and many of the class subjects with the graduate program, it is designed to prioritize personal fulfillment at the expense of meeting governmental benchmarks. Students may complete classes at various paces, pause their studies to pursue independent tutoring, and enroll in as many (or as few!) classes as they wish, including taking a course multiple times in order to learn the content more deeply. Course materials and assignments will be as rigorous as our classes in our graduate program, but the AM program will be more flexible in timing, expected classes, and program design.

SPACE, our Adult Continuing Education program, is designed to offer low-stakes, for-fun continuing education classes. Our AM classes, like SPACE, will have live discussions guided by enthusiastic instructors, but will also have assignments and evaluations to give students feedback and help each student track his or her progress towards a specific goal. AM students can expect to spent 4-12 hours per week preparing for classes and completing assignments. AM students are also welcome to take SPACE classes to enrich their AM learning or to cover areas in which the AM program doesn’t currently offer coursework.

Yes! Here are some goals AM students might have, and plans they might follow to achieve them:

Translate Beowulf.*

Stage 1: Semester-long introduction to Old English course (AM); Creative writing poetry class (AM); Weekly peer study groups for language learning (AM); Basic writing courses, grammar modules, citation and formatting modules; and literary theory modules, as needed based on initial evaluation (AM, SPACE); Collaboratory subscription to Michael Drout’s Exploring Beowulf Project Room or Author’s Circle.

Stage 2: Casual Old English translation seminars (SPACE); Scholarly classes or single modules on poetry and epics as desired (AM); Graded Beowulf translation seminar (AM); Writer’s Forge sessions with a linguist or creative writer. Students are encouraged to continue Stage 1 activities as desired.

Stage 3: Successive, concurrent, or alternating months of mentorships with an Old English Scholar and creative writer, as desired by the student. Students are encouraged to continue Stage 1 and 2 activities as desired.

Write an academic article about Tolkien* to send to a publisher.

Stage 1: Basic writing course; introductory grammar modules, citation and formatting modules; research modules; and literary theory modules, as needed based on initial evaluation (AM, SPACE); Weekly peer writing groups (AM); SPACE modules on relevant Tolkien topics as desired and available.

Stage 2: Scholarly (AM) courses on relevant Tolkien and literary topics, with the possibility of tailoring some assignments to the topic of the eventual paper; occasional meetings with Writers’ Forge tutors to revise past assignments, draft paragraphs, and develop the structure of the article. Students are encouraged to continue Stage 1 activities as desired.

Stage 3: One-on-one mentorship with an established scholar throughout the writing, revision, and submission process. Students are encouraged to continue Stage 1 and 2 activities as desired.

[coming soon!] Write a short story set in a world of your own invention. 

Stage 1: Writing in community course (AM); Self as writer course (AM); Basic writing courses and research and grammar modules as needed based on initial evaluation (AM, SPACE); Weekly peer writing groups (AM); SPACE modules on relevant literary and creative writing topics as desired and available.

Stage 2: Scholarly (AM) courses on relevant topics, with the possibility of submitting creative writing or relevant projects for select assignments; occasional meetings with Writers’ Forge tutors to brainstorm specific approaches, draft and outline the story, and develop characters, settings, languages, geography, or other core components. Student is encouraged to continue Stage 1 activities as desired.

Stage 3: One-on-one mentorship with a supportive creative writer. Student is encouraged to continue Stage 1 and 2 activities as desired. 

*or another language or literature text of your choice

Yes, absolutely! If you have an idea of what you would like to do, please describe your specific goal and list the available and upcoming courses and mentorship opportunities that would help you achieve that goal. You are welcome to include SPACE classes in your list too! Once you’ve been accepted, you’ll work with a member of staff to design the best possible program to fit your needs.

Yes, absolutely! If you have a group of 8-12 individuals with similar scheduling availability who would like to coordinate taking the same classes in the same sequence for a specific period of time, we’d be delighted to support you! If individual classes and modules aren’t full, you may also have other students join you at various points along your academic journey, and we hope you’ll all find the infusion of additional ideas and goals exciting and enriching. 

The AM faculty are excited to help students with a range of academic writing, creative writing, and translation projects. We believe students will be most successful if they select goals relevant to areas in which Signum already has specific strengths. For languages, these include projects on Old English, Old Norse, Old Saxon, Gothic, Classical Latin, and Classical and Biblical Greek. Our literature faculty are particularly experienced in Classical (Greek and Latin) literature; Medieval British and European literature; Early Modern (Renaissance) Literature; Victorian, Romantic, and Gothic literature; World War I literature; Lewis, Tolkien, and Inklings studies; Imaginative and speculative fiction; Science Fiction; Poetry; Film and adaptation; film and televised Science Fiction; Adaptation Studies; and much more! We encourage you to look at both our current MA classes and our SPACE modules for a better sense of the ever-growing range of academic and creative pursuits we support at Signum. If you’re still not sure whether we can support your project, please email us!

Unfortunately, because courses in the AM program are self-driven, continuing education courses, they cannot be counted for graduate Signum credit. Students enrolled in one of our for-credit graduate programs are welcome to take AM courses, but the credit is non-transferable.

Meeting goals is wonderful! We think you should have a party and eat cake to celebrate. Then, you’re welcome to move on to other academic pursuits, or to meet with your advisor to discuss a new goal! Signum’s AM program is happy to support your lifetime pursuit of learning, should you choose to stay with us!