fall personal curriculum

what's on my syllabus for the coming season

As the kids are saying on the internet Augtober is in full swing. The Spirit store on my street is open for business. Pumpkin spice has an arrival date not too far off. I am aching for a cool breeze and a gloomy day. So I’m setting my sights on my favorite season. Fall. I feel like I have the opposite of seasonal affective disorder. I get sad when it’s summer and I feel my happiest when there are crunchy leaves to step on and colors changing in the trees.

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So I want to get cozy and curious this season. And aim my personal curricula in that direction.

Here’s my fall syllabus:

Course:

The Architecture of Light: History, Craft & Illusion of Stained Glass

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Course Materials:

• Stained Glass: History, Technology and Practice by Sarah Brown.

• The Art of Stained Glass on YouTube

• The Met’s Stained Glass Archive

• The V&A’s Introduction to Stained Glass

• A visit to The Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament (to window gaze!)

Course Objectives:

1. Identify and critically evaluate famous stained glass fixtures worldwide.

2. Gain a thorough technical understanding of the traditional stained glass process.

3. Complete a hands-on course in traditional glasswork alongside an at-home faux stained glass experiment to compare.

Final Projects:

• Take a course in stained glass and leave with a final project.

• Do an at-home faux stained glass project.

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Course:

The Female Gaze in Dread: Domesticity, Monstrosity, and Autonomy

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Course Materials:

• The Monstrous-Feminine: Film, Feminism, Psychoanalysis by Barbara Creed

• House of Psychotic Women: An Autobiographical Topography of Female Neurosis in Horror and Exploitation Films by Kier-La Janisse

• Faculty of Horror Podcast

• Alien (1979)

• Jennifer’s Body (2009)

• The Slumber Party Massacre (1982)

• The Substance (2024)

Course Objectives:

1. Critically assess how women as creators, writers, and central characters reframe traditional horror tropes, such as the Final Girl, the monstrous mother, or the madwoman.

2. Analyze how societal anxieties around female bodies, neurosis, aging, and bodily control evolve across cinema eras.

Final Projects:

• Make a women in horror zine

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Course:

The Alive Kitchen: History, Microbes & The Craft of Fermentation

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Course Materials:

• The Art of Fermentation by Sandor Ellix Katz

• Gastropod Podcast

• The Cultured Guru

• Cooked (Episode 3: Air) – Netflix docuseries based on Michael Pollan’s book, exploring wild yeast and sourdough

• The Noma Guide to Fermentation by René Redzepi and David Zilber

Course Objectives:

1. Get comfortable with the basic science behind lacto-fermentation, wild yeast, and beneficial bacteria.

2. Trace how ancient food traditions across the globe used wild microbes to preserve the harvest long before refrigeration.

3. Document the transformation over time in a dedicated batch log/journal, recording salt percentages, daily changes, tasting notes, and personal reflections.

Final Projects:

• Produce three distinct, handcrafted ferments from scratch:

  • Lacto-Ferment

  • Wild Beverage

  • Grain Culture

Create an illustrated kitchen guide from my log in my journal with salt percentage formulas, taste progression logs, recipes, and personal reflections to make these recipes easy to recreate.

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As fall settles in, I’ll be getting cozy watching horror movies featuring badass women, fermenting food in my kitchen, and learning the art of stained glass.

What are you looking forward to learning about in fall?

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