Please see our list of courses from these amazing instructors.

What would our world continue to be like if we did not seek to change perceptions, physical reality through sustainable living and embrace connective spiritual growth? How do you want to make a change in the world?

Emergent Studies Institute believes in supporting both technological innovation and our spiritual connection to each other and the Earth. Technology gives us the ability to connect around the world in seconds, and with it the knowledge needed to bring about sustainable change on a global level. Connecting with Mother Earth, getting in touch with ourselves with nature, those are things that build inner growth and a sustained spiritual life. All necessary to step into a new paradigm.

Seek that change at Emergent!

Click here to fill out our Online Application

Call

+1 (210) 920-4374

to speak with an Enrollment Counselor

General Class Information:

• We encourage our community of students and faculty to work collaboratively, forging bonds and building bridges of global stewardship by directly applying their knowledge and course material to real world situations.
• Classrooms ratios are typically one instructor per fifteen students, which gives our students a more in-depth and personal experience with their instructor and fellow classmates.
• All courses are taught completely online through our learning platform (OpenClass by Pearson).  On-the-ground courses are taught during On-the-Ground Intensives .
• All instructors use Google Hangout for video group discussions once a week.  Students may schedule one-on-one chats using Skype or Google Hangout with classmates, instructors or administrators.
• Students are expected to connect with instructors and each other at least once a week on the OpenClass learning platform, where they will submit any assignments and receive their grades.
• Please refer to the Student Handbook for a detailed look at the Student Experience at ESI.

Spirit Emerging, Wisdom Unfolding

Key

• ENR – Enrichment

For more information about Faculty Members please visit our, Meet the Faculty page. For information about Tuition please visit, Tuition Schedule.

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Enrichment Coursework

All courses are 14 weeks long and are worth 3 credits if you are moving on to the Certification Programs

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ENR100

Title: Analysis and Understanding Supernatural Beliefs and Practices of the World

Instructor: Brita, Wynn

Course Description: Exploration of supernatural beliefs and practices around the world and over time. Cross-cultural survey and analysis of the forms, functions, and interpretations, of myths, rituals, altered states of consciousness, spirit possession, messianic and cargo cults, witchcraft, ethnomedicine and entheogenics and healing spiritual traditions. Investigation of the relationship between medicine, science, myth, and supernatural belief systems cross culturally in non-Western societies in contrast to Western Cultures.

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ENR101

Title: Aspects of Visionary Art And the Sacred

Instructor: Suzy Adra

Course Description: This course is a historical overview of visionary art, its definitions, philosophies, characteristics and master figures. Visionary art is that which comes from the inner world or the soul, and translates that which is numinous. The course will include, and is not limited to the production of a final project, with a sacred art theme, using the medium of choice. The project will be discussed, and critiqued as a group.

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ENR102

Title: Being the Change: Conscious Activism in a World in Crisis

Instructor: Dr. Meghan Fraley, PhD

Course Description: In a world in crisis, a foundation of self-inquiry, mindfulness, and community can empower us to be greater agents of meaningful change. In this course, we will engage in self-inquiry, dialogue, and engage in exercises that will ground us more in our particular purpose and call. Yoga, meditation, and body-based exercises will be integrated into sessions to deepen the work. Together, in this course, we will become more empowered to engage with our world as a citizen or activist from a place of compassion, leading to action informed by love.

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ENR103

Title: The Contemporary Experience of Mothering

Instructor: Chimine Arfuso, M.A.

Course Description: In this course we will examine art, literature, academic scholarship and other mediums to explore the social construct of mothering. The goal is to gain deeper understanding and articulation of the differences between the political, spiritual and personal experiences of mothering.

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ENR104

Title: Creativity and the Divine Feminine

Instructor: Jessica Bowman, M.A.

Course Description: This course will explore the transformative relationship between the creation of art and the pursuit of spirituality through the feminist lens. The basis of this work is the understanding that all have the right to see women portrayed as a sacred entity and that creativity as a sacred practice can lead to personal transformation and healing. Aspects of contemporary symbolism, intentional creativity and sacred modalities will be combined to facilitate a deeper connection to the Divine.  

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ENR105

Title: Dancing the Sacred Wheel

Instructor: Dr. Martha Brumbaugh, PhD

Course Description: The Wheel of the Year is common to many of the indigenous peoples of the earth.  This course will examine the seven directions in a cross-cultural approach to creating altars, rituals, and daily practices.  We will focus on the lived-experience of each direction through keeping a journal, sharing visual pieces, poetry, prose, and music.  The course is designed for everyone, regardless of experience or spiritual path.

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ENR106

Title: Eco Self:  An Art-Based Inquiry Course

Instructor: Sahar Joya, B.A.

Course Description: This course will explore questions of environmental justice and spirituality, through an arts based inquiry method called Intentional Creativity.  Through the inquiry process of Intentional Creativity, which includes meditation, journaling, painting, individual and community conversation, students will explore questions of who their eco-self is and what emergent wisdom and insight is made available in orienting one’s sense of self to creation from the perspective of one’s eco-self. Students will engage with readings from the field of deep ecology, feminist studies, critical race studies, and arts-based critical pedagogy to inform the inquiry and exploration of their eco-self. This course is designed at the intersections of the arts, spirituality, academia and activism to provide an enriched embodied experience of developing one’s own understanding of environmental justice and its relationship to their sense of self and vise versa.

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ENR107

Title: Emergent Practices for Emergent Projects

Instructor: Dr. Amber Balk, PhD

Course Description: Come explore the meaning and potential of developing an emergent practice. What does emergence mean for you personally? How can we attune ourselves to our innate emergent capabilities, and how might this inform our work in the world? This course is appropriate for individuals from all walks of life, regardless of your experience,  spiritual practice,  and professional goals.

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ENR108

Title: Feminist Consciousness and the Ethics of Subversion

Instructor: Jennifer Ortiz, M.A.

Course Description: Women have always found meaningful and influential ways to live despite structures that have sought to keep them silent and invisible. Their creations of art (textiles, painting, etc.), language (folklore, cautionary tales) and spirituality (healers, earth-based, goddess), intrinsically weaken complete patriarchal control.

Summary: This course seeks to explores the subversive nature of women’s lived experience despite oppressive patriarchal structures. How women’s language, spirituality, and art upend oppression and influence society.

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ENR109

Title: Human-Animal Relationships in Cross-Cultural Perspective

Instructor: Drucilla Pettibone, M.A.

Course Description: The plight of non-human animals is one of the greatest challenges the 21st century, a time that has been called the 6th age of mass extinction and the Anthropocene.  Yet as many of us re-vision a society that takes the welfare of all beings seriously, well-intentioned humans continue to divide on ideological grounds when it comes to our animal companions.  In this course, we will explore humane education beginning with ourselves.

We will create a unique space for constructive discourse across political views, where vegans and hunters, rewilders and conservationists, animal breeders and rescuers, can share openly with each other.  We will pay particular attention to how culture, class, and religion shape our views, and even our very definitions of animal and human.

Students will have opportunities to conduct research related to their own interests.  This course will benefit anyone who works in animal-related fields such as advocacy, farming, policy-making, and law enforcement, as well as everyone who loves animals and hopes to make the Earth a home for all.

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ENR111

Title: Re-Imagining the Past: Women Shaping Culture through Nature

Instructor: Kristen Calvert

Course Description: Through Creative Inquiry, historical evidence and hands on art projects we will explore how some of the early origins of culture were formed through our interpretations of ourselves and our environments.  In particular we will explore ancient women’s creative contributions to early societies.

Poem:

Imagination Is Born

The shaft of light in the darkness, becoming the spark in the mind: creativity is awakened.

Hands and hearts become enlivened as we strive to create the oneness we find in nature;

struggling to go beyond surviving into becoming.

Forming connections with others; until the spark becomes the fires that light the world with the dawning of perception, of what could be…and imagination is born.

Imagination is born from the seeds of the earth and watchful eyes: as we learn to mix and grind fruits flowers, herbs learning the culinary arts of sensuous survival.

Imagination is born on flight: as we observe the birds soaring into the unknown and diving beneath the waves of limitless possibilities.

Imagination is born on the surface: as we paint on our bodies and earths hollows with the expressions of our hearts while singing to the moon of our mothers.

Imagination is born from roots threads: as we learn to weave our legends and truths into existence for our future.

Imagination is born as we learn how to move beyond survival into the light.

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ENR112

Title: Revelations: Your Secret Life Revealed Through Daydreams, Nightmares, and Visions of the Future

Instructor: Dr. Luisah Teish, PhD

This 14-week course examines the ways in which nature, the ancestors, and our own higher consciousness speak to us in dreams.  It introduces the participant to the myth and folklore about dreams drawn from the cultures of the African diaspora.

It includes songs for the deities of the deep, works of art created to enhance dreaming, and rituals for dream sharing and manifestation in the real world.

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ENR113

Title: Self-Actualization and The Walking Dead (TV Series)

Instructor: Trace Whitley, MATP

Course Description: One morning you wake to the realization that you are in the middle of a zombie apocalypse…. what one object would you take with you in order to survive and thrive almost certain death? This course will reflect specifically on The Walking Dead TV series and how it’s characters move through their own Dark Night of the Soul in a world filled with uncertainty, emotional and physical extremes, deep sorrow and death. Is self-actualization even obtainable under such conditions? How can we rise above our animal natures and obtain transcendence in a world gone mad? Bring your answer to the first class!

“Self-Awareness is a beautiful thing. You should try it sometime.” – Bob Stookey, The Walking Dead

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ENR114

Title: Social Justice and The Creative Muse

Instructors: Keisha Thorpe, MFA-W and Adrian Mack, M.A.

Course Description: The muse of creativity and social movements are inexplicably linked. This course will explore those linkages via the creative outlets of music, literature, film, images, & performance, beginning with the Civil Rights Movement to present day.

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Click here to fill out our Online Application

Call

+1 (210) 920-4374

to speak with an Enrollment Counselor