Class Schedules

This course charts the formation of Islam and the expansion of Muslim peoples, from the life of the Prophet Muhammad to the Mongol conquest of Baghdad. It will examine Muslim institutions, beliefs, and ritual practices in their historical contexts. In addition to the basics of Muslim practice and belief, the class will introduce students to mystic traditions (Sufism), Islamicate statecraft, and intellectual/legal traditions as well as cultural trends including art, architecture, and literature.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

This course explores the historical development of Buddhist thought and practice across Asia by tracing how communities of monks, scholars, and philosophers sought to understand and embody the path to liberation. Including studies of major schools and figures in Buddhism, including Nāgārjuna, Vasubandhu, and Buddhaghosa, students examine how diverse Buddhist traditions emerged from shared questions about mind, self, causality, and the nature of awakening.Along the way, the course cultivates key academic skills in textual interpretation, argumentation, and historical contextualization. Students learn to analyze philosophical ideas within their religious and cultural settings, compare perspectives across regions and time periods, and engage critically with both primary sources and modern scholarship.By combining close reading with cross-cultural inquiry and philosophical reasoning, students gain insight not only into the development of Buddhism but also into the broader processes by which ideas travel, transform, and shape worlds. The course provides both newcomers and those with prior background a rigorous and rewarding foundation for further study in religion, philosophy, or intellectual history.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

The story of the exodus from Egypt is the central collective memory in all of Jewish thought and history. The scriptural narrative of Israel’s emergence from slavery informs not only the rest of the Bible, but also the content of post-biblical Judaism and Christianity. In this course, we will trace the impact of this foundational account from its inception in the Hebrew Bible (or Old Testament) to its influence over later Jewish literature, including the New Testament and rabbinic discourse. After focusing on the original exodus narrative and its literary afterlife, students will see how the liberation from Egypt influences Jewish holidays (including, but not limited to, Passover), the Jewish-Christian discourse of late antiquity, medieval Jewish philosophy, and more. These explorations will give way to viewing the exodus story through modern cultural lenses, including its application in the abolition of slavery in the United States, its influence within the Civil Rights movement, and its role in shaping various forms of popular culture such as marketing, movies, and socio-cultural commentary.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

Religion and Law in Africa is an intermediate cross-listed history and religion course designed to teach students how to think like historians and assess how the legal systems of indigenous African societies have been shaped by their respective religions and cosmologies. This course also explores how Arab migration and European colonization in different parts of Africa imposed new legal systems that were influenced by either Islam or Christianity. The major themes of this class include African agency, indigenous African forms of knowledge and periodization, the interconnectedness of religious, legislative, and judicial facets of African societies, and diversity among African regions, societies, ethnic groups, religions, and languages. It counts toward the Legal Studies and African Studies concentrations. For history, it meets either the pre-1800 or post-1800 requirement and can count towards the "Law & Social Justice," or "Race and Indigeneity," or "Africa & Atlantic World" fields.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WP
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

From Socrates to suicide bombers, martyrs have been forced to give up their lives, or chosen to risk them and even to die, rather than renounce their beliefs or practices. Of course, we know their stories only second hand. This course explores how narratives about martyrs ("martyrologies") relate to the formation of religious identities and communities. Over the course of the semester, we will analyze martyrologies from the early Christian and Jewish periods, the beginnings of Islam, the sixteenth century, and modernity. We will pay special attention to the social and political contexts with which martyrs often found themselves at odds (including the Roman Empire in the ancient past, and the U.S./Middle East conflicts of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries). In class discussions, readings, and written work, you will have the opportunity to reflect on the following questions (among others): How do the stories we tell about martyrs shape the way we understand religious practices and beliefs? How do narratives of bearing witness, suffering, and death help to illumine relationships between religious and political domains? How might our current understanding of martyrdom be informed for better and for worse by a study of history?

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

This course explores the pleasures and pains of love (divine and human) as imagined by authors writing within the Persianate tradition. We will examine diverse sources, including autobiographies, letters, poems, and novels, produced from the tenth century to the present day. Readings (in English translation) will center on themes such as forbidden love, the celebration of carnal pleasure and lust, homoeroticism, mystical love, and love for God, religious figures, and the nation. Primary texts will be paired with secondary readings that develop key literary and philosophical questions about love.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

Varies by semester. Consult the department or class schedule for current listing.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

The word "ritual" is used in many contexts to refer to types of practice that are considered centrally important, as well as formalistic and repetitive. This seminar-style course concentrates on the concept of ritual as a central component of social practice, within and without religious groupings. Focusing on developing the concept of ritual, we will focus on ritual across traditions. This requires students to 'work with' concepts - forming a conception of what they mean by ritual, and be willing to change that conception when faced with contradictory evidence.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

This course explores how bodily practices of fasting and sexual abstinence have shaped Christian identities from the first century, C.E. to today. From Paul of Tarsus' instructions about sexual discipline to the True Love Waits® campaign, from the desert fathers' rigorous bodily regimens to the contemporary Christian diet movement, Christians have often understood the practice of renunciation as a necessary feature of spiritual perfection. In this course we will consider several ascetic movements in Christian history, including the development of ascetic practice in late antiquity, the rise of fasting practices among women in medieval Europe, and the culture of Christian dieting and chastity in the U.S. We will pay special attention to how Christian practices of piety both draw upon and contribute to cultural understandings of gender and the body.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

An advanced seminar required for religious studies majors, open to minors. Both classic and contemporary theories on the nature of religion and critical methods for the study of religion will be considered. Prerequisite(s): Two courses in Religious Studies and permission of instructor.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

Buddhism is increasingly well-known in the USA, but what is it, and how does Buddhism encourage people to organize and think about their lives? Organized on the basis of the Eightfold Noble Path, with a focus of 'morals, the Buddhist psychology of mind, and meditation,'  this course offers an introduction to the personalities, teachings, and institutions of Buddhism. Beginning in India at the time of the Buddha, this course focuses on Theravada Buddhism, asking students to think historically, philosophically, and anthropologically. Many Friday sessions will be dedicated to an exploration of the variety of Buddhist meditative techniques.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WP
Writing WA
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

This course is taught jointly between the department of Religious Studies and the department of Classics, by a specialist in the Roman East and a specialist in classical India. We will start on either side of this world, with Alexander the Great and Ashoka, exploring the relationship between empire and religion from Rome to India in the world's crossroads for the thousand years between Alexander and the rise of Islam.

General Education Requirements:
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

Our goal will be to make an effort to comprehend just what cultural literacy would mean when studying the major religious traditions of the world, while at the same time developing an appreciation of some of the blind spots and problems in this enterprise. To a large extent, we will do some serious construction before we feel ready for de-construction. Every couple of weeks, we will cover one of five major areas (South Asia, East Asia, Judaism, Christianity, Islam) and each student will read a different author's treatment of this material.

General Education Requirements:
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

This course investigates the ways in which gender identities and relationships between “men” and “women” have been articulated, constructed, and refashioned throughout the Muslim World. Starting with problematizing fixed notions of gender and sexuality, we map prominent attitudes through visiting a diverse array of sources from the Qur’an, Sunna, and legal documents to historical and anthropological case studies, literature, and film from across the region. Exploring notions of femininity and masculinity, as well as attitudes towards homosexuality and transgendered populations, we witness their implications in case studies and stories, from a divorce court in Iran to a matriarchal utopia in India.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

The belief in a coming Messiah has been foundational for much of Jewish thought and history. This course charts messianic expectation among Jews from biblical times to the present day. Along with an introduction to the concept of “Messiah” as it appears in the Bible and other ancient Jewish texts, we will survey various messianic figures, including Jesus of Nazareth, the military leader Simon Bar Kokhba, the early modern mystic Sabbatai Tzvi, and others. The course will also explore the role of messianic hope as a religious phenomenon, analyze messianic movements in contemporary Judaism, and consider the socio-political impact of Messianism in the State of Israel and the broader Middle East.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WP

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

The critical study of ancient Christian texts involves making strange texts familiar and familiar texts strange. In this course, we will consider non-canonical texts alongside canonical texts in order to develop insight into the formation of Christian identity in the first through fourth centuries. Special emphasis will be given to the development of the discourses of orthodoxy and heresy, the diversity of Christian beliefs and practices, and the examination of early Christian writings within their social and political contexts. Instead of investigating the material in strict chronological order, we will consider how different people (Jesus, Mary Magdalene, James, Paul, etc) serve as authorizing figures for the texts. Using this organization, we will investigate issues at stake in the development of Christian "canon," including theology, Christology, apostolic authority, women's roles, and the relation of Christianity to the state and to other religious traditions.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

The course is an introduction to some of the important theoretical and methodological work conducted by scholars in various disciplines who hope to better define and understand religious phenomena. This seminar begins with some of the early twentieth century texts that are often cited and discussed by contemporary scholars of religion (e.g., Durkheim, Weber, Freud) and then turns to a number of investigations stemming from engagement with earlier theorists or refracting new concerns. The course inquires into the problems of defining and analyzing religious cultures, and the researcher's position or positions in this analysis, as this has been approached from anthropological, sociological, and religious studies perspectives.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WP
Writing WC

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

All human societies observe some form of hierarchy; for example, older persons might havemore authority than younger persons, men more than women, and so forth. While manypeople claim to be egalitarians, they unconsciously still recognize differences in status, andwould admit that human equality is an ideal not yet achieved. In some societies, however,equality is not even an ideal, and much effort is expended in maintaining differences in rankand privilege, so much so that those differences are seen not as a matter of custom, but as amatter of blood. In other words, differences in rank and status are read as natural, as rooted inbiology rather than a result of history and culture. In India, the word for caste, jati, is the wordfor ‘species.’ In America, minor genetic differences in skin pigmentation, which are constructedas race, have often been read as profoundly significant markers of human difference. In ourcourse, we will examine these two cultures to see what we can find in common when peopleemphasize human difference (caste and race) as something biological, and to see how thesevalue systems differ and evolve over time. In particular, we explore the way that the concept ofcaste changes when it travels from India to the United States and becomes part of thediscourse on race.

General Education Requirements:
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

For over two thousand years, Jews and Christians have readand interpreted the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh/Old Testament) ina variety of ways. This course explores the historical andreligious contexts in which ancient readers understoodScripture. Students will survey specific biblical passages thathave yielded various meanings in Judaism and Christianitythroughout the centuries. We will analyze ancient texts inboth the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament in order to seehow different religious groups utilized the Bible for theirrespective communities. The course will put earlyinterpretations into conversation with modern scholarlyapproaches that speak to contemporary Jewish-Christianrelations and the ongoing role of Scripture in theological,social, and intellectual discourse today.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

This course explores how same-sex desire, eroticism, and gender variance were understood in pre-modern Islamicate societies before the emergence of modern sexual identities such as “homosexual” and “heterosexual.” Drawing on literary texts, legal treatises, medical writings, visual culture, and modern scholarship, students examine how desire was conceptualized in relation to gender, age, power, ethics, and social order. Rather than asking whether “gay people existed” in the past, the course asks how desire itself was structured, interpreted, and regulated and how modern categories of sexuality reshape our reading of pre-modern cultures. The course places Islamicate societies in global conversation with Greek, Christian, and modern European thought, emphasizing historical difference, cultural specificity, and the politics of interpretation.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

The Christian Right has played a defining role in United States and global politics since at least the 1940s. What is the history of this movement? Who has it involved? What are the key positions of this movement—around gender, sexuality, healthcare, schools, civil rights, capitalism, and empire–and how have they changed or come into conflict with one another? This course approaches these questions through a lens of feminist cultural studies and materialist analysis. The first part of the course will familiarize students with the language of the Christian Right. The second part of the course situates the growth of the American Christian Right within the context of the decolonial, feminist, and Black freedom struggles that were its wider milieu. The third part of the course is attuned to the global geopolitical entanglements from the later Cold War to the present.Assignments include a primary source analysis, two self-scheduled visits to a field site of students’ own choosing, presence at biweekly film screenings (every other Wednesday from 7-9pm starting in week Week 4), and a final essay project on any topic related to the class.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

Iran, Pakistan, and until very recently, Afghanistan are three countries thatare constitutionally imagined as Islamic Republics. Is this category apossibility or an oxymoron? How is nation imagined in them? What ismeant by national identity? Is nation a primordial concept or abyproduct of Modernity? What social, economic, sexual, religious, andracial factors are at work in creating a nation? This course looks at thesequestions in the context of the Modern Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan,where competing nation-building enterprises were at work to establishan “authentic national identity” with a focus on religious identity. We willstudy the historical and recent political developments in these countriessuch as the India/Pakistan partition, the Islamic Revolution in Iran, andAfghanistan’s transition from Islamic Emirates to Islamic Republic andagain to Islamic Emirates with the return of Taliban to power inSeptember 2021. We will look at political essays, literary creations,images, and songs to study the diverse ways in which the nation isimagined and critiqued in the region, along with sources on Modernpolitical thought.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

An examination of five revolutions and their religious engagements: The Diggers and the English Civil War, The Taiping Rebellion in China, Buddhism and the Cambodian Revolution, Cultural Rebirth and Resistance in Native America, and the Algerian Islamist Revolution. All participants will read one work about each example, and then will focus more deeply on the examples in group and individual work. The course intends to develop critical skills in comparing the radical social changes implied by the word revolution with the differing revolutionary impulses that are sometimes drawn from religion, and sometimes opposed to it.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

This course tracks the genealogies of fascist thinking on religion and metaphysical, as well as the afterlives of that thought in contemporary critical theory. Mid-twentieth century fascist and authoritarian projects were invested in strains of esotericism, anti-rationalisms, and the sacred. We will interrogate these investments as they played out in both canonical and contemporary works of scholarship on the political theology and re-enchantment. We will ask questions like: Is there such a thing as fascist metaphysics? How does the contemporary revival of interest in the occult, esotericism, the “more-than-human,” and “post-critique” resonate with and/or depart from forms of anti-materialism and anti-rationalism associated with twentieth-century fascism? This is a reading intensive seminar, with primary assignments focused on weekly responses and close reading exercises. Students do not need prior exposure to the material but should come ready to think deeply and carefully with difficult texts.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials