Comparative Studies
This list is current as of July 8, 2025. Course schedule and descriptions are subject to change. We are adding here course-specific descriptions, as well, as they become available. Please refer to SIS for the most up-to-date information. Contact arceno.1@osu.edu if you notice any discrepancies or have any questions.
COMPSTD 5240 / PUBAFRS 5240 / AFAMAST 5240 Race and Public Policy in the United States
MW 9:35-10:55 | Miranda Martinez | Hayes 025
This course explores Race and Public Policy in the United States from Reconstruction to the present. In particular, the class is designed to look at the long list of "hot topics" in the current policy landscape, including policing, housing, wealth gap, immigration, voting, political representation, and others. Cross-listed in African American and African Studies and Public Affairs. Not open to students with credit for AFAMAST 5240 or PUBAFFAIRS 5240.
COMPSTD 6300 Foundations: Comparative Analysis and Sociocultural Theory
Thursdays 2:15-5 | Franco Barchiesi | Hagerty 451
This course aims to help students become more lucid about the role that comparison plays in their thinking and doing while also introducing them to a range of social and cultural theory. We will read and critique sociocultural theory by a range of thinkers (bell hooks, Stuart Hall, Clifford Geertz, Raymond Williams, Homi K. Bhabha, and Dipesh Chakrabarty, among others) situated within different disciplinary and inter-disciplinary contexts (including but not limited to Reason, History, National Cultures and Decoloniality, Blackness, Feminism, Queer Theory, Transhumanism, Posthumanism, Animal Studies, and Affect Theory). Assignments are designed to prepare students for a successful conference presentation and journal publication on a topic of their choice in their own field of inquiry.
COMPSTD 6500 Teaching Seminar in Interdisciplinary Studies
Wednesdays 2:15-5 | Instructor: TBD | Dulles Hall 27
This course introduces graduate students in the Humanities to a range of approaches to teaching in interdisciplinary settings. This course addresses practical concerns, such as creating an effective syllabus, selecting material, pacing, and facilitating in-course experiences. It also engages the class community in reflection on our roles as teachers and learners in the classroom, the power dynamics that are part of institutionalized learning, and our opportunities to employ our human and material resources to create transformative learning experiences.
COMPSTD / ENGLISH 7350.02 Theorizing Folklore II: Performance
Tuesdays 2:15-5 | Katey Borland | Hagerty 451
Performance as a heightened mode of communication characteristic of vernacular cultural process, studied in the context of ongoing social interaction.
Prereq: Grad standing, or permission of instructor. Not open to students with credit for 792 or English 870. Cross-listed in English.
COMPSTD 7370 Theorizing Religion
Tuesdays 11-1:45 | Melissa Curley | Hagerty 451
Relationships between religion and other domains in a cross-cultural, comparative framework with attention to theoretical models and particular texts and traditions.
Prereq: Grad standing or permission of instructor. Not open to students with credit for 725.
COMPSTD 8100 Interdisciplinary Learning Lab I
Mondays 9-11:45 | Maya Cruz and fabian romero | Hagerty 451
COMPSTD 8100 is part of a two-part year-long course that seeks to give participants opportunities to engage in sustained interdisciplinary research, to workshop their research projects in conversation with one another, and to share their projects with broader publics. (COMPSTD 8200, the second part, will be offered SP 26.)
Course-specific description forthcoming
Enrollment in Spring 2026's COMPSTD 8200 is encouraged but not required for students outside Comparative Studies.
COMPSTD 8890 / Dissertation Writing Workshop
Mondays 12-2 | Miranda Martinez | Hagerty 451
Since the dissertation is often your first effort to construct a complex, original, and extended argument, interpretation and/or analysis, this writing workshop will assist you in developing concrete strategies for tackling this major task, hold you accountable for making progress on the dissertation, and contribute to the creation of an intellectual community among Comp Studies graduate students. Repeatable to a maximum of 9 cr hrs or 9 completions. This course is graded S/U.
Religious Studies
This list is current as of July 8, 2025. Course schedule and descriptions are subject to change. We are adding here course-specific descriptions, as well, as they become available. Please refer to SIS for the most up-to-date information. Contact arceno.1@osu.edu if you notice any discrepancies or have any questions.
RELSTDS 5871/JAPANSE 5271 - The Japanese Religious Tradition
Tuesdays and Thursdays 3:55PM - 5:15PM | Hayes Hall 006 | Melissa Curley
A survey of the Japanese tradition, including Shinto, Buddhism, Taoism, New-Confucianism, and folk religion from the 6th century B.C.E. to the present. Prereq: Not open to students with credit for CompStd 5871 (641) or Japanse 5271 (641)