Comparative Studies Courses
Click here to jump down to Religious Studies course offerings
This list is current as of December 10, 2024. Course schedule and descriptions are subject to change. 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.
Comparative Studies 1100 Introduction to the Humanities: Cross-Cultural Perspectives
Online (asynchronous) and In-person | Multiple sections
GEL Literature, and GEL Diversity: Global Studies
GEN Foundation: Literary, Visual and Performing Arts
GEN Foundation: Race, Ethnicity, and Gender Diversity
COMPSTD 1100 is an introductory course designed to survey some of the current preoccupations in the Humanities, especially as they relate to culture, power, and identity. Across several sections with varied content, instructors of 1100 seek to present relevant issues in comparative cultural study, employing a mix of cultural theory, current events, and literature, visual, and performing arts with a focus on race, ethnicity, and gender.
Comparative Studies 1100H Introduction to the Humanities: Cross-Cultural Perspectives Honors
TuTh 11:10-12:30 | Lucia Bortoli | Hayes Hall 0006
GEL Literature, and GEL Diversity: Global Studies
GEN Foundation: Literary, Visual and Performing Arts
GEN Foundation: Race, Ethnicity, and Gender Diversity
This Honors version of COMPSTD 1100 explores the role of literature and the arts in constructing, maintaining, and questioning the values and beliefs of diverse cultures and historical periods. Topics vary.
COMPSTD 2099 Question of Comparative Studies
T 5:20-6:15 | Hugh Urban | Hagerty Hall 451
This course offers an introduction to the Comparative Studies major. It is designed to help students to take advantage of curricular, research, and advising opportunities; to manage the particular challenges of independent and interdisciplinary work; to link classroom work to social and political engagement with relevant communities; and to prepare for life after graduation. This course is graded S/U.
COMPSTD 2101 Literature and Society
TR 9:35-10:55 | Rob Barry | Mendenhall 125
GEL Literature, and GEL Diversity: Global Studies
GEN Foundation Literary, Visual and Performing Arts
GEN Race, Ethnicity, and Gender Diversity
Study of relationships among politics, society, and literature; analysis of social and political elements of literature and film from diverse cultures and historical periods. Prereq: English 1110 (110) or equiv. Not open to students with credit for 2101H (201H, 201).
COMPSTD 2104H Literature, Science, and Technology Honors
MW 9:35-10:55 | Nancy Jesser | Hagerty 359
GEL Literature, and GEL Diversity: Global Studies
GEN Literary, Visual and Performing Arts
We will engage in a study of therelationships among literature, broadly construed, science, and technology, including analyses of representations of science and technology in literature and film across several cultures and historical periods. Because my training and research is in US cultures and society, content from this area may be over-represented. We will attend particularly to ideas of the ‘human’ through both an evolutionary and technological lens; what counts as 'human,’ and how do technology and science mediate ‘being human’ and being recognized as ‘human’. Furthermore, we will examine ways that our contemporaries imagine how science and technology influence and shape culture and nature AND how culture and nature shape deployments of science and technology.
We will frame our discussions in writings/materials centered on cyborgs and evolution. In doing so we will examine the interaction of human technologies, socio-economic situations, the imagined past and future: all of these include considerations of race, gender, ethnicity, colonization, migration, and politics, broadly construed.
COMPSTD/ETHNSTD/SPANISH 2242 Intro to Latinx Studies
TuTh 9:35-10:55 | Alfonso Roca Suarez | Journalism 139
GEL Cultures and Ideas
GEN Historical and Cultural Studies
GEN Race, Ethnicity and Gender Diversity
This course equips students to critically examine the intersectional factors that shape the diverse communities of Latin American descent in the U.S. across cultural, educational, and political spaces. As an introduction to the interdisciplinary approaches of Latinx Studies, and with the goal of informing effective advocacy efforts, the course will draw on multiple analytical tools to examine key themes related to Latina/o/x/e identities, including the use of traditional and new media in the negotiation and construction of Latinidades; how these communities experience race, indigeneity, gender, sexuality, and citizenship; the relationship between bilingualism, code-switching, and sense of belonging; the historical and political factors shaping immigration policies and their impact on Latinx communities; and the systemic barriers in education and strategies to support Latinx students.
COMPSTD/ENGLISH 2264 Intro to Popular Culture Studies
TuTh 3:55-5:15 | Zainab Saleh | McPherson 2017
WF 2:20-3:40 | Umut Gurses | Hagerty 50
GEL Cultures and Ideas
GEN Historical and Cultural Studies
GEN Race, Ethnicity and Gender Diversity
Introduction to the analysis of popular culture texts, with special emphasis on the relationship between popular culture studies and literary studies. Prereq: English 1110 (110) or equiv. Not open to students with credit for 264, or English 2264 (264). Cross-listed in English.
COMPSTD 2301 Intro to World Literature
TuTh 9:35-10:55 | Parisa Ahmadi | Cockins 218
GEL Literature, and GEL Diversity: Global Studies
GEN Literary, Visual and Performing Arts
GEN Race, Ethnicity and Gender Diversity
Analysis of oral and written literatures of diverse cultures and historical periods. Prereq: English 1110, or equiv.
COMPSTD/ETHNSTDS 2321 Intro to Asian American Studies
TuTh 12:45-2:05 | Joe Ponce | Hayes Hall 005
GEL Culture and Ideas; GEL Social Diversity in the United States
GEN Historical and Cultural Studies
GEN Race, Ethnicity and Gender Diversity
This course provides an introduction to Asian American Studies by examining some of the main themes, historical events, and critical frameworks that the field has focused on and developed since it emerged in the late 1960s. Topics include the Asian American movement, U.S. imperialism in Asia, Asian labor migrations, Asian/American racialization in the U.S. and abroad, and intersectional approaches to multiracial, LGBTQ+, and disability identities.
COMPSTD/ETHNSTDS 2323 Intro to Native American Studies
TuTh 11:10-12:30 | fabian romero | Journalism 371
GEL Culture and Ideas; GEL Social Diversity in the United States
GEN Historical and Cultural Studies
GEN Race, Ethnicity and Gender Diversity
This course is grounded in interdisciplinary engagement with Native scholars and the collective goals of Native/Indigenous wellness, political self-determination, and cultural revitalization. It interrogates the challenges that Native peoples face from ongoing settler colonialism within what is now the United States, without ever losing sight of Native agency and persistence. This course will center Indigenous feminist scholarship and look at Indigeneity transnationally by incorporating Central American scholarship and research. Topics will include gender, sexuality, white supremacy, environmental degradation, individual and community resistance, anti-colonial liberation, and embodied ways of knowing and learning.
COMPSTD 2340 Intro to Cultures of Science and Technology
MW 11:10-12:30 | Liliana Gil | Jennings 060
GEL Cultures and Ideas, and GEL Diversity: Global Studies
GEN Historical and Cultural Studies
GEN Race, Ethnicity, and Gender Diversity
This course offers an introduction to the interdisciplinary field of Science and Technology Studies (STS). STS examines how science and technology are shaped by and shape culture and society. How do we know what we know? What do we mean when we talk about things like scientific knowledge and methods? How do historical and social contexts shape technological production, and how does technology in turn shape our world, experiences, and relationships? As we address these questions, we will familiarize ourselves with critical thought about science and technology, including key historical, sociological, and anthropological theories. Together, we will sharpen our analytical skills by discussing a broad range of historical and contemporary examples in which scientific knowledge and technological capacity are entwined with power relations of race, gender, global capitalism, and politics.
COMPSTD 2341 Technology, Science, and Society
TuTh 2:20-3:40 | Seth Josephson | Ramseyer 115
GEL Cultures and Ideas, and GEL Diversity: Global Studies
Critical analysis of the relations among science, technology, and culture, with particular emphasis on ethical issues in technology and engineering. Prereq: English 1110.01 (110.01) or equiv. Not open to students with credit for 2340 (272).
COMPSTD 2343 Slavery, Gender, and Race in the Atlantic World
Second Session Course, TuTh 11:10-12:30 | Zach Morgan | Hagerty 46
This course is an examination of slavery in Atlantic Africa and the Western Hemisphere with particular focus on how conceptions of race and gender shaped patterns of forced labor, the slave trade, and the development of European colonial societies in the Americas. Prereq: English 1110 (110), or equiv. Not open to students with credit for 243 or AfAmASt 243.
COMPSTD 2345 Comedy, Culture, and Society
TuTh 2:20-3:40 | Melissa Curley | Smith Lab 2150
GEN Race, Ethnicity, and Gender Diversity
This course takes comedy seriously, as we unpack some of the history and theorization of comedic performance globally and then zoom in specifically on the functions of comedy in contemporary societies. In this process, we will pay close attention to comedic cultural production as a contact zone, especially as it relates to categories of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and language.
COMPSTD 2350 / ENGLISH 2270 Intro to Folklore
In-Person | MW 2:20-3:40 | Rosemary Hathaway | Derby Hall 080
Online | Asynchronous | Mani Sidhu
GEL Cultures and Ideas
GEN Historical and Cultural Studies
GEN Race, Ethnicity and Gender Diversity
Folklore is the culture that people make for themselves. Not all of us are specialists, but all of us tell stories and cultivate communities. This class explores everyday expressive forms including stories, customs, objects and digital forms shared in informal contexts. Recurring central issues will include the dynamics of tradition, the nature of creativity and artistic expression, and the construction of group identities. We will consider various interpretive approaches to these examples of folklore and folklife and will investigate the history of folklore studies through readings and an independent collecting project in which students will gather folklore from the field, document it and interpret it for meaning. Under-read and represented texts in the field of folklore were intentionally chosen as readings for this course. By the end of this course, students should gain a basic orientation towards thinking through the power and significance behind the everyday creative expressions of their communities.
Guiding questions: How do people express themselves in traditional forms? How are social concerns articulated in stories, jokes, memes and other genres? How does human creativity burble up in everyday life?
The creation of the syllabus for this iteration of COMPSTD 2350 comes in part from the combination of the recent push to represent underrepresented authors, subjects, and fields of study and the groundwork laid by the American Folklore Society for an accessible revitalization of introduction to American folklore courses. The instructor is grateful for the work already done to bring the less heard voices to the front of the stage when it comes to representing the discipline of folklore to new students.
Prereq: English 1110 (110) or equiv. Not open to students with credit for English 2270 (270), or 2350H.
COMPSTD 2350H / ENGLISH 2270H Intro to Folklore Honors
MW 11:10-12:30 | Rosemary Hathaway | Denney Hall 250
This Honors version of COMPSTD 2350 provides a general study of the field of folklore including basic approaches and a survey of primary folk materials: folktales, legends, folksongs, ballads, and folk beliefs. Prereq: Honors standing, and English 1110 (110) or equiv. Not open to students with credit for 2350, English 2270 (270), or 2270H. GE cultures and ideas course. GE foundation historical and cultural studies course. Cross-listed in English 2270H.
COMPSTD 2367.04 Science and Technology in American Culture
TuTh 3:55-5:15 | Deanna Holroyd | Bolz Hall 311
GEL Writing and Communication, Level 2; GEL Culture and Ideas; and GEL Social Diversity in the U.S.
GEN Writing and Information Literacy
GEN Historical and Cultural Studies
This course is designed to help you reconsider some common misconceptions about science and technology. You can expect to question ideas such as 1) science and technology equates to progress, 2) science is an objective uncovering of truth and facts, 3) science and technology are unproblematic, neutral components of modern living that are unaffected by culture, society and politics. To explore these ideas, we will engage with a variety of core theoretical texts about science and technology to better understand the ways in which the scientific facts and technological advancements that we encounter in our everyday American experience are products of a series of processes that are shaped by social, cultural, and political values. By analyzing the rhetorics and discourse within, and surrounding, these various scientific facts and technologies, you will ask how they have all shaped the way that knowledge becomes ‘fact’ in American society. You will also think about how science and technology impact social relations, how they may engender inequities and how they shape our understanding of ourselves and American culture.
Prereq: English 1110 (110), or equiv, and Soph standing. Not open to students with credit for 2367.04H (367.02H) or 367.02.
COMPSTD 2367.08 American Identity in the World (ONLINE)
Second Session Course, TuTh 3:55-5:15 | Shaida Akbarian
GEL Writing and Communication, Level 2; GEL Cultures and Ideas, and GEL Social Diversity in the United States
GEN Writing and Information Literacy
GEN Historical and Cultural Studies
American culture viewed from inside and from the perspective of foreign cultures, as seen in literature, film, art, music, journalism, folklore, and popular culture. Prereq: English 1110, or equiv, and Soph standing. Not open to students with credit for 2367.08H.
COMPSTD 2367.08H American Identity in the World Honors (ONLINE)
TuTh 2:20-3:40 | Shaida Akbarian
GEL Writing and Communication, Level 2; GEL Cultures and Ideas, and GEL Social Diversity in the United States
GEN Writing and Information Literacy
GEN Historical and Cultural Studies
This Honors version of COMPSTD 2367.08 considers American culture as viewed from inside and from the perspective of foreign cultures, as seen in literature, film, art, music, journalism, folklore, and popular culture. Prereq: English 1110, or equiv, and Soph standing.
COMPSTD/SPPO/WGSST 2381 REGD in Spanish Film & TV
WF 9:35-10:55 | Lita Camacho-Platero | Arps Hall 012
This course will examine how cinema and television in Latin America, the US, and Spain reflect issues of race, ethnicity, and gender and reveal social attitudes and prejudices. Not open to students with credit for Spanish 2381 or WGSSt 2381. GE foundation race, ethnicity and gender div course. Cross-listed in Spanish and WGSSt.
COMPSTD 2420 American Food Cultures
TR 12:45-2:05 | Rick Livingston | Derby Hall 080
GEL Cultures and Ideas, and GEL Social Diversity in the United States
GEN Historical and Cultural Studies
In this class, students will analyze and interpret the cultural formation of food in the United States.
Food exists at the intersection between material and meaningful life, making it a key site for understanding the power and limits of cultural explanation. Using a diverse range of primary and secondary sources–including contemporary accounts, historical interpretations, and visual evidence–we will trace the development of American food from its agrarian roots to its industrialization and the emergence of a global food system. Drawing on cultural theories of ritual, imagined community, gender, race and class formation, we will examine recurrent tensions between the standardization and diversification of foodways and persistent debates about the nature and quality of American food. By studying the changing status of the Thanksgiving celebration, we will consider the ethical and political dimensions of American food cultures and aim for an integrated perspective on the development of American food over time.
COMPSTD/THEATRE 3130H Introduction to Performance Studies Honors
M 11:15-2 + W 12:40-1:35 | John Brooks | Lazenby Hall 001
GEN Traditions, Cultures, and Transformations
GEN HIP: Research and Creative Inquiry
This introduction to performance studies examines the pervasiveness of performance as a central element of social and cultural life. We will consider a broad array of performances on and off the stage, live and recorded, scripted and improvised, sacred and profane. Prereq: Honors standing; and English 1110.xx, or GE foundation writing and info literacy course. Not open to students with credit for Theatre 3130H. Cross-listed in Theatre.
COMPSTD 3603 Love in World Literature
TuTh 2:20-3:40 | Lucia Bortoli | Page Hall 060
GEL Literature, and GEL Diversity: Global Studies
GEN Literary, Visual and Performing Arts
Representations of love in world literature; emphasis on mythological, psychological, and ideological aspects of selected representations in different cultures and time periods. Prereq: English 1110 (110), or equiv. Not open to students with credit for 3603H (301H) or 301.
COMPSTD 3607 Film and Lit as Narrative Art
MW 3:55-5:15 | Epp Annus | Mendenhall Lab 125
GEL Visual and Performing Arts, and GEL Diversity: Global Studies
GEN Literary, Visual and Performing Arts
Relationships between film and literature; emergence of cinematic art as a form of representation with emphasis on diverse cultural traditions. Prereq: English 1110 or equiv. Not open to students with credit for 3607H. GE VPA and diversity global studies course.
COMPSTD 3608 Representations of the Experience of War
MWF 10:20-11:15 | Jason Payne | Mendenhall 191
GEL Literature, and GEL Diversity: Global Studies
GEN Literary, Visual and Performing Arts
Representations of war in works of literature, religious texts, and film from diverse cultures and time periods. Prereq: English 1110 (110) or equiv. Not open to students with credit for 308.
COMPSTD 3645H Cultures of Medicine Honors
MW 12:45-2:05 | Nancy Jesser | Hagerty 251
GEL Cultures and Ideas, and GEL Diversity: Global Studies
This course engages with the following issues and questions:
- To understand the interactions and relations among practitioners of healing, medicine, institutions of medicine as well as various medical cultures within and beyond the US.
- How are ideas of health, illness, disorder, disease related to culture?
- How do cultures manage and produce variable approaches to health, wellness, and illness?
- How have conceptions of health and illness changed over time?
- How do medical practitioners and lay people interact within structures of power?
- When do conflicts about medicine and culture arise? And why?
- How do different people experience medicine as recipients of care and as caregivers amidst specific historical, social, economic and cultural circumstances?
This Honors version of COMPSTD 3645H focuses on medicine as experienced in a many-cultured United States historically impacted by racisms, class differences and gendered bodies. Nevertheless, we will also read about medicine and culture in the global beyond. I welcome students to introduce more places, cultures, and histories into our discussion, especially in collaborative projects. Because of the diversity of historical experiences and relationships, I will try to sensitivities and traumas surrounding experiences in medicine. However, there is no avoiding difficult and potentially upsetting topics when approaching medicines and cultures critically.
Prereq: English 1110 (110), or equiv. Not open to students with credit for 2341 (272).
COMPSTD 3686 Cultural Studies of American Music
MW 12:45-2:05 | Abigail Lindo | Caldwell 119
Second Session Course, MW 11:10-12:30 | Abigail Lindo | Caldwell 119
GEL Visual and Performing Arts, and GEL Social Diversity in the United States
GEN Literary, Visual and Performing Arts
In this course, we will analyze popular music from the 20th and 21st century in the U.S. through critical and collaborative reading, listening, and creative practices. Understanding musical selections as social and historical texts, we will consider the use and influence of sound throughout past eras, with consideration of embodied identities, sociopolitical movements, the music industry, and technological developments. Prereq: English 1110 or equiv.
COMPSTD 4021 Banned Books and the Cost of Censorship
M 9:15-12 | Ashley Hope Pérez | Hagerty 62, with some sessions taught online
GEN Citizenship
Designed specifically for the Citizenship for a Diverse and Just World GE theme, this course examines competing understandings of citizenship through an interdisciplinary examination of the dramatic rise of book banning in recent years. By reading banned books and examining the debates surrounding them, we establish important connections between diversity, justice, and citizenship. Together, we ask:
- What forces motivate this “new” book banning, and why have there been more book bans in the past three years than ever recorded in U.S. history?
- What do these removals mean for the learners who rely on schools and libraries for access to information and literature?
- How do attempts to censor library materials illuminate broader social, cultural, and political tensions?
As we tackle these questions, we also develop an understanding of citizenship as an engaged practice by which we treat as important the experiences, needs, and interests of a wide range of people. We consider how book banning is symptomatic of a resistance to this kind of citizenship, as when political groups reframe terms like “liberty” and “justice” in ways that exclude others from the privileges that they claim as rights for themselves. We examine the impacts of book banning on young people and their developing literacy, sense of belonging, and access to information. Data and trends in book removals reveal that the negative consequences are especially acute for BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and other historically marginalized communities. The course locates these issues in local, regional, national, and international contexts.
COMPSTD 4420 Cultural Food Systems and Sustainability
TuTh 2:20-3:40 | Mark Anthony Arceño | Mendenhall 173
GEN Theme: Sustainability.
How do human societies around the world respond and adapt to the challenges of food production and consumption in times of change? What cultural practices help define approaches to and/or understandings of sustainability?
Considering food as both a material good and marker of individual or collective identity, this interdisciplinary course asks students to think about how food systems are being transformed amid societal, cultural, environmental, political, etc., change at local/regional, national, and global scales.
We will compare and contrast the experiences of individuals and communities, thinking reflexively of how thematic case studies inform understandings of the overall complexity of food and foodways (i.e., socio-cultural practices related to food production and consumption) in and outside of the United States.
To supplement our in-class meetings and guest lectures, this course includes a three-visit agricultural experiential component at Waterman Lab situated along Carmack Road.
COMPSTD 4597.02 Global Culture
TR 12:45-2:05 | Zach Morgan | Smith Lab 1138
This course examines contemporary global cultural flows, the concepts useful in analyzing them, and the questions they raise about power and cultural change. Prereq: Completion of Second Writing course. Not open to students with credit for 597.02. GE diversity global studies and cross-disciplinary seminar course.
COMPSTD 4804 / ENGLISH 4588 Studies in Latino/a Literature and Culture
TR 9:35-10:55 | Mintzi Martinez-Rivera | Enarson 312
This course offers as a focused study of a topic in Latino/a literary and cultural studies.
COMPSTD 4822 Native American Identity
TR 2:20-3:40 | fabian romero | Hagerty 46
This course explores historical and contemporary issues of American Indian identity, primarily in the U.S.; with a focus on American Indian authors, artists, and scholars.
Some of the goals of this course are to broaden knowledge of American Indian peoples and the ways in which their lives are embedded in and inseparable from geographical, historical, spiritual, cultural, and social environments. Through the course, students will be exposed to, and gain an appreciation for, Native American Indian communities, cultures, histories, perspectives, experiences, lives and contemporary issues.
COMPSTD/AFAMAST/WGSST 4921 Intersections: Approaches to Race, Gender, Class, and Sexuality
MW 9:35-10:55 | Kam Copeland | Baker Systems 198
Examines intersections of race, gender, class, and sexuality in various sites within American culture (e.g., legal system, civil rights discourse, social justice movements). Prereq: One course in CompStd, WGSSt, or AfAmASt. Not open to students with credit for 545, AfAmAst 4921 (545), or WGSSt 4921 (545). Cross-listed in AfAmASt and WGSSt.
COMPSTD 4990 Senior Seminar in Comparative Studies
TR 11:10-12:30 | Spencer Dew | Smith Lab 2150
This capstone course is a writing seminar based on students' independent research. Ideally, students will have Senior standing and have taken or are concurrently taking a a 4000-level course in COMPSTD or RELSTDS.
COMPSTD 5240 / PUBAFRS 5240 / AFAMAST 5240 Race and Public Policy in the United States
TuTh 9:35-10:55 | Miranda Martinez | Page Hall 60
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.
Religious Studies Courses
Click here to jump up to Comparative Studies course offerings
This list is current as of October 6, 2024. Course schedule and descriptions are subject to change. 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 2102.01 Literature and Religion
WF 12:45-2:05 | Spencer Dew | Denney Hall 250
GEL Literature, and GEL Diversity: Global Studies
GEN Literary, Visual, and Performing Arts
This course explores the relations between literature and religion, proceeding through close reading and discussion of poetry, short stories, and selected novels addressing concepts like death, identity, memory, and love. Prereq: English 1110 (110) or equiv. Not open to students with credit for 2102.01H, CompStd 2102.01 (202.01), or 2102.01H (202.01H).
RELSTDS 2102.02 Comparative Sacred Texts
TuTh 11:10-12:30 | Kate Kaura | Hagerty 50
GEL Literature, and GEL Diversity: Global Studies
GEN Literary, Visual, and Performing Arts
Introduction to religious views of the universe, the supernatural, social organization, ethics, etc., through sacred texts (oral and written) of diverse cultures and historical periods. Prereq: English 1110 (110), or equiv. Not open to students with credit CompStd 2102.02 (202.02).
RELSTDS 2370 Introduction to Comparative Religion
TR 12:40-1:35 | Melissa Curley | CBEC 130
+ In-Person Recitations | F 10:20-11:15, 11:30-12:25, 12:40-1:35, or 1:50-2:45
GEL Cultures and Ideas, and GEL Diversity: Global Studies
GEN Historical and Cultural Studies
GEN Race, Ethnicity, and Gender Diversity
Introduction to the academic study of religion through comparison among major traditions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, etc.) and smaller communities. Prereq: English 1110 or equiv. Not open to students with credit for 2370H or CompStd 2370H or 2370. GE cultures and ideas and diversity global studies course. GE foundation historical and cultural studies and race, ethnicity and gender div course.
RELSTDS 2370H Introduction to Comparative Religion Honors
TR 2:20-3:40 | Hugh Urban | Derby Hall 049
GEL Cultures and Ideas, and GEL Diversity: Global Studies
GEN Historical and Cultural Studies
GEN Race, Ethnicity, and Gender Diversity
This Honors version of RELSTDS 2370 serves as an introduction to the academic study of religion through comparison among major traditions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, etc.) and smaller communities.
RELSTDS/PHILOSOPHY 2670 Science and Religion
WF 2:20-3:40 | Dylan Flint | Mendenhall Lab 125
GEN Historical and Cultural Studies
A philosophical examination of the relationship between science and religion; concentration on issues regarding the creation of the universe and the origins of life. Prereq: Not open to students with credit for CompStd 2670 or Philos 2670 or 2860. Cross-listed in Philosophy.
RELSTDS 3972 Theory and Method in the Study of Religion
WF 11:10-12:30 | David Brakke | Mendenhall Lab 173
There are two components to the course. We will first study the “classic” theories of religion, which range from anthropological to sociological to psychological and beyond. What questions and perspectives do these theories bring to religious evidence? Do they “explain” what religion is and does? We will study these in roughly chronological order from the 1870s, when anthropologists began to develop theories of religion, to the 1970s, when departments and programs of “religious studies” had become common in U.S. colleges and universities. The writings in this section form a kind of “canon” with which all scholars of religion are familiar.
We will then consider some more recent approaches to religion that draw on critical theory about culture (e.g., feminism, womanism, performance theory, queer theory, cognitive science). How do these perspectives build on, revise, and/or reject the classic theories? What new questions do they enable us to ask about religious phenomena?
Students will consider these approaches not merely in the abstract, but in relation to specific religious texts, objects, and activities.
4342 Religion, Meaning, and Knowledge in Africa and Its Diaspora
TR 12:45-2:05 | Spencer Dew | Mendenhall Lab 185
GEL Cultures and Ideas, and GEL Diversity: Global Studies
GEN Traditions, Cultures, and Transformations
This class will introduce some of the traditions and movements native to and popular in the African continent and across the African Diaspora. The semester will be split roughly between attention to religious practice on the continent, with an emphasis on religious responses to colonialism, and religious innovation in the New World, with attention to how religious thought and action responds to slavery and racism. Prereq: Not open to students with credit for AfAmASt 4342. Cross-listed in AfAmASt.