Comparative Studies Courses
Click here to jump down to Religious Studies course offerings

This list is undergoing ongoing editing; 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 | Enarson 211
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. 

Comparative Studies 2006 American Civics: Freedom, Democracy, and Struggle

WF 9:35-10:55 | Instructor TBD | Denney 250
WF 11:10-12:30 | Spencer Dew | Location TBD
GEN Foundation: Historical and Cultural Studies

This course examines American civic traditions from an interdisciplinary perspective. We will investigate the conceptual and historical roots of key texts, alongside their impacts and ongoing legacies in the United States and beyond. Key themes include: the contested relationships among church, state, and economy; debates over the meaning of democracy and citizenship; competing notions of progress.

COMPSTD 2099 Question of Comparative Studies 

M 4:10-5:05 | Ashley Pérez | Hagerty Hall 451

This course is a one-credit course that introduces key ideas and practices of Comparative Studies. Gain new ways of seeing literature, religion, music, cultures, folklore, and technology. Meet the award-winning, innovative faculty members in Comparative Studies. Take charge of your own learning, and discover how anything that you’re passionate about could become part of your major in Comparative Studies.

Required for our majors. Open to everyone!
This course is graded S/U. 

COMPSTD 2101 Literature and Society

TR 11:10-12:30 | Ilaya Ustel | Hagerty 50
GEL Literature, and GEL Diversity: Global Studies
GEN 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 2101H Literature and Society Honors

TR 12:45-2:05 | Rob Barry | Enarson 15
GEL Literature, and GEL Diversity: Global Studies
GEN Literary, Visual and Performing Arts
GEN Race, Ethnicity, and Gender Diversity

This Honors version of COMPSTD 2101 is likewise a 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.

COMPSTD 2105 Literature and Ethnicity

TR 12:45-2:05 | Kwaku Korang | University Hall 38
Second Session Course, TR 2:20-3:40 | Rob Barry | University Hall 56
GEN Literary, Visual & Performing Arts
GEN Race, Ethnicity & Gender Diversity

This course examines literary representations of ethnicity refracted through experiences of racialization and gender in an American cultural context.

COMPSTD/ETHNSTD/SPANISH 2242 Intro to Latinx Studies

TR 11:10-12:30 | Fernanda Diaz Basteris | Mendenhall 191
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

TR 12:45-2:05 | Umut Gurses | Hagerty 46
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

TR 9:35-10:55 | Rhiar Kanouse | Mendenhall 185
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 2340 Intro to Cultures of Science and Technology

TuTh 9:35-10:55 | Nikoo Karimi | Scott 50
GEN Historical and Cultural Studies
GEN Race, Ethnicity & Gender Diversity

This course offers a critical analysis of the multiple relations of science to society, with an emphasis on knowledge, power, authority, values, and ethics. We will sharpen our analytical skills by discussing a broad range of historical and contemporary examples as they relate to race, ethnicity, gender, global capitalism, and politics.

COMPSTD 2350 / ENGLISH 2270 Intro to Folklore

TR 12:45-2:05 | Zahra Abedi | Mendenhall 131
TR 2:20-3:40 | Emily Bianchi | PAES A105
WF 3:55-5:15 | Ciara Bernal | Mendenhall 185
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

TR 12:45-2:05 | Emily Bianchi | Dulles 12

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 2367.08 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 2420 American Food Cultures

TR 12:45-2:05 | Thorayah Abdelqader | Mendenhall 185
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. In addition to studying regional and national food holidays -- such as Mardi Gras and 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, with special attention on ethnic, immigrant, and hybridized foods and foodways.

COMPSTD 2995 / SLAVIC 2995.99 Race and Gender in Eastern Europe and the US: A Transatlantic Comparison (ONLINE)

Asynchronous | Yana Hashamova
GEN Race, Ethnicity & Gender Diversity

By studying how identities (racial, ethnic, gender, and religious) exist as cultural constructs, this course will examine and compare the experiences of Russian and East European ethnic and racial minorities in their respective countries and African Americans in the US regarding racialization and marginalization through cultural and social constructs.

COMPSTD 3302/E Translating Literature and Cultures

TR 9:35-10:55 | Ilayda Ustel | Mendenhall 174
GEN Race, Ethnicity & Gender Diversity

A required course for the World Literatures program, this course serves as an introduction to issues and problems inherent to translating literatures and cultures. Note that this course, open to all students, is also an Embedded Honors course, which is open to a maximum of 12 Honors students.

COMPSTD 3603 Love in World Literature

TuTh 2:20-3:40 | Lucia Bortoli | University Hall 38
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 | Pomerene 250
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 3686 Cultural Studies of American Musics (ONLINE)

MW 2:20-3:40 | Van My Truong 
GEL Visual and Performing Arts, and GEL Diversity: Social Diversity in the US
GEN Literary, Visual & Performing Arts  

In this course we explore "American" music as a cultural project and as a space for critical intervention into concepts around race and nation, particularly around who and what can claim the roots of "American" music. We think through the history of forms like country, folk, blues, and roots music, and the contemporary music they've helped to shape, to explore the ways in which these musical conversations have always crossed regional and national boundaries, even while they've been touted as some of the most "rooted" of "American" musics. We explore some of the actual migrations associated with "American" music, the material histories of movement and displacement that have not only shaped the musical tones and lyrical themes of certain musical genres, but have also created spaces within which a new generation of performers and listeners have come to imagine particular notions of nation and belonging through the music. We will engage the music as cultural texts to be read alongside other cultural forms with a focus on the sociohistorical contexts that shape their creation and audience engagement.

COMPSTD 3903 World Literature: Theory and Practice

WF 2:20-3:40 | Shurouq Ibrahim | Caldwell 119
GEN Global Citizenship for a Just and Diverse World

How do some books travel across the borders of nations and languages? What can literature from Africa, Asia, Latin America, Europe, and the Middle East show us about migration, belonging, conflict, and community? Can stories change the way we think about citizenship? Join this required theory course for the World Literatures program to learn more!

COMPSTD 4021.01 Banned Books and the Cost of Censorship (3-credit version)

M 2:15-5 | Alyssa Chrisman | Hagerty 50
GEN Global Citizenship for a Diverse and Just World

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 4021.02 Banned Books and the Cost of Censorship (4-credit version)

M 9:10-11:55 + W 9:10-10:05 | Ashley Pérez | Hagerty 50
GEN Global Citizenship for a Diverse and Just World

What’s behind the massive rise in book bans since 2021? How does censorship affect readers and communities? 

In this class, students explore the causes and costs of recent censorship, read banned books with a focus on their value, and design advocacy projects to support communities impacted by book bans.

This 4-credit service-learning course fully meets the GEN Global Citizenship for a Diverse and Just World requirement.

COMPSTD 4597.01 Global Studies of Science and Technology

TR 12:45-2:05 | Maya Cruz | Cockins 228

Although we often encounter artificial intelligence (AI) on the familiar screens of our phones and computers, the systems behind AI are built through vast global infrastructures that remain largely out of sight. This course, therefore, asks a deceptively simple question: Where is AI? Drawing on Science and Technology Studies and Critical AI Studies, we will look beyond “what” AI is to explore where and how AI systems are connected to global and planetary networks of labor, energy, data, and resource extraction, and how these connections shape everyday life, across local and global scales. We will examine how the benefits and harms of AI are distributed unevenly, as well as the ethical and political questions that emerge as we come to understand how our everyday experiences of AI are shaped by these uneven social, cultural, economic, and environmental conditions elsewhere. Throughout the course, students will develop skills in critical AI literacy to enable them to examine the beliefs, assumptions, and values that shape AI use and development, while grappling with the “big questions” concerning AI — not just in our worlds today, but in the worlds we want in our futures.

COMPSTD 4597.03 Global Folklore

TR11:10-12:30 | Emily Bianchi | Baker Systems 128
GEN Theme: Migration, Mobility, and Immobility

This course provides an exploration of the dynamics of folklore in a global environment.  We will interrogate how culture becomes rooted in place (immobility), how it circulates (mobility) and how it moves from one group to another, one context to another (migration), producing a variety of consequences.  How do people from all walks of life create meaning and beauty in their everyday lives? How do communities and groups maintain a collective sense of themselves that distinguishes them from other communities/groups, particularly in a period of rapid globalization?  What does it mean to respect and conserve cultural diversity? And what do patterns of cultural circulation tell us about relations between individuals and groups, institutions and groups, as well as among nations. Students will begin by learning key concepts of folklore scholarship: culture, place, tradition, performance, genre, the local/global distinction, the folk/popular divide, the interplay of the customary and innovative in folklore production.  Students will develop an expansive definition of folklore as the means by which groups both distinguish themselves from as well as fashion bridges with diverse communities. We will look at the ways folklore moves through a range of concepts spanning everything from sacred ritual to touristic display.  We will focus on the transmission and transformation of cultural knowledge and practice in situations of want and plenty, peace and conflict, mobility and rootedness attending to the relations of power operating in and through traditional culture.  

Prereq: Completion of Second Writing course. Not open to students with credit for 597.03. GE diversity global studies and cross-disciplinary seminar course.   

COMPSTD 4645 Cultures of Medicine

MW 2:20-3:40 | Seth Josephson | Mendenhall 174
GEN Theme: Health and Well-being; 4-credit Original Research and Creative Inquiry

Cultures of Medicine provides an introduction to the field of the medical humanities through a focus on access and disability. As a four-credit GE Health and Well-being and Original Research and Creative Inquiry course, it provides students with a comprehensive examination of the social and cultural study of medicine in the interdisciplinary field of Science and Technology Studies. Students can expect to engage with interdisciplinary approaches to the concepts of health and well-being from across the field of Science and Technology Studies that emphasize the study of the cultures of health and medicine as it relates to systems and structures of power that shape individual, community, and global and transnational experiences of health. 

This course will provide students to consider these topics and questions specifically in terms of the issue of “access” to health and well-being. Students can expect to critically engage with questions like: What is access to health and well-being? What is health and well-being, anyway? Who gets to decide? Who gets to be healthy, experience wellness, and thrive? Who doesn’t? Why? 

Topics include health equity and access to health and care, medicalization and the relationships between health and categories of social difference like race, gender, and disability, and health and well-being in the context of the environment and environmental crisis and contemporary health crises like the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, this course will provide students opportunities to critically engage with questions concerning what it means to “access” health and well-being through a comprehensive study of “access” to care and cure, “access” to health, and the differential experience and exposure to illness, debilitation, and death at the individual level, community level, and state level within global and transnational contexts, to understand the complex ways in which cultures of medicine, science, and technology shape access to health and well-being along lines of social difference to distribute life chances unevenly across local, global, and transnational contexts. 

As an immersive/experiential “high-impact” course, students will engage in an advanced, immersive “hands-on” course-long research project (Mapping Access) that asks them to apply the concepts, ideas, and theories of the course readings to analyze what it means to access health and well-being in their immediate community, before thinking critically about what it means to engage with health and well-being “beyond access.” As such, by completing this course, students can expect to learn and apply research skills including data collection, documentation, interpretation, and writing.

Prereq: English 1110 (110), or equiv. Not open to students with credit for 2341 (272). 

COMPSTD/AFAMAST/WGSST 4921 Intersections: Approaches to Race, Gender, Class, and Sexuality    

TR 12:45-2:05 | Elea Proctor | Location: TBD

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 | Mendenhall 174

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 12:45-2:05 | Michael Fisher | Location TBD

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 2102.02 Comparative Sacred Texts 

TuTh 12:45-2:05 | Karin Ikeda | Location TBD
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

MW 11:30-12:25 | Seth Josephson | Jennings 355
+ In-Person Recitations | F 10:20-11:15, 11:30-12:25, or 12:40-1:35
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 11:10-12:30 | Patrick Dunn | Derby 49
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/NELC 3168 History of God

TR 2:20-3:40 | James Moore | Baker Systems 148
GEN Theme: Traditions, Cultures, and Transformations

Exploration of how the idea of a single God developed in religions having their origins in the ancient near East and the Mediterranean (Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and Hellenistic philosophy) from ancient times to the present. Prereq: English 1110, or GE foundation writing and info literacy course. Not open to students with credit for NELC 3168. 

RELSTDS 3678 Religion and American Culture

TR 11:10-12:30 | Adam Banks | Baker Systems 148
GEN Theme: Citizenship for a Diverse and Just World

Religion is special in America. Religious individuals, communities, and institutions enjoy special legal privileges, such as tax-exempt status and free exercise protection. Religions regularly demand special toleration and respect. Religious freedom is thought to be one of the things that makes America exceptional. But what (and where) is religion in America, and what makes a religion American? What broader issues are at stake when we try to define and locate religion in a society as diverse and pluralistic as our own? How does thinking about religion’s place in American culture help us think more broadly about the meanings of American citizenship – both its scope and its limits?

Though this course will proceed chronologically in part, it offers a thematic approach to exploring these questions, rather than a strictly historical one. We will analyze a series of case studies that will help us think more rigorously, more deeply, and more critically about the vexed relationship between religion and American culture and what this relationship reveals about democratic citizenship and belonging. In the first half of the course, we will concentrate primarily on the relationship between religion and the state. We will look to American law as an important site through which religion has been regulated and policed, defined and differentiated, but also where Americans have turned to seek rights and recognition, to battle over questions of justice, equity, and inclusion. In the second half of the course, we will complicate any neat distinctions between religion and non-religion, sacred and the secular, by turning to the realms of popular culture, consumerism, and entertainment. Taking up examples ranging from musical theater to hip-hop, we will consider how American religion shapes and is shaped by other categories of difference like race, gender, and sex. In the end, you will have the opportunity to apply what you’ve learned to another case study of your choice and to reflect on what that case study teaches us about citizenship in a just and diverse world.

RELSTDS 3777 Religion, Health, and Healing

MW 9:35-10:55 | Melissa Curley | Hopkins 246
GEN Health and Well-being

This course explores religious strategies for healing the sick and managing the many sources of disease and distress that afflict human beings, the needs these strategies meet, and the ways they carve out space for themselves under the banner of "spirituality".

RELSTDS 3972 Theory and Method in the Study of Religion

TR 9:35-10:55 | Spencer Dew | Hagerty 50

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.