RELG 209 - Jesus and Justice: Ancient and Modern Debates
What has Jesus to do with justice? This course explores contemporary uses of Christian scriptures by social justice movements and their critics. Students will focus on texts written by early followers of Jesus, including those that became part of the “New Testament,” as well as works banned from that collection. Students will also consider the legacy of these ancient writings for current debates about the structures underlying racial, gender, LGBTQ, interfaith, class, and environmental justice movements. This introductory discussion-based course is open to all students, whether or not you identify as “Christian.”
Credits: 1.00 Corequisite: None Prerequisites: None Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Senior Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts CORE: None
What role does literary art play in the shaping of biblical narrative? How does the construction of the sacred text reflect its theological meaning? The religious vision of the Bible is given depth and subtlety precisely by being conveyed literarily; thus, the primary concern in this course is with the literature and literary influence of the received text of the Bible rather than with the history of the text’s creation. As students read through the canon they establish the boundaries of the texts studied, distinguish the type(s) of literature found in them, examine their prose and poetic qualities, and identify their surface structures. Students also consider the literary legacy of the Bible and the many ways that subsequent writers have revisited its stories.
Credits: 1.00 Crosslisted:JWST 213 Corequisite: None Prerequisites: None Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts CORE: None
Provides an in-depth introduction to the Qur’an, the life of the Prophet Muhammad, and the centuries of interpretative debates among both Muslims and non-Muslims over the meaning of these two foundations of the Islamic tradition. Students begin with an immersion in the earliest Islamic primary sources, reading excerpts from the Qur’an itself and the first biography of Muhammad ever written. Next, students examine recent scholarly debates over the nature of Muhammad’s movement and message. The second half of the course adopts a more thematic approach, looking at issues like the place of women in the Qur’an, the authority of reason vs. revelation, Islamic education, and Qur’anic ethics.
Credits: 1.00 Crosslisted:MIST 214 Corequisite: None Prerequisites: None Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts CORE: None
Based on comparative scriptural analysis or what is now called “Scriptural Reasoning.” The focus will be on close readings of the Hebrew Bible, New Testament, and Qur’an with an eye to common themes and differences. Students will engage in a comparison of interpretive traditions in Judaism, Christianity and Islam to see how particular scriptural passages are understood in the religious traditions. The course will also spend time studying the ways in which scriptural reasoning has been used as a form of religious conflict resolution and peace-building in situations of conflict in the UK and Middle East.
Credits: 1.00 Crosslisted:JWST 222 Corequisite: None Prerequisites: None Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts CORE: None
Examines the similarities and differences between rational and religious understandings of God. By pursuing close readings of classic texts in the field of philosophy of religion, this course considers how both philosophical and religious ideas are often developed together. Students explore various arguments about the rationality of God as responses to wider intellectual, cultural, and historical contexts in which they are made and to the specific shape and needs of a particular religious tradition (e.g., Catholicism, Protestantism, or Judaism). Students also explore the “rationality” of religious forms such as scripture, symbol, ritual, and prayer. In different semesters, select themes such as revelation, theodicy (the justification of God in the face of human suffering), providence and free will, or the theism/atheism debate are investigated.
Credits: 1.00 Corequisite: None Prerequisites: None Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts CORE: None
A look at how illness, health, and healing are understood and experienced in parts of Asia where illness is not defined merely as a physiological problem, but is also seen to have important spiritual, aesthetic, social, and political causes and effects. Similarly, while biomedicine defines health as the absence of disease, in traditional Chinese and Indian medicine, health is about achieving balance between different elements in the body, such as wind, water, and fire. Students will develop an appreciation for the culturally and historically patterned ways in which people come to identify and treat bodily, psychological, and social distress. For instance, students will examine spirit possession in a variety of contexts as both a form of affliction and as a mode of healing. Students will look at the role of traditional healers; how cultures vary in what they consider to be the causes of illness; who gets sick; what forms illness takes; and how the social, political, and aesthetic dimensions of health and healing affect treatment outcomes. Readings will be drawn from the fields of ethnomedicine, medical anthropology, and the anthropology of religion, to explore how illness and health are conceptualized and experienced in different cultures and across different sites of healing.
Credits: 1.00 Prerequisites: None Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts CORE: Global Engagements
Examines autobiographical, biographical, descriptive, and historical materials that present and analyze the lives of women in the context of various religious traditions. In a given term, students focus upon specific geographical areas, historical periods, and/or religious traditions.
Credits: 1.00 Corequisite: None Prerequisites: None Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts CORE: None
RELG 235 - Religion, War, Peace, and Reconciliation
This is a course on the role and function of religion toward peace and reconciliation. Students examine the scriptural, theological, and ethical teachings of various religions on justice, conflict resolution, peace, and reconciliation. Students also examine the theological writings on justice, war, and peace by Augustine, Aquinas, Luther, and Schleiermacher. Using concrete case studies of conflict and reconciliation, students explore the teachings of African religion, Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Judaism, and Islam on nonviolence, peace-making, relationship of peace and justice, as well as evaluate the negative and positive contributions of these religions toward conflict. Students examine religious and interreligious conflicts (Northern Ireland, India/Pakistan), religious language and symbols (Rwanda), current attempts at peace reconciliations (Bosnia, Liberia), and the role of religions and the causes of situations of conflict (the Middle East). Of particular interest is an examination of situations in which the political process was shaped and defined to a greater degree by religious leaders and their communities (South Africa).
Credits: 1.00 Corequisite: None Prerequisites: None Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts CORE: None
In the 17th century, religion lost its claim to the cosmos; the religious knowledge of the order of nature ceased to possess any legitimacy in the new paradigm of science that came to dominate the West. Until the 1960s, Christian thinkers considered it the great glory of Christianity that it alone among the world’s religions had permitted purely secular science to develop in a civilization in which it was dominant. After several centuries of an ever-increasing eclipse of the religious significance of nature in the West and neglect of the order of nature, humans are now experiencing environmental crisis: global warming; the destruction of the ozone layer; climatic and weather pattern changes; soil erosion; death of animals, birds, and marine life; and the disappearance of some plant species. Today the very fabric of life is threatened and the future of our world hangs in the balance as nature is threatened by destruction caused by an environmental crisis that has gone unchecked for several centuries. What can be learned from religions of the world that will save humanity and nature? What is the relationship between religion, nature, science, and technology? Discussions include views from various religious traditions concerning nature, concept of the human, notions of progress and destiny, faith and science, ecological theology, ecofeminism, justice and sustainability, and spirituality.
Credits: 1.00 Corequisite: None Prerequisites: None Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts CORE: None
Terrorists are often driven by extremist beliefs staunchly rooted in religious, racial, and ethical rationales for torture, violence, and genocide. The course provides a theoretical and empirical understanding, and explanation of terrorism. While tracing the history of terrorism to the ancient West, students will also identify various analytical approaches to the study of terrorism, recognize terrorist groups, and review terrorist tactics. Students will examine the ways that states counter terror, and the choices and the tradeoffs states face when confronting terrorism. Students will examine terrorist individuals and groups in Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Judaism, Islam, and Sikhism such as the Ku Klux Klan, Timothy Mc Veigh, Republican Army in Ireland, Orthodox Rabbi Meir Kahane, Dr. Baruch Goldstein, Osama bin Laden, Boko Haram, Islamic State, and Shoko Asahara in Japan.
Credits: 1.00 Corequisite: None Prerequisites: None Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts CORE: Global Engagements
Studies selected significant religious questions, themes and texts from American religious history. While the specific issues and topics vary, the course is typically organized around an investigation into the challenges and opportunities presented by America’s extraordinary religious pluralism. Issues examined may include: inter-religious encounter from Columbus to the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act, religion on the American “frontier,” the counter-cultural appropriation of Asian religions, the experience of migration, church-state relations, religion and media, and religion and social justice movements in America.
Credits: 1.00 Corequisite: None Prerequisites: None Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Senior Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts CORE: None
This historical, theological, and contextual course examines the African American religious experience, including slavery in America, the struggle for freedom and identify, the development of the Black Church, Black Muslims, the Civil Rights movement, the emergence of Black and Womanist theologies, and other expressions of African American spirituality. Course readings include writings of such historical and contemporary authors as Frederick Douglass, W. E. Du B. DuBois, Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcom X, James Cone, Albert Raboteau, Jacquelyn Grant, and Lewis Baldwin.
Credits: 1.00 Corequisite: None Prerequisites: None Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts CORE: None
Religion continues to exert major influences upon the shape of American life at the beginning of the 21st century. Students study themes and controversies in American culture during the decades since the end of the Second World War, focusing upon the study of religious diversity and the changing religious landscape of America; issues of church and state; religion and politics; and religious ideas and values as they have shaped, and been expressed in, popular culture. Special attention is paid to the aftershocks of 9/11 on American religious dynamics.
Credits: 1.00 Corequisite: None Prerequisites: None Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts CORE: None
Examines various ways humans have attempted to anticipate, accept, deny, defeat, or transcend death. If death is rebirth, what is birth? What survives death? What stories and techniques have people shared to imagine immortality? Our approach is comparative, with emphasis on sacred stories and practices of Buddhists, Hindus, ancient Greeks and Egyptians, Jews, Christians, and Muslims and their legacies for our current debates over personal identity, sustainability, and memory.
Credits: 1 Prerequisites: None Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts CORE: None
RELG 250 - Religion, Othering, Violence in the Middle Ages
Slaves, Muslims, Jews, Black Africans, lepers, prostitutes, homosexuals (now LGBTQ), and witches, were often viewed as foreigners and foes in the European Middle Ages. Students deconstruct the shifting and nuanced role religion played in constructing and regulating identity alterity, and notions of deviance, heresy, and Otherness across selected chronological periods and discrete geographical contexts. Primary and secondary sources foreground the strategic ways in which religious practices, prescriptions, canons, sacred texts, and mythic ideologies and prejudices coalesced with regional laws and practices to legitimate or transgress social and political boundaries, delimit daily social interactions, and foment individual, inter-religious, and group violence. Medieval religious texts, legal narratives, courtly literature, plays, romance, art, and iconography provide captivating records of religion’s role in fomenting justifications of militant piety, and conversely, tolerance and inclusion, toward minorities in the Middle Ages.
Credits: 1 Prerequisites: None Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts CORE: None
The death of six million Jews at the hands of the Nazis in the Second World War represents a radical challenge to faith in Judaism, in Christianity, and in humanism. Study begins with a historical overview of the Holocaust and uses accounts of Holocaust survivors to articulate the challenge of the Holocaust to faith. Then students review philosophical and theological responses to this challenge by a variety of Jewish, Christian, and secular authors.
Credits: 1.00 Crosslisted:JWST 251 Corequisite: None Prerequisites: None Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts CORE: None
Plagues, pandemics, and epidemics have visited fear, chaos, and death upon global communities and nations for millennia. Catastrophes like the Bubonic Plague of 14th century Europe (1348-50), plagues in the Ottoman capital (1522-921), early modern Africa (1494-1554), China (1770/71), and the 1918 American Flu pandemic, among others, precipitated world-shattering disruptions that mandated rapid and comprehensive recalibrations of social constructions of normalcy, social identity, and socio-cultural cohesion. The course identifies religion as a requisite multidimensional construct situated at the intersection of interdisciplinary theorizing and explanatory models regarding the etiologies of, and responses to, death-dealing disease and contagion. Religious understandings of calamitous plagues, pandemics, and epidemics are juxtaposed with the rise of medical and scientific understandings of these maladies within discrete periods.
Credits: 1.0 Prerequisites: None Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts CORE: None
A cross-cultural and multi-disciplinary approach to the questions of how the social and cultural significance of sexuality has been shaped by religious discourse, myth, doctrine, and ritual. How have various forms of sexual expression come to be seen as normal, while others are seen as deviant? How has passionate love served as a metaphor for the expression of religious experiences, such as the union of the soul with God? How have people thought to “channel” sexual energy to pursue spiritual projects, as in tantra and religious celibacy? Topics of study may include marriage, different- and same-sex love, virginity, celibacy, sacred prostitution, ecstasy and mysticism, and the role of transvestites, transsexuals, androgynes, and third-gender people in religious myth and ritual in contexts such as Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.
Credits: 1 Prerequisites: None Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Senior Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts CORE: Global Engagements
What do we mean when we talk about “the separation of church and state”? Where does this principle originate? Are there exceptions? This course explores the relationship between religion and law in the United States. Students consider the question of what Americans mean when they speak of the separation of church and state and explore the ways in which the U.S. Supreme Court has attempted to implement this principle within American law. Students examine a variety of influential theories of church-state separation, and read some of the most important First Amendment cases of the 20th and early 21st centuries. This course does not assume any prior knowledge of U.S. religion or U.S. law.
Credits: 1.00 Corequisite: None Prerequisites: None Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Senior Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts CORE: None
The September 11th attacks left an indelible mark on both American political discourse and the experiences of Muslim communities across the globe. This course asks: how should we conceptualize the relationship between Islam and the West in our post-9/11 world? Together, we will explore the history and ideas behind contemporary headlines in an effort to understand the roots of Islamist violence, American foreign policy towards Muslim-majority countries, Muslim debates over the future of their faith, and popular discourse on Islam in the West. We will look at a wide range of sources and perspectives in order to tackle these difficult but exceedingly relevant issues.
The revolution in biotechnology has given humanity powers unimaginable a few decades ago. Bioethics within the Western cultural tradition examines moral and ethical dilemmas arising from the interface of human experience and advances in biology, medicine, and technology (human embryonic stem cell applications, cloning, genetic engineering, euthanasia, etc.). Global bioethical inquiry places moral and ethical bioethics deliberations on the international stage, with a focused exploration of diverse and competing transnational theoretical debates. The course undertakes a critical study of comparative religious ethics and global bioethics issues within Judaism, Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism, and Christianity.
Credits: 1.00 Corequisite: None Prerequisites: None Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts CORE: Global Engagements
As one of the world’s most ancient, complex, and fascinating religious traditions, the study of Hinduism provides an ideal arena for examining central questions in the study of religion. Through close readings of primary texts in translation, this course focuses on the history of Hindu traditions from their origins to the development of devotional movements in medieval and early modern India. Following a chronological order, these texts include the hymns of the ancient Vedas, the investigations into salvific reality in the Upanishads, the religious epics, devotional poems in praise of gods, religious philosophy (Yoga and Advaita Vedanta), and classical mythology. While exploring the variety of forms Hinduism has taken, the class engages broader questions in the study of religions such as the construction of religious authority, the definition of the good life, conceptions of the soul, differences between elite and non-elite styles of religiosity, and the significance of gender in conceptualizations of the divine.
Credits: 1.00 Corequisite: None Prerequisites: None Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts CORE: None
In the desert landscape of 7th century Arabia, a middle-aged Arab tribesman and caravan trader named Muhammad began to hear the word of God and declared himself a prophet. Within decades, Muhammad’s message sparked a religious and social revolution that changed the course of human history. Students examine the rise of Islam, its emergence as a diverse global religion, and its multi-faceted encounters with Western-style modernity. Students begin by studying the Qur’an, the life of Muhammad, and the stories of his immediate successors. Who exactly was Muhammad, and what was the nature of his message? What challenges did the early Muslim community face? Following our exploration of the earliest phases of Islamic history, students then delve into the formation of two major streams of Islamic thought: shari’a (Islamic law) and Sufism (Islamic mysticism). The final third of the semester focuses on Muslim responses to European colonialism and Western-style modernity. Specifically, we examine colonial-era changes to shari’a, the Iranian Revolution, the rise of violent Islamists like Al Qaeda and ISIS, and modern Muslims living in the West.
Credits: 1.00 Corequisite: None Prerequisites: None Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts CORE: None
As a minority culture, throughout history, Jews and Judaism have always been subject to the influence of the majority cultures in which Jews have found themselves. In response to the shocks of modernity, ruptures, scientific advancements, and philosophical ideas and challenges, Jewish thinkers, culture, and individuals formulated responses—religious and otherwise. In Experiencing Judaism, students will explore how Judaism has responded to modernity, the “age of secularism.” To wit, students will focus on distinctively modern expressions of Judaism: the range of denominations, their historical origins, ideologies, and attitudes to Jewish law and its development, secularism, religious and secular Zionism. Students will explore these developments through primary texts within their historical contexts to better understand contemporary Judaism as it is expressed and practiced, mainly in North America and Israel, as a religion and also as a culture.
Credits: 1.00 Crosslisted:JWST 283 Corequisite: None Prerequisites: None Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts CORE: None
This historical study of the development of the central Christian beliefs examines the development of the early creeds, the emerging of ecumenical consensus, and philosophical elaborations. The course highlights African contributions and involvement in the ecumenical councils (the first 500 years) that made major decisions concerning the central elements of the Christian tradition.
Credits: 1.00 Corequisite: None Prerequisites: None Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts CORE: None Formerly: RELG 301
Students will explore the many faces of Buddhism across time and space and seek to understand what has made Buddhism so successful. Some of the major themes running through Buddhism in various times and places include the allure of the motif of renunciation, the roles of scripture and literature in orienting devotion and community, an economy of merit wherein material goods and respect are offered to the Buddha and his community of monks and nuns in exchange for better rebirth and, ultimately, salvation, and Buddhism’s confrontation with modernity, the West, and science.
Credits: 1.00 Corequisite: None Prerequisites: None Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts CORE: None
Central to this study is the understanding of Roman Catholicism as a living, dynamic, multi-faceted set of religious traditions. The focus may change each term. The time frame is usually from the Second Vatican Council (1962-5) to the present, although the full panoply of Catholic history, doctrine, and liturgy is under review, especially during the Catholic Reformation of the 1500s. Topics may include the Church’s self-understanding, the historical context of American Catholicism, cultural pluralism within global Catholicism, and contemporary issues such as war and peace, social and economic justice, sexuality and reproduction, grassroots liberation efforts, and environmental concerns.
Credits: 1.00 Corequisite: None Prerequisites: None Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts CORE: None
RELG 287 - Protestant Traditions: Revolutions and Reformations
Considers the Protestant tradition in Europe and the United States. The great theological doctrines of the Reformation of 16th-century Europe are examined: salvation by grace, the authority of scripture as opposed to ecclesiastical edicts, freedom of conscience, the priesthood of all believers, and separation of church and state. The great themes articulated by Luther, Calvin, and others constituted a challenge to established authority that involved the Church, the monarchies, and the dissenters. The Protestant tradition that emerged gave rise to new conceptions of political order that profoundly impacted the ideological, social, and political foundations of the United States. Protestant vision contributed heavily to biblical metaphors shaping American self-understanding. Protestant vision and Protestant thinkers gave rise to various forms of Christian communities, such as the Society of Shakers, and provided the impetus for reform movements such as abolition of slavery, the Social Gospel, Prohibition, and the Civil Rights movement.
Credits: 1.00 Corequisite: None Prerequisites: None Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts CORE: None
Introduces students to the variety of American Indian traditional religions and historical religious movements. After an evaluation of the methods used in understanding Indian religions and a survey of culture areas, students look at American Indian concepts of the supernatural, mythology, ceremonialism, dreams and visions, medicine, witchcraft, shamanism, nature-relations, and conceptions of the soul. In a given semester, examples from Navajo, Lakota, Skagit, Inuit, Hopi, and Ojibwa religions are described in some detail, in order to show how the individual characteristics are integrated; then students examine the effects of Christian missions and the most important religious movements among American Indians since white contact: Handsome Lake’s Religion, Ghost Dance, Peyote Religion, and others.
Credits: 1.00 Corequisite: None Prerequisites: None Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts CORE: None
This course is an exploration of the nature and varieties of indigenous African religions. Issues examined include cosmology; concepts of divinity; ancestors; person; meaning of sacrifice; symbols and ritual practice; the relationships among art and religion, politics, and religious institutions; and the challenge of social change, Christianity, and Islam to indigenous religions. In addition, students examine the different methods used in studying African religions.
Credits: 1.00 Corequisite: None Prerequisites: None Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts CORE: None
Opportunity for individual study in areas not covered by formal course offerings, under the guidance of a member of the faculty.
Credits: variable Corequisite: None Prerequisites: None Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts CORE: None
What accounts for the popularity of Tibetan Buddhism among certain Hollywood elite as well as a growing number of Chinese in the world today? Why did Tibet give rise to the unique institution of the reincarnating lama, best known in the West through the figure of the Dalai Lama? What goes on in Tibetan monasteries, the largest monasteries in world history? Understanding the answers to these questions requires that one examine the place and privilege of religion and Buddhism in particular in Tibetan culture. Through the close reading of the autobiography of a Tibetan saint, Buddhist myth, ethnographic descriptions, and philosophical treatises, as well as Buddhist art and other media, students come to understand the centrality of religion to many aspects of life in Tibet, and gain a basic understanding of Buddhist philosophy, ritual/contemplative practices, pilgrimage, popular practices, monastic life, and other facets of religion and life in Tibet.
Credits: 1.00 Corequisite: None Prerequisites: None Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts CORE: None Formerly: RELG 327
RELG 308 - End of the World: Apocalyptic Thought and Movements in Historical Perspective
Investigates the origin and evolution of apocalyptic literature and movements from antiquity to the present, beginning with the Second Temple and early Christian periods. What existential and ideological factors give rise to convictions of the world’s cataclysmic destruction, or civilization-altering fate? Why do apocalyptic movements forecast the inevitability of such life-threatening catastrophes as national or global revolution and warfare, plagues, ecological catastrophes, or profound existential threats from bioengineering or artificial intelligence menaces gone awry? Particular attention is focused on the sociohistorical factors that fuel and heighten apocalyptic fervor within discrete historical periods, inclusive of contemporary post-apocalyptic reconstructions of new world orders that inspire allegiance, hope, and notions of paradisal tranquility.
Credits: 1.00 Crosslisted:JWST 308 Corequisite: None Prerequisites: None Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No First-year Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts CORE: None
RELG 313 - The “Word” in the World: The Bible in Global Perspective
Using a form of biblical interpretation called contextual interpretation, this course explores how the Bible is read and interpreted by people around the world. Contextual interpretation takes the context or social location of the interpreter (their gender, class, race, nationality, etc.) as the starting point in the hermeneutical (interpretive) process. De-centering the predominantly male, patriarchal, and first-world orientation of more traditional biblical scholarship, the readings for this course foreground the perspectives and commitments of the interpreters as well as issues of identity, ethnicity, gender, class, location, and power.
Credits: 1.00 Corequisite: None Prerequisites: None Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No First-year Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts CORE: Global Engagements
RELG 320 - In the Courts of the Conqueror: Native American Religious Freedom
Explores the role of native peoples in the creation and ongoing development of secular law in the United States and beyond. It begins with an investigation of the use of native peoples as a representation of human savagery within early modern European political thought — a representation that allowed political theorists to depict law as a solution to such savagery. More recently, and more positively, it explores the important role that indigenous peoples have played in the propagation of religious free exercise rights and international human rights law. Focusing particularly on the legal negotiation of native religions in the U.S., this course encourages students to think critically about some of the most basic tenets and mechanisms of modern secular law.
Credits: 1.00 Crosslisted:NAST 320 Corequisite: None Prerequisites: None Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No First-year Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts CORE: None
What does Mahatma Gandhi’s reading of the Bhagavad Gita have to do with shamanic healing practices in the Himalayas or statues of Jesus painted blue in South India? They are some examples of the diverse sets of beliefs, practices, institutions, and communities that constitute religious life in modern India and that students will encounter in this course. Rather than view religion as an unchanging, closed, and monolithic assemblage of texts and concepts, students shall focus on how religious traditions are lived, practiced, and reconfigured by individuals and communities across this region. In so doing, we will explore how religion in India continues to engage, in vital ways, changing historical realities since the decline of the Mughal empire through the advent of British colonialism into the postcolonial present. Students will read historical and ethnographic writings not only about Hinduism but also Buddhism, Jainism, Islam, Sikhism, and Christianity, while becoming familiar with significant theoretical and methodological currents within the broader academic study of religion.
Credits: 1.00 Corequisite: None Prerequisites: None Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No First-year Recommended: Familiarity with the religions of India through courses such as CORE 166, RELG 281,
Over the past two centuries, Islam - like many other religions - has experienced a series of radical challenges and transformations. This course untangles the nature of these changes by focusing on the two most significant streams of modern Islamic thought: Islamism and Islamic modernism. Students explore questions like: how did various Muslims respond to European colonialism? How do Islamist thinkers envision justice, relations with other religious groups, and the role of violence in constructing an Islamic state, and what are the differences among them? How have Muslim modernists in turn worked to fuse Western-style modernity and the Islamic tradition? In order to answer these questions, students read a variety of primary sources from influential Muslim thinkers as well as contemporary scholarship on the Islamist and modernist movements.
Credits: 1.00 Corequisite: None Prerequisites: One course in RELG or MIST Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No First-year Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts CORE: Global Engagements
Why do bad things happen to good people? Why does a benevolent, all-powerful God permit evil? Students explore some of the historical, philosophical, and religious perspectives on the etiology, manifestations, and functions of human suffering and evil within global human communities.
Credits: 1.00 Corequisite: None Prerequisites: None Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No First-year Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts CORE: None
Selected historical perspectives on the connections among religion, violence, and power as a context for contemporary studies of the role of religion in society. Most of the course focuses on liberation theologies, with their emphasis on hope, empowerment, and right relationships. Voices of liberation theologians may be drawn from Latin America, Asia, and Africa, as well as marginalized people in the United States. The latter include womanist, mujerista, Latino/a, Asian-American, African-American, Jewish, homosexual, and feminist groups; most integrate personal experience with theological reflection.
Credits: 1.00 Corequisite: None Prerequisites: None Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No First-year Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts CORE: Global Engagements
Twenty-first century genetic technologies present humanity with unprecedented possibilities for re-engineering human life and experience: genetic tailoring to treat and eradicate diseases, the creation of designer children, cyberconsciousness and unlimited physical prowess, radical life-extension technologies, and the development of virtual human beings. Scientific tinkering with food DNA heightens interest in “Frankenfoods,” while genetic tinkering with animals has raised the spectre of “Frankenbeasts.” The course foregrounds issues in the science of genetics and genethics—the social, ethical, legal, and, in this course, the notably religious implications of modern genomic and technological development - with an assessment of the promise and perils of these achievements for the future of humankind.
Credits: 1.00 Corequisite: None Prerequisites: None Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No First-year Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts CORE: Global Engagements
“Christianity is freedom. Freedom is free enterprise; hence capitalism is Christianity in action.” Following contemporary research, students will explore the relation from the high medieval monasteries to the present, highlighting the 17th and 18th-century Christian and Jewish farmers and traders, 19th-century British industrialists, and the 21st-century consumers, financiers and traders in commodities and various financial instruments (e.g., stocks, bonds, equities, derivatives, and securities, etc.). The course will investigate how worldviews and religious teachings order a lifestyle and a value system that inform and influence a particular economic activity. The course includes: what capitalism is (i.e., its elements and types, and the classical theories of capitalism); investigate the religious views, the cultural and social history that gave rise to capitalism, and the intellectual and economic innovations that turned capitalism into a system. Topics of discussions will include: capitalism and the environment, poverty and the Puritan work ethic, culture and global capitalism, capitalism and moral values, and the relation between contemporary spirituality and capitalism.
Credits: 1.00 Corequisite: None Prerequisites: None Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No First-year Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts CORE: Global Engagements
RELG 338 - Sex, Law, and the American Culture Wars
Explores the American church-state debate through the lens of abortion, contraception, and same-sex marriage. These sexual freedom and reproductive rights issues raise questions that reach to the very heart of the American political project. What is the scope of our right to engage in private behavior? Do longstanding religious and moral traditions have a place within a secular legal system? Are there limits to the Constitution’s guarantee of religious free exercise, and, if so, how do we determine these limits? These issues have generated intense social and political conflict, and are at the center of today’s “culture wars” in the U.S. This course will provide students with a robust background in the legal history of these issues, and will furnish students with a framework for making sense of some of today’s most contentious political battles in the U.S.
Prerequisites: None Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No First-year Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts CORE: None
A course on European and American Jewish thought, covering a spectrum of liberal and traditional figures. The course studies the ways in which Jewish thinkers have responded to the challenges of modern philosophy, religious pluralism, and feminism. Modern reformulations of traditional Jewish ideas and religious practices are discussed as well as contemporary theological exchanges between Jews and Christians. Readings are taken from such figures as Mendelssohn, Buber, Rosenzweig, Heschel, Fackenheim, and Plaskow.
Credits: 1.00 Crosslisted:JWST 339 Corequisite: None Prerequisites: None Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No First-year Recommended: Previous courses in the Jewish tradition and/or philosophy are recommended. Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts CORE: None
Do we live in a secular age? Most of us would assert that we do, but what do we mean when we make this claim? Are we referring to the political separation of church and state, to a decline in religious beliefs and practices, or to something else? These questions have recently come to occupy a central place within the study of religion. This course explores the topic of secularism from a variety of angles, including differing notions of what is meant by the term “secular”; an examination of the historical development of secular ideas and institutions; a comparison of different secular political projects; and a series of important critiques of secularism. This course encourages students to think critically and creatively about the relationship between “the religious” and “the secular,” and it thus enhances students’ understanding of religion, secularism, and modernity more broadly.
Credits: 1.00 Corequisite: None Prerequisites: None Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No First-year Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts CORE: None
What is the relationship between religion and human rights? Do human rights stem from particular religious ideals, and, if so, can such rights be universalized? What happens when human rights conflict with longstanding religious beliefs and practices? This course explores the complex relationship between religion and human rights from a variety of perspectives: theological, philosophical, sociological, and legal-political. Students will examine some of today’s most prominent voices on this topic, and will explore a variety of case studies involving both positive and negative interactions between religion and human rights. This course does not assume any prior knowledge of religion or human rights law.
Credits: 1 Prerequisites: None Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No First-year Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts CORE: Global Engagements
Central to much research in the cognitive science of religion (CSR) is the question of how the human brain and its evolved capacities inform and constrain the transmission of religious beliefs and ritual practices. The cognitive science of religion also seeks to answer why it is that certain beliefs and specific practices appear to outperform and outlive others. More generally, the CSR seeks to explain the persistence and pervasiveness of religious beliefs and practices throughout human history by drawing on the theories and methodologies of a range of disciplines, including cognitive neuroscience, social psychology, behavioral ecology, and several others, as well as disciplines more traditionally associated with the study of religion. Scholars in CSR embrace a variety of methods, including textual analysis, quantification of historical and archaeological data, statistical analysis of ethnographic data, controlled laboratory experiments, and mathematical modeling. This course is a survey of the most influential of the CSR theories and methods in the field.
Credits: 1.00 Corequisite: None Prerequisites: None Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No First-year Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts CORE: None
RELG 352 - Theory and Method in the Study of Religion
Takes a critical look at the history of religious studies in the modern West and proceeds to chart some contemporary developments. Some of the issues that may come under investigation include, but are not restricted to, the quest for a science of religion, the impact of gender and race theory on religious studies, theories of religion and violence, the secularization of academic approaches to religion, and the nature of religion itself. The broad aim is to deepen reflection on the ways in which religion can become an object of study.
Credits: 1.00 Corequisite: None Prerequisites: None Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Sophomore, No First-year Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts CORE: None
Opportunity for individual study in areas not covered by formal course offerings, under the guidance of a member of the faculty.
Credits: variable Corequisite: None Prerequisites: None Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts CORE: None
Presents students with the opportunity to explore their own research interests and expand upon work that they have undertaken in previous religion courses. Students will read a selection of advanced texts related to the broader study of religion, and, in consultation with the faculty member, will undertake collaborative research, writing, and peer-editing of an independent research paper on a topic of their choice.
Credits: 1.00 When Offered: Fall semester only
Prerequisites: None Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No First-year, Sophomore Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts CORE: None
A specialized seminar, offered when there is a critical mass of students interested in a particular subject. In recent years seminars have included Navajo Creation Narratives, Sacrifice, Islamic Jurisprudence, Comparative Scripture, Islamic Mysticism, Religious Conversion, Religious Experience, Religious Dialogue, Faith in a Religiously Plural World, Religion, the Body, and the Senses, The Bhagavad Gita, Philosophy and Faith, Religion and Violence, and Secularism.
Credits: 1.00 When Offered: On an irregular basis
Corequisite: None Prerequisites: None Major/Minor Restrictions: Only Religion, Middle East and Islamic Study Majors and Minors Class Restriction: No First-year, Sophomore Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts CORE: None
Students pursuing honors in religion enroll in this course.
Credits: 1.00 Corequisite: None Prerequisites: None Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts CORE: None
Opportunity for individual study in areas not covered by formal course offerings, under the guidance of a member of the faculty.
Credits: variable Corequisite: None Prerequisites: None Major/Minor Restrictions: Only Religion Majors Class Restriction: No First-year, Sophomore Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts CORE: None
Combines an overview of Russian grammar with an intensive emphasis upon classroom communication and the development of oral skills. In addition to the textbook, students make use of an array of web-based materials ranging from interviews with contemporary Russians, to YouTube videos, to cartoons in order to provide students with a sense for life in Russia today, as well to facilitate rapid acquisition of the language. Students cover the fundamentals of Russian grammar, learn a great deal of vocabulary, and should be able to converse effectively in a variety of everyday situations in Russian.
Credits: 1.00 Corequisite: None Prerequisites: None Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts CORE: None
Combines an overview of Russian grammar with an intensive emphasis upon classroom communication and the development of oral skills. In addition to the textbook, students make use of an array of web-based materials ranging from interviews with contemporary Russians, to YouTube videos, to cartoons in order to provide students with a sense for life in Russia today, as well to facilitate rapid acquisition of the language. Students cover the fundamentals of Russian grammar, learn a great deal of vocabulary, and should be able to converse effectively in a variety of everyday situations in Russian.
Credits: 1.00 Corequisite: None Prerequisites:REST 121 or RUSS 101 Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts CORE: None
Students in this interdisciplinary course consider how contemporary Russian pop culture—from Pussy Riot to Putin memes—engages with state ideology. Coursework is grounded in the post-Soviet era, yet also looks at how Russia’s current pop cultural attitudes to “facts” and ideology relate to the artistic and political practices of the Soviet past. Course materials include films, literature, visual art, performance art, and internet memes, as well as official state sources of mass information, from the Kremlin website to press releases. Finally, students consider the relationship between these developments in Russia and in US political discourse, through conversations surrounding “fake news,” deep fake, and troll farms. All students are welcome: no previous experience with Russian language or culture is expected.
Credits: 1.0 Prerequisites: None Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Senior Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts CORE: None
REST 195 - Elementary-Level Russian Language Abroad
Elementary-level language courses taken abroad with a Colgate study group, an approved program, or in a foreign institution of higher learning.
Credits: 1 Prerequisites: None Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts CORE: None
Complete the presentation of the fundamentals of the language and focus upon further vocabulary acquisition and developing more advanced conversation and writing skills, as well as real-life Russian in context. Students work through digitized segments of a beloved romantic comedy, The Irony of Fate to greater understand cultural commentary and develop transcription skills.
Credits: 1.00 Corequisite: None Prerequisites: None Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts CORE: None
Students gain additional proficiency in the Russia language by developing more grammar skills and gaining increased proficiency in reading and writing. Oral communication is also emphasized.
Credits: 1.00 Corequisite: None Prerequisites:REST 201 or RUSS 201 Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts CORE: Global Engagements
Examines five Russian wars fought between 1800 and the present: the Napoleonic wars, the Crimean War, World Wars One and Two, and the current conflict in Ukraine. Russia’s modern wars have been particularly (although certainly not uniquely) traumatic, with profound impacts on government and citizen alike. The course examines the ways in which the events leading up to war, wartime conditions, and eyewitness accounts were recorded and internalized by citizens and managed by an autocratic state to create collective historical understandings of events. By analyzing the changing ways in which social hierarchy, gender and exclusivity have been structured during and in the aftermath of war, the course offers an important guide to understanding the emergence of ethno-nationalism in one of the world’s largest and longestlasting multi-ethnic Empires.
Credits: 1 Crosslisted: HIST 245 Prerequisites: None Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents Liberal Arts CORE: None
Introduces students to a wide range of science fiction literature and film from the 20th century to the present day, with a strong emphasis on works from Russia, the Soviet Union, and Eastern Europe. This region offers some of the most sophisticated works of science fiction, owing to the radical “otherness” of its philosophical and political traditions and the challenges it offers to dominant Western constructions of self, nature, and society. Focusing on philosophical, ethical, and environmental questions, students will discuss such topics as human-machine interfaces and ethics, life-extension and transhumanism, space travel and colonization, and the prospects and perils of the rationally-planned society. Course readings are in English. No prior experience in Russian studies required.
Credits: 1.00 Corequisite: None Prerequisites: None Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts CORE: Global Engagements
Written by an educated elite, eerily self-conscious because of czarist censorship and political repression, 19th-century Russian literature nevertheless confronts many of the crucial concerns of human existence. It often focuses upon characters who are at an existential breaking point because of ideological, spiritual, sexual, or economic pressures. Students read a combination of short stories and novels, concentrating upon canonical “greats” (Pushkin, Lermontov, Turgenev, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, and Chekhov) but also sampling lesser-known writers, including neglected female authors. By examining literary depictions of such social institutions as warfare, dueling and gambling, courtship and marriage, adultery and spousal abuse, work and leisure, the course emphasizes the relationship between literary text and cultural context. Particular attention is paid to the cultural construction of gender, as well as the relationship between humans and nature. A range of theoretical and critical texts informs discussions, as do film adaptations of certain works. All works are read in translation, but a FLAC section of the course may be offered for advanced Russian language students who are interested in trying to read selections in the original Russian.
Credits: 1.00 Corequisite: None Prerequisites: None Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts CORE: None
This interdisciplinary course examines and re-examines the Russian revolution(s) through a close study of histories, cultural products, historical roots, later interpretations, and re-imaginings. Beginning with the idealists, nihilists, and terrorists determined to bring the Russian monarchy to an end in the 19th century, students explore history, politics, and culture through a range of genres and media–from the 19th-century Russian realist novel, the political manifesto, the avant-garde film, revolutionary poetry, to the works of seminal historians who have shaped how we “read” the Russian revolution today. Is the revolution over, so to speak? Are we ever finished with an historical event of such monumental consequence? Course requirements include readings, film screenings, local Colgate events, and an excursion to New York City’s Museum of Modern Art.
Credits: 1.00 Corequisite: None Prerequisites: None Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts CORE: Global Engagements
Opportunity for individual study in areas not covered by formal course offerings, under the guidance of a member of the faculty.
Credits: variable Corequisite: None Prerequisites: None Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts CORE: None
REST 295 - Intermediate-Level Russian Language Abroad
Intermediate-level language courses taken abroad with a Colgate study group, an approved program, or in a foreign institution of higher learning.
Credits: 1 Prerequisites: None Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts CORE: None
Focuses on developing strong reading and translating skills while also developing students’ command of written and spoken Russian. The course explores some aspects of Russian and Eurasian culture.
Credits: 1.00 Corequisite: None Prerequisites:REST 202 or RUSS 202 Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts CORE: None
Reading, discussion, and writing in Russian. Texts will be from contemporary online sources. Focus is on improving spoken Russian skills. Grammar review will be included as needed for readings.
Credits: 1.00 Corequisite: None Prerequisites:REST 202 or RUSS 202 Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts CORE: None
The Arctic is one of the most rapidly changing regions of the world today, environmentally, culturally, and politically. Rapid biophysical change occurs here today due to climate change, but equally noteworthy are cultural, social, and political transformations experienced by people living and working in the Arctic. People are under increasing pressure to change along with transformation of their biophysical environments, particularly as new actors express interest in the Arctic as space opening up to global transportation, mineral exploration, and trade and ecotourism. Within geography, interest in Arctic phenomena includes grappling with complex issues related to social and biophysical changes in this region, which often originate beyond the region but have specific meaning for the regions. Students investigate three vibrant areas of Arctic transformation: cultural transformation occurring among indigenous and local peoples, biological and physical transformation of the environment, and political transformation within and related to the region.
Corequisite: None Prerequisites: None Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No First-year Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents Liberal Arts CORE: Global Engagements
Addresses human rights in Russia and Eurasia. Begins by comparing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights with the Soviet Union’s conceptualization of citizen rights and builds from there to understand current issues and concerns regarding rights in this world region. Part 1 provides an historical understanding of how human rights were envisioned and practiced in the Soviet era. Part 2 explores how human rights conceptualizations changed when the Soviet Union and Russia engaged openly with the West during perestroika and the 1990s. Parts 3 and 4 investigate the continuing legacy of authoritarianism in this region and what this suggests for individual (Part 3) and societal (Part 4) rights. A mixture of lecture and discussion assumes timely completion of readings and assignments to participate in small- and large-group class discussions throughout the semester. The final project asks students to develop a country profile to examine one human rights concern in one of the fifteen post-Soviet republics. Final student presentations place human rights in Russia and Eurasia in historical, cultural, and spatial contexts to understand how they are linked by shared histories and enduring entangled futures.
Credits: 1.00 Prerequisites: Class Restriction: No First-Year Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents
A study of politics and society in the Russian lands from Kiev to Alexander I. Focuses especially on the rise of the Muscovite state, its cultural diversity, and its preoccupation with trade, treason, and winning wars; the Petrine reforms and Russia’s emergence as a European power; the palace coups; and Catherine II and the Enlightenment.
Corequisite: None Prerequisites: None Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents Liberal Arts CORE: None
Examines life under tyranny – Soviet and Nazi – as distilled through the fiction of Russian/East European and Jewish writers who experienced it firsthand. An intertwining of political and private life from the inception of a new regime, with many people exuberantly hopeful, through the various stages of acquiescence, resistance, escape, and sometimes death. Readings include Timothy Snyder’s essay On Tyranny, stories, novels, and poems by Chekhov, Mayakovsky, Babel, Vasily Grossman, Kundera, and Nabokov.
Credits: 1.00 Crosslisted:JWST 354 Corequisite: None Prerequisites: None Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts CORE: Global Engagements
REST 359 - Power in Russia from Grobachev to Putin
Examines the domestic and international politics of the world’s largest country. Students track the weakness and disorder of the chaotic 1990s under Boris Yeltsin, and the birth of a new system on the ashes of Communism. Students examine the rise of Russian power and prestige under Vladimir Putin and his centralizing innovations to strengthen political and economic institutions. The course also considers dissent and protest movements, the national conflicts with internal minorities, as in Chechnya, and projection of power over the post-Soviet “Near Abroad” and the construction of a corporatist-style system that presents new challenges to the global dominance of ideas about democracy and capitalism.
Credits: 1.00 Crosslisted:POSC 359 Corequisite: None Prerequisites: None Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents Liberal Arts CORE: None
Opportunity for individual study in areas not covered by formal course offerings, under the guidance of a member of the faculty.
Credits: variable Corequisite: None Prerequisites: None Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts CORE: None
Advanced-level language courses taken abroad with a Colgate study group, an approved program, or in a foreign institution of higher learning.
Credits: 1 Prerequisites: None Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts CORE: None
In this seminar students explore the theoretical, methodological, and linguistic challenges that underlie serious research in Russian and Eurasian studies. In addition to common readings and assignments, each student pursues an individual research topic, updating other seminar participants periodically via presentations and selected readings. By semester’s end each student has produced a substantial research paper that utilizes Russian primary sources appropriately. Students who wish to pursue a thesis topic in the spring will be required to obtain permission from the faculty supervisor and the department to enroll in an independent study in the spring semester following the senior seminar.
Credits: 1.00 Corequisite: None Prerequisites: None Major/Minor Restrictions: Only Russian, Russian & Eurasian Studies Majors and Minors Class Restriction: Only Senior Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts CORE: None
Students pursuing honors in Russian and Eurasian Studies enroll in this course.
Credits: 1.00 Corequisite: None Prerequisites: None Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts CORE: None
Opportunity for individual study in areas not covered by formal course offerings, under the guidance of a member of the faculty.
Credits: variable Corequisite: None Prerequisites: None Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts CORE: None
Centered on service learning, where students prepare tax returns for low-income households in Madison and Chenango counties. Includes approximately 10 hours of class meetings and 15-20 hours of community service in the two-county area during the semester. Students work directly with various non-profit organizations. After successful completion of this course, students may participate again but can only receive credit twice.
Credits: 0.25 Corequisite: None Prerequisites: None Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts CORE: None
Opportunity for individual study in areas not covered by formal course offerings, under the guidance of a member of the faculty.
Credits: variable Corequisite: None Prerequisites: None Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents Liberal Arts CORE: None
Opportunity for individual study in areas not covered by formal course offerings, under the guidance of a member of the faculty.
Credits: variable Corequisite: None Prerequisites: None Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents Liberal Arts CORE: None
SOSC 405 - Upstate Law Project: Poverty, Law, and Public Policy
With an emphasis on the Social Security system, discusses the barriers that low-income and disabled families face in accessing social services and medical care, and introduces students to the following legal topics: legal analysis, legal ethics, Social Security disability law, and legal writing. In addition to writing a 20-page policy paper, students engage in a practicum experience, which involves assisting the instructor, an attorney, with pro bono work helping low-income children (many of whom suffer from psychiatric illnesses) in securing benefits through the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program of the US Social Security Administration. The course practicum takes place at the Utica office of The Legal Aid Society of Mid-New York.
Credits: 1.00 Corequisite: None Prerequisites: None Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Restrictions: Only students who have completed their Social Relations, Institutions, and Agents area of inquiry requirement can apply. Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents Liberal Arts CORE: None
Opportunity for individual study in areas not covered by formal course offerings, under the guidance of a member of the faculty.
Credits: variable Corequisite: None Prerequisites: None Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents Liberal Arts CORE: None
An introduction to sociology, with special emphasis on American society, using a historical and comparative focus. Introduces students to some of the basic concepts and methods used by sociologists. Students consider a selection of topics: racial inequality, class reproduction, gender roles, work and society, social movements, bureaucracy, and crime and deviance.
Credits: 1.00 Corequisite: None Prerequisites: None Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents Liberal Arts CORE: None Formerly: SOAN 101
Examines some of the chief methodological and theoretical approaches used in the social sciences, primarily focusing on Marx, Durkheim, and Weber. In addition to original texts, works of anthropology and sociology are used to integrate the classics with a contemporary focus.
Credits: 1.00 Corequisite: None Prerequisites:SOCI 101 (with a grade of C or better) Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No First-year Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents Liberal Arts CORE: None Formerly: SOAN 204
Familiarize students with theoretical and historical perspectives of racial inequality and other ethnic and minority group relationships. The course primarily examines the relationship between racism and the socio-economic and political development of the United States. Course readings, lectures, and discussions are intended to aid students in gaining a clear understanding of the role race and ethnicity have played in shaping contemporary US society as well as the larger social world we live in and to therefore contribute to each student’s self-understanding and to a better understanding of others whose racial-cultural backgrounds are different.
Credits: 1.00 Corequisite: None Prerequisites: None Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents Liberal Arts CORE: None Formerly: SOAN 212
Critically investigates how power, privilege, and oppression influence the coming of age experiences of young people from diverse backgrounds. Using sociological theories and intergroup dialogue (IGD) techniques, students grapple with the causes and consequences of inequality in early life. IGD blends theory and experiential learning to promote understanding, communication, and alliance building across differences. Culminates with a portfolio assignment that asks students to develop and co-facilitate an IGD workshop with community members.
Credits: 1.00 Corequisite: None Prerequisites: None Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No First-year Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents Liberal Arts CORE: None
An examination of the impact of modern global warfare on societies across the world, seeking to understand how modern wars led to unprecedentedly brutal and technologically advanced forms of mass killing, but also have paradoxically accelerated innovation and weakened social inequality. The course gives attention to cultural representations of warfare and how culture has shaped views of warfare. This approach is one of historical sociology, with major foci on the World Wars and colonial and post-colonial wars.
Credits: 1.00 Corequisite: None Prerequisites: None Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Senior Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents Liberal Arts CORE: None Formerly: SOAN 216
This interdisciplinary course explores gender and sexuality as primary markers of social inequality in our society and among the most salient organizing agents of our everyday lives. Course readings span several disciplines, including literature, history, philosophy, sociology, and psychology. Students analyze gender and sexuality using comparative historical and sociological perspectives. Subthemes of the course include culture, socialization, body and performance, intersectionality, essentialism, privilege, resistance, and social change.
Credits: 1.00 Corequisite: None Prerequisites: None Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Senior Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents Liberal Arts CORE: None Formerly: SOAN 220
Introduction to concepts, theories, and issues related to mass media and society. Over the last 200 years tremendous changes have revolutionized the nature of mass communication in modern societies. Designed to provide a basic understanding of the nature of mass media and its social significance. It addresses the impact of different types of communication from information exchange, to news, to entertainment, to advertising. Students are introduced to a wide range of media including print, telegraphy, film, recorded sound, radio, television, and digital. This course is about analyzing how media texts are produced; why some messages enter mass media channels and others do not; how these messages affect audiences and how audiences receive them; and the general impact of mass media on contemporary society, culture, and politics.
Credits: 1.00 Corequisite: None Prerequisites: None Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents Liberal Arts CORE: None Formerly: SOAN 222
An introduction to international migration, with a focus on post-World War II migration. Geographically, students focus on immigration to the United States from Latin America, where the bulk of post-1965 immigrants come from. Begins by introducing students to basic concepts and approaches related to migration studies. Students further examine different stages in the migration process, including the processes of migration, the adaption/incorporation of immigrants in U.S. society, and the future “assimilation” of their children.
Credits: 1.00 Corequisite: None Prerequisites: None Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents Liberal Arts CORE: None Formerly: SOAN 228
SOCI 240 - Fascism and Right-Wing Extremism: A Historical Sociology
The rise of right-wing extremist movements and of their influence within ‘mainstream’ political parties and governments has been a major feature of world politics in recent years. This course deals with these trends in a number of major countries (including the US, UK, Germany and India), examining the various sociological approaches that attempt to explain these movements through analyses of economic change, cultural change, and racial/ethnic ideologies. Centrally, students are asked whether or not there are parallels or continuities between these movements and the historical Fascism of the 1919-1945 period. Students will consider the major theoretical approaches to the study of Fascism and Populism in the sociological literature and survey some key examples of historical Fascist regimes and movements. Students will also study movements, both in the present and the past, which have attempted to oppose right wing extremism, asking whether they comprise a coherent political tradition.
Credits: 1 Prerequisites: None Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Junior, Senior Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents Liberal Arts CORE: None
The words “nature” and “the environment” conjure up visions of wild animals and open landscapes, but are people part of nature, too? This course shows how nature and human culture are intertwined, both in terms of how we shape our environment as well as how it shapes us. Through a series of case studies, students explore this relationship, focusing especially on the way that nature and culture are “political”: inequalities, social problems and movements, and power relations all flow from the way that we interact with our environment. The course takes a global, comparative, and historical view of this process, and includes the following special topics: the rise of environmental awareness and environmental social movements; globalization and environmental values; consumption and the environment; environmental inequalities and justice; risk, technology, and environmental politics; and public policy and the environment.
Corequisite: None Prerequisites: None Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents Liberal Arts CORE: None Formerly: SOAN 245
SOCI 250 - Sociological Research Design and Methods
Introduces students to both the dominant areas of inquiry in sociology and the methods that have been devised to investigate them. Emphasis in this course is on investigation. Familiarizes students with the methods, techniques, and language of social science research. Focusing on field and survey research, students examine the ways social scientists formulate questions, collect and analyze data, and present their findings. Also concerned with the epistemological underpinnings of “doing sociology.” How do sociologists define “fact” and “truth”? What are the historical and contemporary debates over these concepts? To provide students with a hands-on understanding of concepts and issues, students are expected to collect and analyze original data. Students also do computer statistical analysis of pre-existing databases.
Credits: 1.00 Corequisite: None Prerequisites:SOCI 101 or SOAN 101 Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No First-year, Senior Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents Liberal Arts CORE: None Formerly: SOAN 210
Mass media is a key set of institutions in modernity that shape our perceptions of the world, with important impacts on what we take to be reality. The media “frames” that structure how media is produced, conveyed, and consumed form the discourses that we use to understand mass politics and culture in our daily lives. This course provides students with the methodological tools to empirically study media frames through content analysis. Content analysis takes the stuff of media, such as music lyrics, news stories, or advertisements, and systematically analyzes the content for the explicit and implicit frames that represent the issues and perspectives conveyed through media. The course provides students hands-on training in content analysis through a series of workshops on content sampling, collection, coding, and analysis that culminate in a final research project. This course meets for the first 7 weeks of the term and may be used to satisfy the 0.50-credit methods requirement for the sociology major.
Corequisite: None Prerequisites: None Major/Minor Restrictions: Only Geography, Sociology, Environmental Geography Majors and Minors Class Restriction: None Recommended:SOCI 250 (formerly SOAN 210) Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts CORE: None
Introduces students to the principles of community-based participatory research within the context of sociology to critically examine the role of power and positionality in the construction of knowledge and difference. Students learn a range of community-based participatory research approaches and reflect on how to form collaborative relationships that incorporate community perspectives and interests in the research process. Students devote time outside of class to work in partnership with local community organizations to carry out a high quality research project that meets a community need. Research projects are identified in collaboration with the Upstate Institute based on community needs and student capacity.
Credits: 1.00 Corequisite: None Prerequisites:SOCI 250 Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents Liberal Arts CORE: None
Opportunity for individual study in areas not covered by formal course offerings, under the guidance of a member of the faculty.
Credits: variable Corequisite: None Prerequisites: None Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents Liberal Arts CORE: None
An introduction to current theory and research on the role of education in contemporary US society, focusing specifically on higher education. Students will learn how to use a sociological lens to critically examine education as a social institution. This is a research-intensive course that requires students to conduct original empirical research related to inequality in higher education. (RI)
Credits: 1.00 Corequisite: None Prerequisites:SOCI 250 or SOAN 210 Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No First-year Recommended: Prior completion of at least one research methods course. Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents Liberal Arts CORE: None Formerly: SOAN 303
Offers an introduction to the theory and research on the sociology of disasters, with a focus on cases from Latin America and the Caribbean. Students learn how to use a sociological perspective to examine disasters as socially constructed phenomenon. Students interrogate the “naturalness” of disasters by focusing on questions of vulnerability, disaster preparedness, government response and recovery, as well as questions of coloniality and power.
Urban structures and problems are examined with an emphasis on the ways in which cities are embedded in a broader social and cultural milieu. The traditional concern of the impact of urban development on behavior is juxtaposed to an analysis of current fiscal problems and the potential for cities to grow, stagnate, or collapse.
Credits: 1.00 Corequisite: None Prerequisites: (SOCI 201 or SOAN 204) or (SOCI 250 or SOAN 210) Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No First-year Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents Liberal Arts CORE: None
The family is a personal, social, and political institution. Students critically consider how a range of historical, cultural, economic, legal and social factors shape our notions of family. Students examine recent family demographic trends and changes in gender roles and ideologies, and in doing so, investigate how and why family forms and decisions are differentiated by social class, race-ethnicity, gender, and sexuality. In addition, students examine the implications of different family formation trends for individual and child-well-being. Finally, students draw on sociological research and perspectives to evaluate how social policies impact families, including same-sex families, poverty and welfare, work-family balance, marriage promotion and father involvement, and sex education and contraception.
Credits: 1.00 Corequisite: None Prerequisites: (SOCI 201 or SOAN 204) or (SOCI 250 or SOAN 210) Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No First-year Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents Liberal Arts CORE: None
Bodies are raced, classed, and gendered, and unequally valued depending on social context and social system. Bodies are regulated and disciplined, through invisible coercion as well as brute force. Yet bodies also resist. Students examine the different social meanings and values human bodies accrue as well as the multiple possibilities of agency and transformation.
Credits: 1 Prerequisites: SOCI 201 or SOCI 250 None Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No First-year Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents Liberal Arts CORE: None