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Catalogue 2021-2022 [ARCHIVED CATALOG]
Course Descriptions
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Political Science: III. Advanced D. International Politics Seminars |
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POLI 360 - The Ethics of War and Peace
1 unit(s)
This course considers the moral rights and obligations of states, political and military leaders, soldiers, and ordinary citizens with respect to war and peace. Taking just war theory as our point of departure, we concentrate on three major questions: (1) When, if ever, is the use of military force permissible? (2) How may military force be used? (3) Who is responsible for ensuring that force is used only at a permissible time and in a permissible manner? Students are encouraged to develop positions on these matters and to apply them to recent and contemporary cases involving the use or potential use of force. Stephen Rock.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor.
One 2-hour period.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: CLS
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POLI 362 - Seminar in International Politics: Migration and Citizenship Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
This seminar addresses the causes and consequences of movement from countries such as Jamaica, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Algeria, Morocco, Syria, Afghanistan, China and Mexico to post-industrial countries in Europe, and the United States.
The seminar first considers different reasons for why people move across state borders, such as the role of economic forces, the legacies of colonialism, and escape from violence. The seminar then engages in a comparative analysis of the politics of ‘difference’ in post-industrial countries such as Britain, France, Germany, and the U.S.; and asks why these politics have played out quite differently in each country. Comparisons include migrants, minorities and the politics of ‘difference’ in countries of the former Soviet Union. So as to compare the politics of ‘difference,’ readings consider government policies to, societal views on, and experiences of migrants, minorities, & refugees. Readings address specific subjects including education policy in regard to the (grand) children of migrants; policies towards religious minorities; diverse views on the implications of multiculturalism and assimilation for gender inequity; perceptions on the economic consequences of immigration for other workers; and the sources and impact of anti-immigrant and anti-refugee political movements historically and contemporarily. Leah Haus.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor.
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: CLS
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POLI 363 - Decolonizing International Relations
1 unit(s)
(Same as ASIA 363 ) Colonial frameworks are deeply constitutive of mainstream international relations. Issues of global security, economy, and politics continue to be analyzed through perspectives that either silence or are impervious to the voices and agencies of global majorities. This seminar challenges students to enter into, reconstruct, and critically evaluate the differently imagined worlds of ordinary, subaltern peoples and political groups. We draw upon postcolonial theories to explore alternatives to the historically dominant explanations of international relations. Himadeep Muppidi.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor.
One 2-hour period.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: CLS
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POLI 366 - Worlding International Relations Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
This seminar is a writing intensive course where we explore how prominent thinkers/scholars of international relations have engaged the task of writing alternative worlds into the field of politics. Though located in the periphery, how have various thinkers imagined, articulated and taken up the challenge of crossing multiple colonial borders? While we read various authors, our focus is primarily on the act and practice of writing itself. We closely consider how those we read write, and we write and study each other’s works in order to collectively think through, critique and help ourselves imagine and write into existence variously silenced aspects of international relations. Himadeep Muppidi.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor.
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: CLS
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POLI 367 - Strategic Thinking in Global Affairs Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as HIST 367 ) This seminar explores strategic thinking to attain large ends with limited means. We examine a historical set of instances in which individuals, groups, and/or nations have attempted to harness political, military, diplomatic, economic, environmental, legal, and scientific resources to advance national and global interests. Because strategic thinking requires the art of reconciling ends and means, we also examine how a range of people and groups with various levels of power balance what they think and want with the constraints that they face. Elizabeth Bradley and Robert Brigham.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor.
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: CLS
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POLI 395 - Thinking Africa: Conversations on the Thought of Achille Mbembe
1 unit(s)
(Same as AFRS 395 and FFS 395 ) The Intensive examines a select number of texts by Achille Mbembe, the Cameroonian postcolonial theorist and author of De La Postcolonie: Essai sur l’Imagination Politique dans L’Afrique Contemporaine (2000) [On The Postcolony (2001)], “Necropolitics” (2003), Sortir de la Grande Nuit (2010), Critique de la Raison Nègre (2013) [Critique of Black Reason (2016)]. Charting Mbembe’s intellectual history, the major debates and concepts he engages, and their implication for thinking with and about Africa, we discuss the complexity of an African thinker reflecting on the condition of a continent (and humanity at large).
A goal of this Intensive is to develop a greater critical fluency on what it means to think, read and write the world from Africa. With insights from Mbembe’s corpus and the work of his interlocutors, the Intensive explores the stakes of Mbembe’s thought and relates them to other lines of inquiry, reflection, and creativity. Working individually and collaboratively, the students undertake a large writing, translation, or creative project which engages an element of Mbembe’s work and relates it to an area of their intellectual interest.
This intensive is organized as a peer-to-peer, inter-disciplinary conversation hinging on three main activities: 1. Textual exegesis, translation (from French to English) of interviews, podcasts, and conference presentations, and critique. 2. Participation in two student-organized workshops with Mbembe’s interlocutors from different disciplines, e.g., Souleymane Bachir Diagne (Philosophy/French, Columbia University) and Abdourahman Waberi (Literature and Creative Writing, George Washington University). 3. Ongoing conversation and guided independent studies with the two professors teaching the intensive as they edit a volume on the themes of this intensive.
Working in English and French, this team-taught intensive allows students to collaboratively explore Mbembe’s ideas in ways that might not be possible in a traditional senior seminar. Our discussions will take place in English, with the French and Francophone Studies students reading some of the texts and writing their assignments in French for FFS credit. Patricia-Pia Célérier and Samson Opondo.
One 2-hour period.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: INT
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Political Science: III. Advanced E. Political Theory Seminars |
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POLI 371 - Gender, Science and Politics
1 unit(s)
(Same as STS 371 and WMST 371 ) In a context that some have described as “post-truth,” and in which “marching for Science” has become a form of resistance to power, there are high stakes behind science literacy. When the climate sciences are helping us understand our ecological condition, yet climatology and the new discourse of “Anthropocene” also has begun legitimizing fantasies of geoengineering the Earth, what would a feminist climatology look like? In today’s digital age, when boundaries between real/unreal, physical/virtual, human/natural, female/male seem to collapse all around us, should we, more-than-women and more-than-men espouse our new cyborg selves, or cling to an image of women-as-goddesses oh-so-close to nature, and to images of men as taming, mastering, dominating nature? What are some alternatives beyond these possibilities? This course critically engages the sciences from a feminist theoretical perspective. We examine the ”situated” nature of scientific knowledge, against the positivist grain of scientific claims to Truth and objectivity. We also examine how feminist theorists have drawn from some dissensual and innovative scientific theories of late, to inspire provocative arguments about the environment, ontology, and normativity. Claire Sagan.
One 2-hour period.
Not offered in 2021/22.
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POLI 372 - New Materialism
1 unit(s)
This seminar is a non-exhaustive survey of a recent and prolific current in theory called “new materialism” and “the nonhuman turn.” Consisting mostly of feminist theorists, new materialists argue for the need to build upon, radicalize, and sometimes even break from the previous post-structuralist focus on discourse (the so-called “linguistic turn”). They argue that it is time to re-emphasize materiality, bodies, biology, evolution, ecologies, the nonhuman, the more-than-human, even the specter of the posthuman. This attempt is partly inspired by the rise of digital and surveillance capitalism resulting in the omnipresence of technology in our daily lives and in the production of “cyborg” (Donna Haraway) subjectivities or “dividuals” (Gilles Deleuze). New materialism has also emerged in response to the “intrusion of Gaia” (Isabelle Stengers) or what some have called the “Anthropocene,” or the “ecological crisis” (arguably more aptly described as “eco-catastrophe”). Claire Sagan.
One 2-hour period.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: CLS
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POLI 376 - Ecological Catastrophe and Nietzsche’s Eternal Return Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as ENST 376 and STS 376 ) This course explores several sorts of texts together, for thought experiments pertaining to our times of ecological catastrophe. We critically engage: 1) theories concerned with ecological collapse, extinction, catastrophism, and the oft-cited and ill-named Anthropocene 2) literature on Nietzsche within environmental political thought 3) literature on Nietzsche and gender 4) selected primary texts by Nietzsche. Examining the latter in close readings and in the context of our compromised ecological futures, we ask ourselves to what extent the Nietzschean concepts of “eternal return” and “will to power” may help us think in these troubled times: what would a feminist Nietzschean ecology look like? Claire Sagan.
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: CLS
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POLI 377 - Everyday Indigenous Sovereignty Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
Sovereignty is a weighty concept, and it has dominated scholarship in Native American and Indigenous history, politics and even literature. Sovereignty brings to mind images of grandeur: Indigenous leaders making speeches on the political stage or academics theorizing in offices. But what if Indigenous sovereignty is also a grandparent and grandchild going for a walk in the bush? In this seminar, we interrogate theories of Indigenous sovereignty by putting them into conversation with the everyday: ordinary behavior, small things and the quotidian elements of Native American and Indigenous life. Grounded by core texts written by Indigenous political thinkers, we consider how a turn to the everyday can actually be radical. Mallory Whiteduck.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor.
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: CLS
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POLI 379 - Reading Black Reconstruction
1 unit(s)
(Same as AFRS 379 ) W.E.B. Du Bois’ Black Reconstruction can be understood as a sort of Rosetta Stone of US history. By taking enslaved people seriously as political subjects, Du Bois permits us to understand how it was slaves themselves who determined both the meaning and the outcome of the Civil War, but who also sought to build an ambitious vision of “abolition-democracy” from the ashes of the slave order. All history is not past, however, and Black Reconstruction has become an increasingly necessary foundation for grappling with the persistent tangle of race and class in the US today. This seminar works through the essential contours of Du Bois’ mammoth text—the stretching of Marxist categories like class and general strike, the autonomous transformative capacity of slaves in struggle, and the ultimate betrayal of Reconstruction. But we also emphasize underdiscussed elements of the text, Du Bois’ analysis of a burgeoning imperialism and his own blind spots to gender and indigenous struggles. This seminar takes place in conjunction with a symposium of the same name, featuring the participation of some of the most important intellectual voices of our time, and an edited volume to be published by Duke University Press.
One 2-hour period.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: CLS
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POLI 384 - Seminar in Political Theory Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
An examination of selected theorists and problems in contemporary political theory. Andrew Davison.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor.
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: CLS
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Political Science: III. Advanced F. Other |
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POLI 399 - Senior Independent Work Semester Offered: Fall or Spring
0.5 to 1 unit(s)
Independent work is normally based on a student’s desire to study with an instructor a specialized aspect of a course taken with that instructor. Normally 1 unit entails substantial directed reading, the writing of a long paper, and biweekly conferences with the instructor. This course cannot be used to satisfy the requirement of 2 units of 300-level work in the major. In no case shall independent work satisfy the subfield distribution requirement. The department.
Special permission.
Course Format: OTH
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Portuguese: I. Introductory |
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PORT 105 - Beginning Portuguese I Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
Special Permission.
Year long course 105-PORT 106 .
Course Format: OTH
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PORT 106 - Beginning Portuguese II Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
Special Permission.
Year long course PORT 105 -106.
Course Format: OTH
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Portuguese: II. Intermediate |
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PORT 210 - Intermed Portuguese I Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
Special Permission.
Year long course 210-PORT 211 .
Course Format: OTH
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PORT 211 - Intermed Portuguese II Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
Special Permission.
Year long course PORT 210 -211.
Course Format: OTH
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Portuguese: III. Advanced |
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PORT 310 - Advanced Portuguese I Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
Special permission.
Course Format: OTH
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PORT 311 - Advanced Portuguese II Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
Special permission.
Course Format: OTH
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Psychological Science: I. Introductory |
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PSYC 108 - Reading and Writing in Psychological Science Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
1 unit(s)
This first-year writing seminar is designed to develop critical reading skills across a range of work in Psychological Science and to practice different kinds of writing. Open only to first year students, this course satisfies the college requirement for a First-Year Writing Seminar. The specific topics of these first-year writing seminars in Psychological Science vary, and despite its variety of topics, this course may not be repeated for credit.
Topic for 2021/22a: The Art and Science of Human Resilience. This first-year writing seminar considers artistic expressions of human resilience in poetry, song, first-person narratives, fiction, and non-fiction. We consider these works together with psychological science research that focuses on some of the same themes of resilience. These themes may include resilient responses to adversity, recovery from illness or impairment, post-traumatic growth, successful aging, as well as the nurturance of resilience through green spaces, mindfulness practices, interpersonal and community relationships, artistic productivity, and social activism. Sue Trumbetta.
Topic for 2021/22b: Growing Up Poor in America. Poverty can have profound effects on the psychological development of children. In this course, we explore scientific and anecdotal accounts of those effects. Specific topics we explore include stress, relationships, racism and resilience. Readings include articles on the science of child development, including brain development, as well as memoirs and accounts of children’s experiences. Writing focuses on reporting scientific findings, and on relating that science to everyday life. Nick de Leeuw.
Open only to first-year students; satisfies the college requirement for a First-Year Writing Seminar.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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Psychological Science: II. Intermediate |
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PSYC 200 - Statistics and Experimental Design Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
1 unit(s)
An overview of principles of statistical analysis and research design applicable to psychology and related fields. Topics include descriptive statistics and inferential statistics, concepts of reliability and validity, and basic concepts of sampling and probability theory. Students learn when and how to apply such statistical procedures as chi-square, z-tests, t-tests, Pearson product-moment correlations, regression analysis, and analysis of variance. The goal of the course is to develop a basic understanding of research design, data collection and analysis, interpretation of results, and the appropriate use of statistical software for performing complex analyses. The Department.
Prerequisite(s): PSYC 105 or its equivalent, COGS 100 or NEUR 105 .
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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PSYC 201 - Principles of Social Psychology Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
1 unit(s)
The study of the individual under social influences, including such topics as attitude formation and change, prosocial behavior, aggression, social influence processes, group dynamics, attribution theory, and interpersonal communication processes. Peter Kearns, Dara Greenwood
Prerequisite(s): PSYC 105 .
Course Format: CLS
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PSYC 204 - Social Psychological Approaches to Mass Media: Understanding Content, Motivation, and Impact Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as MEDS 204 ) This course is designed to introduce students to the interdisciplinary field of “media psychology,” which applies social scientific theory and methodology to the study media use, content, and impact. We first review theoretical contributions from both Communication Studies and Social Psychology before moving into a range of “hot topics” in the field (e.g., violent media, persuasion and advertising, news, politics, representations of social groups, social media). Along the way, we consider: psychological processes relevant to media use and impact, individual differences that motivate selective exposure and reception, the positive and negative effect that media may have on our attitudes and behaviors, and the complexities of developing and executing media effects research. Dara Greenwood.
Prerequisite(s): PSYC 105 is required. MEDS 160 is recommended but not required.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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PSYC 221 - Learning and Behavior Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
A survey of major principles that determine the acquisition and modification of behavior. Topics include the relation of learning and evolution, habituation and sensitization, classical and operant conditioning, reinforcement and punishment, stimulus control, choice behavior, animal cognition, concept formation, perceptual learning, language, reasoning, and self-control. Kevin Holloway.
Prerequisite(s): PSYC 105 .
Course Format: CLS
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PSYC 222 - Psychological Perspectives on the Holocaust Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as JWST 222 ) The Holocaust has spawned several now classic programs of psychological research. This course considers topics such as: anti-Semitism and stereotypes of Jews; the authoritarian and altruistic personalities; conformity, obedience, and dissent; humanistic and existential psychology; and individual differences in stress, coping and resiliency. The broader implications of Holocaust-inspired research is explored in terms of traditional debates within psychology such as those on the role of the individual versus the situation in producing behavior and the essence of human nature. The ethical and logical constraints involved in translating human experiences and historical events into measurable/quantifiable scientific terms are also considered. Debra Zeifman.
Prerequisite(s): PSYC 105 .
Course Format: CLS
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PSYC 223 - Evolutionary Psychology Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
The study of evolutionary theory, with attention to how it informs the developmental, ecological, genetic, and physiological explanations of behavior. Ben Basile.
Prerequisite(s): PSYC 105 .
Course Format: CLS
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PSYC 231 - Principles of Development Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
The study of principles and processes in developmental psychology, surveying changes in physical, cognitive, and social-emotional development during the life span. Major theoretical orientations to the growing person are illustrated by empirical material and supplemented by periodic observations of children in natural settings. Carolyn Palmer.
Prerequisite(s): PSYC 105 .
Course Format: CLS
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PSYC 233 - Health Psychology Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
Health Psychology is the scientific study that applies psychological theory and empirical research to examine the promotion and maintenance of health and the prevention and treatment of illness. Students taking this course will gain a firm foundation in health psychology, and learn about the various scientific approaches to understanding the mind/body connection. This course takes a biopsychosocial approach and considers research and theory related to health promotion, illness prevention, and behavior change. Students learn about psychophysiological processes relevant to health psychology (e.g., immunology) and examine health processes in diverse populations with regard to age, ethnicity, socioeconomic backgrounds and health status. Topics may include health enhancing and health damaging behaviors, pain management, stress and coping. Emphasis is placed on critically evaluating primary sources, drawing from empirical studies in psychology, public health, and behavioral medicine. Michele Tugade.
Prerequisite(s): PSYC 105 .
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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PSYC 241 - Principles of Physiological Psychology Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as NEUR 241 ) The role of physiological systems, especially the brain, in the regulation of behavior. In addition to basic topics in neuroscience (neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, neurochemistry and pharmacology), topics may include: sensory mechanisms, motivational systems (e.g., sleep, eating, reproductive behaviors), emotion, learning and memory, language, stress and psychopathology. Hadley Bergstrom, Ben Basile.
Prerequisite(s): PSYC 105 or its equivalent, or NEUR 105 .
Course Format: CLS
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PSYC 243 - Topics in Physiological Psychology Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
The study of the functions of particular brain structures and their relation to behavior and mental activity. In addition to basic topics in neuroscience the course focuses on such topics as: perception, attention, memory, language, emotion, control of action, and consciousness. Neural alterations related to learning disabilities, neurological and psychiatric disorders may be examined as well. Abigail Baird.
Prerequisite(s): PSYC 105 .
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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PSYC 253 - Individual Differences and Personality
1 unit(s)
An introduction to contemporary approaches to understanding personality. The focus of the course is on evaluating recent theories and research that attempt to uncover the underlying dimensions that distinguish one person from another. Emphasis is placed on understanding behavior in interactions with others; the development of personality over time; and people’s intuitive theories about personality, including their own. Allan Clifton.
Prerequisite(s): PSYC 105 .
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: CLS
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PSYC 254 - Emotional Engagement with Film
1 unit(s)
(Same as FILM 254 and MEDS 254 ) While movies engage our emotions in psychologically significant ways, scholarship on the psychological allure and impact of film has existed primarily at the interdisciplinary margins. This course aims to bring such scholarship into the foreground. We begin with a careful examination of the appeal and power of narrative, as well as processes of identification and imagined intimacy with characters, before taking a closer analytical look at specific film genres (e.g., melodrama, horror, comedy, action, social commentary) both in their own right and in terms of their psychological significance (e.g., why do we enjoy sad movies? How do violent movies influence viewer aggression? How might socially conscious films inspire activism or altruism?) In addition to delving into theoretical and empirical papers, a secondary goal of the course is to engage students as collaborators; brainstorm and propose innovative experimental methods for testing research questions and hypotheses that emerge in step with course materials. Dara Greenwood, Sarah Kozloff.
Prerequisite(s): For Psychology majors - PSYC 105 ; for Film majors - FILM 175 or FILM 209 ; for Media Studies majors - MEDS 160 .
Two 75-minute periods plus outside screenings.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: CLS
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PSYC 262 - Principles of Clinical Psychology and Psychopathology Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
1 unit(s)
A survey of research and theory concerning the nature, origins, and treatment of major psychological disorders. The course considers behavioral, biological, cognitive and psychodynamic approaches to understanding psychopathology. Topics may include schizophrenia, mood disorders, anxiety disorders, childhood disorders, and personality disorders. Sue Trumbetta, Abigail Baird.
Prerequisite(s): PSYC 105 .
Course Format: CLS
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PSYC 269 - Research Methods in Clinical Psychology and Psychopathology Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
The study of research methods in psychopathology and clinical psychology. Every stage of research is considered: the generation of hypotheses, operationalization of variables, data collection, analysis and evaluation, and presentation of results. The focus is on the development of skills particular to research with clinical populations including ethical considerations, structured clinical interviews, behavioral observations, reliable and valid assessment, and measurement of change over time. Jannay Morrow.
Prerequisite(s): PSYC 200 and PSYC 262 .
Two 2-hour periods.
Course Format: CLS
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PSYC 290 - Community-Engaged Learning Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
0.5 to 2 unit(s)
Individuals or group field projects or internships, with prior approval of the adviser and the instructor who supervises the work. May be elected during the college year or during the summer. The Department.
Course Format: INT
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PSYC 298 - Independent Work Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
0.5 to 1 unit(s)
Individual or group studies with prior approval of the adviser and of the instructor who supervises the work. May be elected during the college year. The Department.
Course Format: INT
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Psychological Science: III. Advanced Satisfactory completion of a research methods course (PSYC 209 , PSYC 229 , PSYC 239 , PSYC 249 , PSYC 259 , PSYC 269 ) is a prerequisite for these courses. Seminar seats are assigned according to a department lottery system. Please contact department office for lottery information. Non-majors and juniors should consult the instructor.
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PSYC 301 - Seminar in Social Psychology Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
An intensive study of selected topics in social psychology. Emphasis is placed on current theories, issues, and research areas. Dara Greenwood.
Prerequisite(s): PSYC 201 , a research methods course in Psychological Science, and permission of the instructor.
Course Format: CLS
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PSYC 321 - Seminar in Animal Learning and Behavior Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
An in-depth analysis of selected mechanisms of learning and behavior. Topics can vary from year to year, but may include animal cognition, language and communication, behavioral ecology, and recent advances in the theory and neurophysiology of learning and behavior. Hadley Bergstrom.
Prerequisite(s): PSYC 221 or PSYC 223 , a research methods course in Psychological Science, and permission of the instructor.
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: CLS
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PSYC 323 - Seminar in Evolutionary Psychology Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
Applications of comparative psychology to a specific topic. Topics can vary from year to year, and have in the past included altruism, sex differences, aggression, language, etc. The focus is how theory and data from other species inform questions about human functioning. Ben Basile.
Prerequisite(s): PSYC 221 or PSYC 223 or BIOL 340 , a research methods course in Psychological Science, and permission of the instructor.
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: CLS
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PSYC 331 - Seminar in Developmental Psychology Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
1 unit(s)
Seminar in current issues, research, and theory in developmental psychology. Topics vary and may include laboratory work. Carolyn Palmer, Debra Zeifman.
Prerequisite(s): PSYC 231 , a research methods course in Psychological Science, and permission of the instructor.
Course Format: CLS
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PSYC 336 - Childhood Development: Observation and Research Application
1 unit(s)
(Same as EDUC 336 ) What differentiates the behavior of one young child from that of another? What characteristics do young children have in common? This course provides students with direct experience in applying contemporary theory and research to the understanding of an individual child. Topics include attachment; temperament; parent, sibling and peer relationships; language and humor development; perspective taking; and the social-emotional connection to learning. Each student selects an individual child in a classroom setting and collects data about the child from multiple sources (direct observation, teacher interviews, parent-teacher conferences, archival records). During class periods, students discuss the primary topic literature, incorporating and comparing observations across children to understand broader developmental trends and individual differences. Synthesis of this information with critical analysis of primary sources in the early childhood and developmental literature culminates in comprehensive written and oral presentations. Julie Riess.
Prerequisite(s): PSYC 231 and permission of the instructor. For Psychology Majors: completion of a research methods course.
One 3-hour period. and 4 hours of laboratory observation work.
Not offered in 2021/22.
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PSYC 341 - Seminar in Physiological Psychology Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
Analysis of selected topics in physiological psychology. Topics vary from year to year but may include learning, memory, human neuropsychology, neuropharmacology, psychopharmacology, sensory processes, emotion, and motivation. Ben Basile.
Prerequisite(s): PSYC 241 or PSYC 243 , a research methods course in Psychological Science, and permission of the instructor.
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: CLS
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PSYC 353 - Seminar in Individual Differences and Personality Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
Intensive study of selected topics in personality and individual differences. Theory and empirical research form the core of required readings. Topics studied reflect the interests of both the instructor and the students. Michele Tugade.
Prerequisite(s): PSYC 253 , a research methods course in Psychological Science, and permission of the instructor.
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: CLS
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PSYC 362 - Seminar in Clinical Psychology and Psychopathology Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
An intensive study of research and theory concerning the nature, origins, and treatment of major psychological disorders. Topics vary but may include schizophrenia, mood disorders, anxiety disorders, childhood disorders, and personality disorders. Sue Trumbetta.
Prerequisite(s): PSYC 262 , a research methods course in Psychological Science, and permission of the instructor.
Course Format: CLS
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PSYC 364 - Seminar in Behavior Genetics
1 unit(s)
This course explores genetic contributions to complex behavioral phenotypes. Its primary focus is on genetic contributions to human behavior with some attention to comparative and evolutionary genetics. Quantitative methods are emphasized.
Prerequisite(s): A research methods course in Psychological Science, and permission of the instructor.
One 2-hour period.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: CLS
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PSYC 375 - Topical Applications in Psychological Science Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
0.5 to 1 unit(s)
Individual or group studies with prior approval of the adviser and of the instructor who supervises the work. This course focuses on topical applications of psychological science.
Topic for 2021/22a: Topical Application in Clinical Psychology. Students read and discuss a current topic in clinical psychology and contribute to a collaborative research/writing project. Interested students should contact the instructor during preregistration with a list of their specific interests, as this information will help in the selection of the specific topic for fall 2021. Sue Trumbetta.
Topic for 2021/22b: Topical Application in Psychological Science. Students read and discuss research and theory on parasocial relationships—the seeming intimacy we develop with media characters or personalities as we “get to know” them (from fictional characters to politicians to podcasters). We also focus on the phenomenon of transportation into media narratives—the extent to which we feel cognitively and emotionally immersed in a story. We design a collaborative research project to be conducted, analyzed, and written up in the second half of the semester. Dara Greenwood.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor; each instructor sets content-specific prerequisites.
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: INT
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PSYC 385 - Humor and Children Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
What is funny to a child? How does that change as they get older, and how does that reflect their social and cognitive development? What can the development of children’s humor reveal about the nature of humor and jokes? This course grapples with these questions using a range of literature about humor from developmental psychologists, philosophers, and cognitive scientists. Nicholas de Leeuw.
Prerequisite(s): At least two 200-level Psychological Science courses, a research methods course in Psychological Science (may be concurrent), and permission of the instructor.
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: CLS
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PSYC 390 - Senior Research Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
1 unit(s)
Graded independent research. A student wishing to take this course must first gain the support of a member of the psychology faculty, who supervises the student as they design and carry out an empirical investigation of some psychological phenomenon. In addition to a final paper and regular meetings with their faculty sponsor, students also attend weekly meetings organized by the course instructor. Both the course instructor and the supervising faculty member participate in the planning of the research and in final evaluation. The Department.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor.
Course Format: INT
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PSYC 397 - Senior Empirical Thesis Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
This is a year-long thesis project conducted collaboratively with a participating faculty member on an empirical research project. In Psychology 397, students work to identify a conceptual question of interest, read and integrate background literature on that topic, and formulate a novel research plan. In PSYC 398 , students carry out their proposed studies by collecting data, statistically analyzing the results of the study, and interpreting how the results relate to the study’s original hypothesis and existing findings in the field. Both semesters involve intensive writing, with detailed feedback from the primary faculty adviser and a second faculty reader, as well as a formal presentation of the research findings to other students and faculty. Completion of PSYC 398 is required to receive credit for Psychology 397. The Department.
Prerequisite(s): Psychology research methods course and permission of the instructor.
One 4-hour period.
Course Format: INT
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PSYC 398 - Senior Empirical Thesis Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
This is a year-long thesis project conducted collaboratively with a participating faculty member on an empirical research project. In PSYC 397 , students work to identify a conceptual question of interest, read and integrate background literature on that topic, and formulate a novel research plan. In Psychology 398, students carry out their proposed studies by collecting data, statistically analyzing the results of the study, and interpreting how the results relate to the study’s original hypothesis and existing findings in the field. Both semesters involve intensive writing, with detailed feedback from the primary faculty adviser and a second faculty reader, as well as a formal presentation of the research findings to other students and faculty. Completion of Psychology 398 is required to receive credit for PSYC 397 . The Department.
Prerequisite(s): Psychology research methods course and permission of the instructor.
One 4-hour period.
Course Format: INT
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PSYC 399 - Senior Independent Work Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
0.5 to 1 unit(s)
Individual or group studies with prior approval of the adviser and of the instructor who supervises the work. The Department.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor; each instructor sets content-specific prerequisites.
Course Format: INT
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Religion: I. Introductory |
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RELI 102 - Religion, Media & American Popular Culture Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
How does the mass media change religious values and behaviors? How might we understand the relationship between American Christians and American culture? Has sports, television or entertainment replaced religion? Is popular culture hostile to faith or is it religious in wholly new and unexpected ways? In this course we explore these questions by looking in detail at American television, film, popular literature and the internet. We also examine how specific religions and religious symbols are expressed in popular culture, what happens when traditional religions borrow pop cultural forms or ideals, and how the American media is abetting a trend towards religious eclecticism and hybridity. Christopher White.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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RELI 104 - Religion, Prisons, and the Civil Rights Movement
1 unit(s)
(Same as AFRS 104 ) African American citizenship has long been a contested and bloody battlefield. This course uses the modern Civil Rights Movement to examine the roles the religion and prisons have played in theses battles over African American rights and liberties. In what ways have religious beliefs motivated Americans to uphold narrow definitions of citizenship that exclude people on the basis of race or moved them to boldly challenge those definitions? In a similar fashion, civil rights workers were incarcerated in jails and prisons as a result of their nonviolent protest activities. Their experiences in prisons, they exposed the inhumane conditions and practices existing in many prison settings. More recently, the growth of the mass incarceration of minorities has moved to the forefront of civil and human rights concerns. Is a new Civil Rights Movement needed to challenge the New Jim Crow? Jonathon Kahn and Quincy Mills.
Not offered in 2021/22.
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RELI 107 - Inner Paths: Religion and Contemplative Consciousness
1 unit(s)
(Same as ASIA 107 ) The academic study of religion spends a lot of time examining religion as a social and cultural phenomenon. This course takes a different approach. Instead of looking at religion extrinsically (through history, philosophy, sociology, scriptural study, etc.) “Inner Paths” looks at the religious experience itself, as seen through the eyes of saints and mystics from a variety of the world’s religious traditions. By listening to and reflecting upon “mystic” and contemplative narratives from adepts of Jewish, Christian, Islamic, Hindu, Daoist and other traditions we learn to appreciate the commonalities, differences, and nuances of various “inner paths.” Readings include John of the Cross, Theresa of Avila, Rabbi Akiba, Rumi, Thich Nhat Hanh, Ramakrishna, and Mirabai. Rick Jarow.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: CLS
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RELI 112 - An Introduction to Islam
1 unit(s)
(Same as AFRS 112 ) This course introduces students to Muslim cultures, beliefs, and practices through the lens of journey, migration and quest. Voyage and migration have characterized Muslim communities ever since Muhammad sent a group of his followers to seek refuge with the Christian king of Abyssinia. Over the centuries, Islamic legal, literary, and philosophical traditions have reflected deeply on migration and journeying, and Muslim communities have settled around the world. We explore Muhammad’s miraculous journey to Jerusalem, the event of migration to Medina, the role of travel in the expansion of the Islamic world, Muslims as religious minorities in the 20th century, and the place of Islam in the contemporary global refugee crisis. Sources include scripture, theology, history, poetry and literature, ethnography, autobiography, and film. Kirsten Wesselhoeft.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: CLS
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RELI 149 - Unlocking the Bible: Traditional and Radical Readings Semester Offered: Spring
1 1 unit(s)
(Same as JWST 149 ) Mark Twain once said that “when a library expels a book of mine and leaves an unexpurgated Bible around where unprotected youth and age can get hold of it, the deep unconscious irony of it delights me.” The Hebrew Bible, (or Old Testament, as it is known to Christians,) is a book that can feel startlingly contemporary, and can be radically moving. It has also undoubtebly been misread and misunderstood. Our course together revisits familiar stories—often talked about, but increasingly rarely closely read—in the context of textual and interpretative history. We consider what the “Good Book” might have meant in its original ancient Israelite context, and how it has since accumulated meanings in various interpretive communities over the millennia since its composition. What can we learn from the interpretations of thinkers in earlier times about how the Bible might speak to us as postmodern, politically and gender-aware thinkers in an academic context— secular or religiously observant alike? No previous knowledge of the Bible or the study of religion required. Agnes Veto.
Open only to first-year students; satisfies the college requirement for a First-Year Writing Seminar.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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RELI 150 - Jews, Christians, and Muslims Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as JWST 150 ) An historical comparative study of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The course focuses on such themes as origins, development, sacred literature, ritual, legal, mystical, and philosophical traditions, and interactions among the three religions. Marc Epstein. Kirsten Wesselhoeft.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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RELI 152 - Religions of Asia
1 unit(s)
(Same as ASIA 152 ) This course is an introduction to the religions of Asia (Buddhism, Confucianism, Hinduism, Zen, Shinto, etc.) through a study of practices, sites, sensibilities, and doctrines. The focus is comparative as the course explores numerous themes, including creation (cosmology), myth, ritual, action, fate and destiny, human freedom, and ultimate values.
Open to all students except seniors.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: CLS
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RELI 160 - Uncertainty, Probability and Spirituality: Physics in Popular Culture
1 unit(s)
(Same as PHYS 160 and STS 160 ) This course examines the cultural history of key ideas and experiments in physics, looking in particular at how non-scientists understood key concepts such as entropy, relativity, quantum mechanics and the idea of higher or new dimensions. It begins with an assumption that’s widely accepted among historians – namely, that the sciences are a part of culture and are influenced by cultural trends, contemporary concerns and even urgent personal ethical or religious dilemmas. In this course we are attuned to the ways that physicists drew key insights from popular culture and how non-scientists, including religious or spiritual seekers, appropriated (and misappropriated) scientific insights about the origin and nature of the world, its underlying laws and energetic forces, and its ultimate meaning and purpose. Brian Daly and Christopher White.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: CLS
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RELI 181 - China Reimagined Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
(Same as ASIA 181 ) Working with an ancient Chinese cosmological schema, the luoshu, a nine-squared square, and the old adage that ‘heaven is round, earth is square,’ this class is divided into nine parts as follows: territory, opium, city, temple, gods, texts, home, body, and economy. Through these nine terms we explore both alternative and traditional ways of thinking through China’s imperial and modern histories. One of our class objectives is to better understand what impact acts of imagination have on social formations. Throughout we use the themes at hand to develop our writing skills. Michael Walsh.
Open only to first-year students; satisfies the college requirement for a First-Year Writing Seminar.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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RELI 183 - Christian Theology and the Body Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
This introduction focuses on the relationship between spirituality and embodiment in Christian thought, ritual, and ethics. Religion 280 provides an overview of the historical development of Christianity while integrating analyses of contemporary communities, literatures, and practices. The main question that guides the class is how Christians in different times and places experience the gap between spirit and flesh. How does this binary apply to notions of the human being, the interpretation of divine revelation, and political movements? Over the course of the semester, students examine Christian concepts of the relationship between body and spirit for the ways in which they have been used to legitimate as well as subvert social hierarchies and forge new communities. Klaus Yoder.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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RELI 185 - Religion and Sports Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
Religion is not just a set of ideas about the world, but a way of embodying values and living out sacred narratives through what Ignatius Loyola named “spiritual exercises.” The overlap between self-training and embodied performance leads to a ready comparison between religious and athletic subjectivities. This extends not only to active performance but also to the culture of spectatorship that grows up around sports and religion. A game or match between two heated rival teams (think Yankees vs. Red Sox) is often said to provoke passion among “the Yankee faithful” or “Red Sox Nation,” names for fan collectives. The word “fan” itself is an abbreviated form of “fanatic,” a term for zealous devotees dedicated to a particular temple [Latin: fanum.] In this course we begin to examine this overlap between sports and religion by examining its deep histories, starting with the ancient Olympic games in Greece, the role of competitive sports in Aztec religious culture, and the spiritual resonances of martial arts training in pre-modern Japan, among others. We then shift to the present and explore a sequence of themes located in contemporary athletic culture, such as the intersections between race, ethnicity, sports, and faith; athletic contests as sites of religiously-infused socio-political critique with regard to gender roles and racial injustice; and finally, a consideration of sports-media consumption (fandom) as an instance of civil religion in “a secular age.” Learning through these different lenses, students come away with deepened historical insight into the shared genealogies of athletic and religious cultures along with a broader knowledge of the myriad ways sports and spirituality inform each other in the present. Klaus Yoder.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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RELI 188 - Finding Your Calling: Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Vocation Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
Through autobiographies, novels, films, psychological tracts, and philosophical essays we explore how representative cultural figures have envisioned vocations that have allowed themselves to live and act from the most authentic part of their being and to express their strongest values, energies, and talents in the world. Hopefully, this encourages and inspires us to do likewise. Readings include Confucius, Shakespeare, Weber, Joyce, Lorde, Morrison, and others. Rick Jarow.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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Religion: II. Intermediate |
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RELI 200 - Regarding Religion Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
To study religion is to study culture and society, as well as to critically engage and participate in the humanities and social sciences. In this course we compare and critique different approaches to the study of religion and think about the category of religion in relation to other topics and social concerns. Jonathon Kahn.
Required for all majors. Encouraged for correlates.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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RELI 207 - Christian Ethics and Modern Society
1 unit(s)
This course is an introduction to Christian ideals of faith, conduct, character, and community, and to modern disputes over their interpretations and applications. Our emphasis is on how Christian thinkers have negotiated the emergence of modern values about authority, rights, equality, and freedom. In what ways have Christian beliefs and moral concepts been consonant with or antagonistic to democratic concerns about gender, race and pluralism? Some of the most prominent Christian ethicists claim a fundamental incompatibility with this democratic ethos. We examine these claims and devote special attention to how Christian thinkers have dealt with the ethics of war, sexuality and the environment. Jonathon Kahn.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: CLS
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RELI 211 - Islam in Europe and the Americas
1 unit(s)
(Same as AFRS 211 and INTL 211 ) Various processes of migration and conversion have contributed to the development of Muslim minority communities in Europe and the Americas, dating back to the 17th century. From enslaved Muslims in the Americas, to the Nation of Islam, to colonial and post-colonial migrations, to the debates over whether and how to define “European,” “American,” and “Latin@” Islams, this course covers the history of these religious communities and movements, their relationships with European and American states, and how contemporary European and American Muslims have described and theorized the experience of being a religious minority or diaspora. Key themes include race & ethnicity, gender & sexuality, transnational media, political resistance, ethics, and spirituality. Kirsten Wesselhoeft.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: CLS
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RELI 218 - Spiritual Seekers in American History & Culture 1880-2008
1 unit(s)
(Same as AMST 218 ) This course examines the last 120 years of spiritual seeking in America. It looks in particular at the rise of unchurched believers, how these believers have relocated “the religious” in different parts of culture, what it means to be “spiritual but not religious” today, and the different ways that Americans borrow from or embrace religions such as Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism. We focus in particular on unexpected places of religious enchantment or “wonder” in our culture, including how science and technology are providing new metaphors for God and spirit. Christopher White.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: CLS
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RELI 219 - New and Alternative Religious Movements in the United States
1 unit(s)
All religions, new and old, have a beginning, and all religions change over time. Even the most established and popular religions today, like Islam and Christianity, began as small, marginalized sects. In this class, we think carefully about how religions develop and change by examining closely religious movements in one of the most vibrant religious nations in world history, modern America. We study radical prophets, doomsday preachers, modern messiahs, social reformers and new spiritual gurus and we talk about how their new religious movements developed and interacted with more mainstream religious currents in nineteenth- and twentieth-century America. This course proceeds in a roughly chronological fashion, beginning with new and alternative religions in the nineteenth century and moving on to more recent groups. Some of the questions we consider as we proceed are: Why do new religions begin? Why do people join them? How do they both challenge and conform to wider American norms and values? How should the American legal system respond to them? How do more mainstream believers respond to them? Christopher White.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: CLS
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RELI 222 - Women, Gender, and Sexuality in Islamic Spaces
1 unit(s)
(Same as WMST 222 ) This course explores the relationship between Islam, gender, and sexuality through a focus on space. The course is organized through six key spaces that have formed gendered bodies in Islamic contexts and diasporas: the home, the mosque, the baths (hammam), the school, the public square, and the interior soul. As we move through each of these spaces, we explore how sexual difference, gender, sexuality, and religious practice take on different shapes in different settings, and at different life stages. We read canonical works of Muslim feminist thought, as well as the classical sources they engage with. We pay attention to gender diversity in the classical traditions and contemporary Islamic contexts, coming-of-age and other life stages, and to the role of gender and sexuality in mystical relationship with the divine. Kirsten Wesselhoeft.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: CLS
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RELI 225 - Ethnography of Religion
1 unit(s)
This course is an introduction to religion as a set of cultural practices. We explore different ways that people have confronted “big questions,” such as how to live well in community with others, why bad things happen to good people and what to do about it, whether or not there is a life beyond the visible one and how to influence it, and how to produce ultimate meaning in an unpredictable world. Our entry point to these questions is a series of ethnographies of religion, secularism, and spirituality: accounts of religious culture that are grounded in immersive participant observation, interviews, and engaged, collaborative research. We consider how the categories of “religion” and “secular” have been produced through ethnographic texts, confront ethnography’s colonial legacy, and work with a range of innovative ethnographic genres, including performance, creative writing, and film. Based upon their fieldwork, students enrolled in this Intensive craft original ethnographic projects in a genre of their choice, such as writing, performance, or short film. Students may also enroll in Religion 225 without enrolling in the intensive; they do other coursework in lieu of an original ethnographic project. Contact Professor Wesselhoeft for more details about the relationship of the Intensive to this course. Kirsten Wesselhoeft.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: CLS
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RELI 231 - Hindu Traditions
1 unit(s)
(Same as ASIA 231 ) An introduction to the history, practices, myths, ideas and core values that inform Hindu traditions. This year’s course focuses on the major systems of Indian philosophy and the spiritual disciplines that accompany them. Among topics examined are yoga, upanishadic monism and dualism, the paths of liberative action (karma), self realization (jnana), divine love (bhakti), and awakened immanence (tantra). Philosophical understandings of the worship of gods and goddesses will be discussed, along with issues of gender, caste, and ethnicity and post modern reinterpretations of the classical tradition. Rick Jarow.
Prerequisite(s): 100-level course in Religion, or permission of the instructor.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: CLS
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RELI 233 - The Buddha in the World Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
(Same as ASIA 233 ) The Buddha and his followers have had a profound influence on Asian cultures for more than two millennia. In this class we explore a variety of Buddhist imaginaries and practices beginning with ones that emerged in the first centuries after the historical Buddha, and tracing the development of these practices throughout Asia with an emphasis on China. We engage themes such as suffering, death, monastic institutionalism, the role of women and gender, the challenges of Euroamerican colonialisms, and the tensions between textual ideals and everyday practices. Michael Walsh.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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RELI 235 - Religion in China
1 unit(s)
(Same as ASIA 235 ) An exploration of Chinese religiosity within historical context. We study the seen and unseen worlds of Buddhists, Daoists, and literati, and encounter ghosts, ancestors, ancient oracle bones, gods, demons, buddhas, dragons, imperial politics, the social, and more, all entwined in what became the cultures of China. Some of the questions we will try to answer include: how was the universe imagined in traditional and modern China? What did it mean to be human in China? What is the relationship between religion and culture? What do we mean by ‘Chinese religions’? How should Chinese culture be represented? Michael Walsh.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: CLS
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RELI 239 - Six Systems of Meditation Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
This course focuses on the practice of meditation. We meet in the Quiet Room of the Library a couple of evenings a week and learn six very different practices; including vipasanna/zen, brahma-vichara (self-inquiry), movement meditation, outer and inner visualization, tantric chakra meditation, and active imagining. Students are expected to practice daily and to keep a meditation journal. Rick Jarow.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: INT
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RELI 241 - The Land of Israel Before the State of Israel Semester Offered: Fall
1 1 unit(s)
(Same as JWST 242 ) This course deals with the Holy Land in Jewish (as well as Christian and Muslim) reality and imagination before Zionism. Love of and attachment to the Land in religious texts, poetry, art, literature and music, as well as the tensions between such sentiments and diasporist thought; and the collusions and collisions between and among the communities which claimed these attachments from antiquity through the Ottoman Period. Agnes Veto.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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RELI 242 - From Anti-Judaism to Anti-Semitism Semester Offered: Spring
1 1 unit(s)
(Same as JWST 242 ) An exploration of the historical trajectory from religious to racial Jew-hatred through the study of religious, historical, political and sociological sources as well as art, literature and music. Agnes Veto.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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RELI 250 - Across Religious Boundaries: Understanding Differences Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
The study of a selected topic or theme in religious studies that cuts across the boundaries of particular religions, allowing opportunities for comparison as well as contrast of religious traditions, beliefs, values and practices.
Topic for 2021/22b: Contested Genders and Anxious Sexualities: Post-Colonial Imaginaries of Religion in India. The course introduces the students to religions in post-colonial India through their co-constituent entanglement with gender and sexuality. We examine how gender-based controversies and anxieties around sexual transgression play a key role in articulating religious identities and communal tensions not only between communities (Hindus and Muslims) but also within communities (caste practices) in post-colonial India. We begin by exploring colonial narratives of India, which served to justify the colonial rule through critique of local practices such as sati (the ritual self-immolation by Hindu widows) and Indian masculinities. We then consider how this colonial legacy has shaped post-colonial debates and controversies, from the sexual violence that accompanied the 1947 Partition of India and Pakistan to ongoing nationalist assertions of Hindu India as the motherland to be protected from violation by Muslims—manifest today in Islamophobic assertions that Muslims are stealing Hindu women through “love-Jihad.” We consider gender practices that shape the status of women, including Hindu goddess worship and practices surrounding purity and menstruation, and divergent marriage rules that shape the boundaries of religious communities, including intracommunity marriage among Parsis, inter-caste marriage prohibitions among Hindus, and the Muslim practice of triple talaq (divorce). We also examine ways in which questions of ‘queerness’ meander across anxieties of idealized masculinity and femininity by exploring how religious communities organize themselves in opposition to ‘the other’ through debates about racial purity and proclamations of communal superiority, defining this ‘self-other’ relationship through gendered positions.
The course material draws upon the works of B.R. Ambedkar, Dibyesh Anand, Urvashi Bhutalia, Veena Das, Charu Gupta, Scott Kugle, Tanika Sarkar, Mrinalini Sinha, Gayatri Chakraborty Spivak, and Ruth Vanita building on classroom discussions on relevant movies, popular advertisements, political slogans, and speeches.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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RELI 254 - A Hundred Gospels and the Confusing, Conflicted Life of Jesus
1 unit(s)
(Same as JWST 254 ) Who was Jesus? What does the Bible say about him? How did it come to say what it does? Was he a humble carpenter? A divine being? A revolutionary? A rabbi? Was he learned in ancient wisdom, or simple and charismatic and fresh in his teaching? The sources dance in, about and around the issues as they alternately confirm and confound definitions. The canonical Gospels-accounts of Jesus’ life accepted as authoritative by Christians-number four. But even these four contradict each other and require “harmonization” in the eyes of believing Christians. And they are only four out of ten completely preserved examples. In addition to these ten, there are a further six Gospels describing only the childhood of Jesus, four partially preserved Gospels (including the Gospel of Mary Magdalene), and tens of fragmentary, reconstructed, and completely lost Gospels. Once thing is certain from all of these documents: Jesus wasn’t a Christian. How, then, did he come to be regarded as the founder of a new religion, a religion that would be called Christianity? And how did he come to be understood as God, the Son of God, or both at the same time? Marc Michael Epstein.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: CLS
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RELI 256 - Theology of the Prison Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
How might the experience of imprisonment have influenced the development of Christian ideas about the body, salvation, and justice? Does the contemporary crisis of America’s “prison-industrial complex” demand new attention to this aspect of the Christian tradition? In this course, students analyze the experience and representation of imprisonment in influential theological, philosophical, and literary texts from antiquity to the present. At the same time, we examine how inmates in contemporary American prisons are using a wide range of theologies and spiritual practices to heal, gain perspective, and critique unjust institutions. Doing so allows us to assess how the Christian tradition may be employed and critiqued for the purposes of interpreting and challenging American notions and policies of punishment and rehabilitation. Throughout the semester, we also encounter authors from different traditions who conceptualize the challenges of incarceration in ways that are comparable with and challenging to the categories we see in the Christian sources. Klaus Yoder.
Two 75-minute periods.
Course Format: CLS
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RELI 264 - Controversies in Science, Technology & Religion
1 unit(s)
(Same as STS 264 ) This course introduces students to new and controversial topics in the study of religion, science, technology and spirituality. We examine controversial issues such as evolution/creation, artificial intelligence, science fiction as spirituality, religious and secular views of the mind, issues in biomedical ethics such as cloning, the neurology of religious experience, technologically-mediated spirituality, pseudo-science and parapsychology. Christopher White.
Two 75-minute periods.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: CLS
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RELI 281 - Research on Religion & Pop Culture Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
This intensive course introduces students to research methods and key readings on religion, spirituality and American popular culture. The course begins with key readings examining how religious ideas, practices, and communities are being reshaped by television, films, the internet, mobile devices, and popular culture. The remainder of the course is spent working on individual research projects, reading articles on the research and writing process, and sharing work in progress. Christopher White.
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: INT
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RELI 282 - Feasting, Fasting, Farming: Religion and Food
1 unit(s)
Food is central to religious life, from rituals of worship, to social and environmental ethics, to the transmission of cultures and traditions. Food practices and prohibitions have been used to define religious boundaries and to articulate moral and spiritual understandings of the human body. Sharing food as an act of service and sociability has structured religious institutions around the world. This experiential intensive explores world religions and the analytical categories of religious studies through the role of food – growing it, preparing it, eating it, abstaining from it, and sharing it with others. The readings and site visits primarily cover Islam, Judaism, Christianity, South Asian religions, and indigenous religions of the Americas. Students develop independent research projects on religions and foodways of their choice. The course includes visits to farms and other sites in the Hudson Valley, and hands-on experience researching, preparing, and sharing food. Kirsten Wesselhoeft.
Prerequisite(s): One Religion course or permission of the instructor.
One 3-hour period.
Not offered in 2021-22.
Course Format: INT
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RELI 290 - Community-Engaged Learning Semester Offered: Fall and Spring.
0.5 to 1 unit(s)
Supervised community-engaged learning in the community in cooperation with the Office of Community-Engaged Learning.
Topic for 2021/22a and b: Life in a Buddhist Monastery. (Same as ASIA 290 ) Buddhist monasteries are complex, hierarchical spaces within which the monk or nun must learn to discipline their body, generate transferable merit, and come to a deeper understanding of life and death as realized through the daily routine of the monastery. Monastics are ordinary people living an extraordinarily alternative lifestyle. In this Intensive we explore the tensions between textual ideals and material lived lives within monastic space. Our readings include primary and secondary texts. In addition to the Community Engaged Learning weekend spent at Tsechen Kunchab Ling, you also visit, as part of a research project, other Buddhist monasteries in the region and discover the continuities and discontinuities between monastic institutions. Michael Walsh.
Course Format: INT
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RELI 298 - Independent Work Semester Offered: Fall or Spring
0.5 to 1 unit(s)
The department.
Prerequisite(s): One semester of appropriate intermediate work in the field of study proposed.
Permission of instructor required.
Course Format: OTH
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Religion: III. Advanced |
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RELI 300 - Senior Seminar Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
An exploration of critical issues in the study of religion. Michael Walsh.
Senior Religion majors only.
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: CLS
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RELI 301 - Senior Thesis Semester Offered: Spring
0.5 unit(s)
Written under the supervision of a member of the department; taken in the Spring semester. Michael Walsh.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor.
Course Format: INT
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RELI 302 - Intensive in Religion, Media & Pop Culture
1 unit(s)
In this small intensive we examine in detail special topics in religion, media and popular culture. Our reading list is tailored to student interest and may include in-depth readings on media effects theory, film and mysticism, multi-platform imaginary fictional worlds such as Harry Potter or Star Wars, mobile technologies and religion, iphones and spiritual practices, science fiction and spirituality, and other topics. Christopher White.
One 2-hour period.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: INT
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RELI 330 - Religion, Critical Theory and Politics Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)
Advanced study in selected aspects of religion and contemporary philosophical and political theory. May be taken more than once for credit when content changes.
Topic for 2021/22b: Religion and Revolution. A commonplace in popular discourse is that religion is an inherently conservative force in culture, politics, and society. This seminar calls this assumption into question by examining historical examples from across the world of religious movements inspiring and enacting momentous, sudden, and sometimes violent changes in the social order. We also address the similarities and differences between political revolutions we think of as “secular” (e.g., the American Revolution, the French Revolution, the Russian Revolution, the Chinese Revolution of 1949) and revolutions with readily-discernible religious aspects, including the German Peasant Rebellion of 1525, the Haitian Revolution, and the 1979 Iranian revolution. Throughout the semester, we question what divides religious and secular revolutions, and why they often become hybridized in terms of actors, theories, and strategies for changing the world. At the same time, we consider how these developments square with theories of religion and political economy developed by Karl Marx and other dialectical-materialist thinkers. If religion is not simply the “opiate of the people,” how should we evaluate its impact in different times and places, in dramatic cataclysms as well as in everyday life? Klaus Yoder.
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: CLS
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RELI 345 - Violent Frontiers: Colonialism and Religion in the Nineteenth Century
1 unit(s)
(Same as ASIA 345 ) What is the relationship between religion and colonialism and how has this relationship shaped the contemporary world? During the nineteenth century the category of religion was imagined and applied in different ways around the globe. When colonialists undertook to ‘civilize’ a people, specific understandings of religion were at the core of their undertakings. By the mid-nineteenth century, Europe’s territorial energy was focused on Asia and Africa. Themes for discussion include various nineteenth-century interpretations of religion, the relationship between empire and culture, the notion of frontier religion, and the imagination and production of society. Michael Walsh.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: CLS
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RELI 350 - Comparative Studies in Religion Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)
Topic for 2021/22a: Dreams, Myths and Visions in the Religious Imagination. This seminar focuses on the understanding and utilization of dreams and myths in Eastern and Western religious traditions. It explores dream and visionary passages in Jewish, Christian, and Islamic works as well as traditional interpretations of dreams, and their attendant myths in India and Tibet. In addition to working with traditional commentaries and interpretations, the course considers contemporary theoretical approaches from structuralist and post-structuralist sources, depth psychology, and cognitive science. Readings include passages from the Hebrew Scriptures, the Book of Revelation, the Qur’an, the Bhagvata-Purana, and the Tibetan Book of the Dead. Critical materials include the works of Tsong Kha Pa, Freud, Jung, Laberge, and others. Rick Jarow.
One 2-hour period.
Course Format: CLS
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RELI 360 - Religion, Sex, and the Modern State
1 unit(s)
(Same as WMST 360 ) This course examines the intertwined regulation of religion and sexuality by modern states through six case studies from around the world: Nigeria, France, Norway, Iran, Uganda, and India. These cases take us through a range of political systems and both religiously homogenous and religiously diverse societies, showing how in each case the state is intimately concerned with the relationship between religion, sexuality, and sexual difference. Through our analysis of these cases, we cover topics including comparative secularisms, race and citizenship, Islamic law, postcolonial feminist and queer theory, the sociology of religious revival, and religion and global media. At the end of the course, students will have a globally-informed and nuanced understanding of the stakes of contemporary debates about religious freedom, women’s rights, and LGBTQ rights around the world. Kirsten Wesselhoeft.
One 2-hour period.
Not offered in 2021/22.
Course Format: CLS
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