- rhētor: Anna Bergstrom
- rhētor: Michaela Russell
categoria: Miscellaneous
Macalester Moodle
Search results: 54
What is college writing? How do different academic disciplines create, perform, and share knowledge through writing? What is considered “good” writing in the academy, and who gets to decide? In this course, students will develop a theory and practice of writing that can assist them in their academic careers and beyond. To do so, we will study how writing functions and is evaluated in various contexts. Particular focus will be placed on analyzing rhetorical situations and genre conventions of academic writing from various disciplines to demystify and open the troublesome evaluation of “good” vs. “bad” writing/writers. Reading, writing, and in-class discussion will be the primary work of the course, and emphasis will be placed on writing as a process: students will engage in regular informal writing exercises, practice drafting and revising for major writing assignments, and receive consistent feedback on their writing from the instructor and their peers. By the end of the course, students will complete at least 20 pages of formal academic writing.
- Instructor: Alyssa Lawrence
SPAN 305 sirve de puente entre los niveles intermedios y avanzados del Departamento de Español y Portugués y, como su nombre lo indica, tiene por objetivo ayudar a les estudiantes de español a mejorar la expresión oral y escrita, así como también prepararles para los cursos más avanzados del departamento.
El tema central del curso será el concepto de la otredad en la cultura hispanohablante, que analizaremos tanto en la esfera privada como en la esfera pública. Para ello analizaremos distintas formas de expresión artística (fotografía, cine, narrativa, poesía, teatro), así como ensayos, noticias actuales y artículos de opinión, todos relacionados con las culturas y sociedades del mundo hispanohablante. Utilizaremos los textos presentados en el libro Retratos y analizaremos además algunos cuentos de la colección Siete casas vacías, de Samanta Schweblin.
Mediante estos textos, discutiremos cómo el concepto de la otredad se ha reflejado en algunos de los conflictos políticos, culturales y sociales más importantes del mundo hispanohablante durante los últimos dos siglos: desde el cuestionamiento de la familia y los roles tradicionales de género, hasta las revoluciones de los años 60 y los efectos del cambio climático en la actualidad.
Mediante algunas redacciones breves (reflexiones, resúmenes, entrevistas) y otras más extensas (narraciones y ensayos argumentativos), les estudiantes mejorarán su nivel de escritura y se prepararán para los cursos más avanzados. Igualmente, por medio de discusiones, debates, presentaciones y la grabación de un episodio de podcast, tendrán múltiples oportunidades de mejorar sus habilidades de expresión oral.
El tema central del curso será el concepto de la otredad en la cultura hispanohablante, que analizaremos tanto en la esfera privada como en la esfera pública. Para ello analizaremos distintas formas de expresión artística (fotografía, cine, narrativa, poesía, teatro), así como ensayos, noticias actuales y artículos de opinión, todos relacionados con las culturas y sociedades del mundo hispanohablante. Utilizaremos los textos presentados en el libro Retratos y analizaremos además algunos cuentos de la colección Siete casas vacías, de Samanta Schweblin.
Mediante estos textos, discutiremos cómo el concepto de la otredad se ha reflejado en algunos de los conflictos políticos, culturales y sociales más importantes del mundo hispanohablante durante los últimos dos siglos: desde el cuestionamiento de la familia y los roles tradicionales de género, hasta las revoluciones de los años 60 y los efectos del cambio climático en la actualidad.
Mediante algunas redacciones breves (reflexiones, resúmenes, entrevistas) y otras más extensas (narraciones y ensayos argumentativos), les estudiantes mejorarán su nivel de escritura y se prepararán para los cursos más avanzados. Igualmente, por medio de discusiones, debates, presentaciones y la grabación de un episodio de podcast, tendrán múltiples oportunidades de mejorar sus habilidades de expresión oral.
- rhētor: Daniel Coral Reyes
- rhētor: Claire Lozano
These days, there is a lot of talk about the changing terms of formal employment, and related concerns have only intensified amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Entrepreneurs, gig workers, online contractors and now an unprecedented number of telecommuters are challenging conventional models of the nine-to-five job. But nine-to-five has hardly been the norm throughout history, nor does it describe the typical work experience around the world today. This course takes an anthropological approach to consider the contemporary diversity of working worlds and worker experiences, as well as important historical shifts that have brought us to this moment, are currently underway, and will carry us into new working futures. Gender, race, class, and age are all deeply implicated in unequal systems here, as are powerful environmental, economic and political forces. Who has to work? Who gets to work? Who is able to work safely? Who is empowered by it and who is exploited? Why do we work? What/Whose work is most valued? When will the robots come for our jobs? …What might a world without work look like? Drawing on examples from around the world, and materials ranging from ethnographic writing and film to popular media, u/dystopian fiction, as well as our own personal experiences, we will take a comparative approach to these and other pressing questions raised by today’s diverse and shifting worlds of work.
This course qualifies for the U.S.I.D. or Internationalism designation.
This course qualifies for the U.S.I.D. or Internationalism designation.
- rhētor: Hilary Chart
In 1947, India embarked upon one of the world’s most ambitious experiments in postcolonial democracy. This course surveys the history of the Indian state and society in the decades following the formal end of colonial rule, as the country sought to rebuild its economy, institute a new political system, and usher in large-scale social change. Given India’s immense cultural and social diversity, this was no easy task. It required answering a range of questions: How would the state ensure the rights of the country’s minorities? How would the country’s model of economic growth address wide-ranging demands for social equality? Which of India’s many languages would be designated its official language? Underlying all these questions were debates concerning the history, present, and future of Indian society.
In this course, we will consider postcolonial India from its “margins”, that is, by centering the perspectives of migrant workers, Dalits, women, and/or revolutionaries. We will use the ideas and practices crafted by these groups as our guides in assessing the political record of the Indian state.
While surveying this history, we will also study recent shifts and challenges confronting Indian democracy. Today, India is one of the fastest growing economies; it is also a country with some of the most extreme forms of social inequality. According to a recent report by Oxfam, 10% of the Indian population holds 77% of the country’s national wealth. However, reports of social inequality in India, such as the one cited above, exist alongside celebrations of its status as the “world’s largest democracy” in the national press and in global media. Considering this, what does it mean to call India a “democracy”? How do we assess the successes and failures of Indian democracy?
The challenges we will discuss are not unique to Indian democracy. Democracies everywhere struggle to balance the claims of freedom for individuals with the promise of social equality for all. India’s paradoxical, complex, and contradictory encounter with democracy has produced a rich archive of debate and contestation on this issue. This course will not only introduce you to key events, ideas, and issues shaping postcolonial Indian history, but also provide you with conceptual resources to investigate political ideas like democracy in a global, historical perspective.
Through a combination of secondary texts and a range of primary sources from postcolonial Indian history, we will develop a complex picture of the relationship, often contradictory, between the promises of democracy, development, and decolonization in postcolonial societies. You do not require any prior knowledge of Indian history or languages for this course.
In this course, we will consider postcolonial India from its “margins”, that is, by centering the perspectives of migrant workers, Dalits, women, and/or revolutionaries. We will use the ideas and practices crafted by these groups as our guides in assessing the political record of the Indian state.
While surveying this history, we will also study recent shifts and challenges confronting Indian democracy. Today, India is one of the fastest growing economies; it is also a country with some of the most extreme forms of social inequality. According to a recent report by Oxfam, 10% of the Indian population holds 77% of the country’s national wealth. However, reports of social inequality in India, such as the one cited above, exist alongside celebrations of its status as the “world’s largest democracy” in the national press and in global media. Considering this, what does it mean to call India a “democracy”? How do we assess the successes and failures of Indian democracy?
The challenges we will discuss are not unique to Indian democracy. Democracies everywhere struggle to balance the claims of freedom for individuals with the promise of social equality for all. India’s paradoxical, complex, and contradictory encounter with democracy has produced a rich archive of debate and contestation on this issue. This course will not only introduce you to key events, ideas, and issues shaping postcolonial Indian history, but also provide you with conceptual resources to investigate political ideas like democracy in a global, historical perspective.
Through a combination of secondary texts and a range of primary sources from postcolonial Indian history, we will develop a complex picture of the relationship, often contradictory, between the promises of democracy, development, and decolonization in postcolonial societies. You do not require any prior knowledge of Indian history or languages for this course.
- rhētor: Niharika Yadav
Narrativas contra el exterminio: memoria cultural en el Amazonas y la Patagonia
Desde el norte del Amazonas hasta la Patagonia austral, la expansión de las naciones suramericanas en el siglo XIX estuvo fundada en la aculturación, el desplazamiento y el exterminio de numerosas poblaciones nativas. No obstante, pese a su alto grado de violencia, eventos como el genocidio selknam (Chile) o “las atrocidades del Putumayo” (Colombia-Perú) se encuentran en los márgenes de la memoria cultural de la región. Las obras culturales que analizaremos en este curso nos ayudarán a entender no solo lo que estos eventos traumáticos significan hoy, sino los límites y las contradicciones de cualquier acto de memoria. ¿Cómo dar forma narrativa a un crimen de lesa humanidad? ¿De qué manera los descendientes de las víctimas, activistas y artistas complican y cuestionan las narrativas en torno al “exterminio”? ¿Qué formas de reparación son apropiadas hoy? En este curso responderemos estas preguntas por medio del análisis de una amplia variedad de voces y textos, desde los diarios personales de un activista en derechos humanos hasta un wéstern. El curso se dividirá en dos unidades geográficas que proveerán el marco general de nuestras discusiones:
I. El noroeste del Amazonas (Perú-Colombia)
II. La Patagonia austral (Chile-Argentina)
Desde el norte del Amazonas hasta la Patagonia austral, la expansión de las naciones suramericanas en el siglo XIX estuvo fundada en la aculturación, el desplazamiento y el exterminio de numerosas poblaciones nativas. No obstante, pese a su alto grado de violencia, eventos como el genocidio selknam (Chile) o “las atrocidades del Putumayo” (Colombia-Perú) se encuentran en los márgenes de la memoria cultural de la región. Las obras culturales que analizaremos en este curso nos ayudarán a entender no solo lo que estos eventos traumáticos significan hoy, sino los límites y las contradicciones de cualquier acto de memoria. ¿Cómo dar forma narrativa a un crimen de lesa humanidad? ¿De qué manera los descendientes de las víctimas, activistas y artistas complican y cuestionan las narrativas en torno al “exterminio”? ¿Qué formas de reparación son apropiadas hoy? En este curso responderemos estas preguntas por medio del análisis de una amplia variedad de voces y textos, desde los diarios personales de un activista en derechos humanos hasta un wéstern. El curso se dividirá en dos unidades geográficas que proveerán el marco general de nuestras discusiones:
I. El noroeste del Amazonas (Perú-Colombia)
II. La Patagonia austral (Chile-Argentina)
- rhētor: Daniel Coral Reyes
This course is an introduction to a particular method of ethnographic data collection known as Ethnoscience. This is not the only method that anthropologists use, and not all anthropologists use it. It is, however, ideally suited to the research requirements of the undergraduate classroom: the need to complete a high quality research project in the course of a single semester. The aim of ethnoscience is to determine how different societies classify and categorize their worlds, and how these systems of classification provide them with guidelines for behavior and a framework to interpret experience. Ethnoscience thus seeks to elicit in a systematic and replicable way the native categories or folk terms of a culture, and to show how these terms (symbols) relate to each other in a system of meaning. Drawing on the interviewing techniques of ethnoscience, this course provides students with an opportunity to develop skills in the area of ethnographic field interviewing—a methodological staple of the discipline of anthropology and the domain of qualitative research. Students will develop these skills in the context of a field research project, which they initiate. The course revolves around generating, analyzing and reporting the data from this project. The interactive format provides weekly opportunities for students to develop and polish their oral presentation skills.
- rhētor: Arjun Guneratne
Over the past several decades, Indigenous healing and well-being has become an emerging area of psychology and related disciplines (e.g., anthropology, public health, etc.). In this course, we will examine a range of topics pertinent to the health, healing, and well-being of Indigenous Peoples in the U.S. This includes answering questions like: What historical and contemporary factors influence the health of Indigenous Peoples in the U.S.? What are the health and mental health experiences of Indigenous Peoples in the U.S.? What are traditional modalities of healing among Indigenous Peoples in the U.S.? Though we will focus on the perspectives of Indigenous Peoples in the U.S., we will also include global perspectives occasionally. We will draw on local examples of Indigenous healing through a course partnership with the Native American Community Clinic in Minneapolis, which we will take field trips to.
- rhētor: Jill Fish
Intermediate Spanish 1 extends the use and awareness of linguistic functions in Spanish, and it broadens the understanding of the history and culture of Spanish-speaking countries.
The class meets three times a week with the professor and one extra hour with the Lab Assistant. The labs begin on Tuesday, September 19th. Since the course is interactive, attendance is required for all four sessions, including the Labs.
The class meets three times a week with the professor and one extra hour with the Lab Assistant. The labs begin on Tuesday, September 19th. Since the course is interactive, attendance is required for all four sessions, including the Labs.
- rhētor: Fernando Contreras
This course is an introduction to qualitative research methods used in sociology to understand the social structures behind people’s actions by conducting systematic participant observation and analysis. We will focus our attention on ethnography and in-depth interviewing (or ethnographic interviewing). In case you would like to learn other qualitative research methods such as visual analysis, text analysis, or focus groups, I will be happy to guide your reading outside of class.
In most sociology classes, we read scholars’ research. In this case, we will learn how to use qualitative research methods and conduct our research in the Macalester – Groveland neighborhood in St. Paul. Each of the group projects will compose a mosaic of the neighborhood where Macalester College is located, including campus locations and the “Macalester bubble.” The thread that will connect your research is the concept “racial grammar” (Bonilla-Silva 2012). By using the same concept, you will learn how to employ theory to analyze empirical data and make an argument. Thus, this course provides you with an opportunity to learn how to collect information and interpret the information. Further, as we will work in small groups throughout the semester, you will hone your group and collaborative skills.
Furthermore, conducting qualitative research often requires a great deal of discussion of the problems, joys, and challenges one faces in the field, which broadens our base of knowledge. We need to listen, devise strategies, and learn about ways others react to similar events or situations we may encounter in the field. Therefore, please feel free to bring up any issues you are experiencing in conducting your research.
In most sociology classes, we read scholars’ research. In this case, we will learn how to use qualitative research methods and conduct our research in the Macalester – Groveland neighborhood in St. Paul. Each of the group projects will compose a mosaic of the neighborhood where Macalester College is located, including campus locations and the “Macalester bubble.” The thread that will connect your research is the concept “racial grammar” (Bonilla-Silva 2012). By using the same concept, you will learn how to employ theory to analyze empirical data and make an argument. Thus, this course provides you with an opportunity to learn how to collect information and interpret the information. Further, as we will work in small groups throughout the semester, you will hone your group and collaborative skills.
Furthermore, conducting qualitative research often requires a great deal of discussion of the problems, joys, and challenges one faces in the field, which broadens our base of knowledge. We need to listen, devise strategies, and learn about ways others react to similar events or situations we may encounter in the field. Therefore, please feel free to bring up any issues you are experiencing in conducting your research.
- rhētor: Erika Busse-Cárdenas
To the average reader, the field of publishing can seem somewhat opaque. How does a novel go from scribbled notes to finished paperback? What goes into editing, printing, and marketing a short story collection? This course will aim to shed light on this exciting field through a combination of readings, talks with local publishing professionals, in-class discussion, and hands-on work. We will learn about publishing by tracing the literary work from the hands of the author, through the processes of acquisition, editing, production, marketing, and distribution, and into the hands of the reader. Additional topics will include recent trends in technology, magazine and book editing, and the roles of the literary agent, the independent publisher, and the book reviewer. We will take advantage of the extraordinary publishing resources in the Twin Cities through guest speakers and field trips. Assignments will include writing brief book reviews, presenting publisher profiles, editing projects, and writing a final paper on publishing issues. This course is designed for readers who want to know how the magazine or book they’re holding got into their hands, for writers who want to know what happens when they send their works to publishers, and for those interested in publishing as a future career.
- rhētor: Steven Woodward
Medieval mysteries and magic abound in historical British literature. What creature really kidnapped the infant son of Queen Rhiannon? What was Margery Kempe’s greatest, shameful secret? Did Shakespeare really write his plays? Social questions arise too: how did magical legends affect the development of the “normative” Anglo-American society we see today?
We will investigate these questions and more as we read poetry, stories, and plays from British history. One of our main tools will be etymology—the study of words and how they developed over time. By investigating the history of words like “man” and “wife”, we will trace meaning and change in both literature and society.
Along the way, we will pay special attention to tracing the footsteps of individuals who were prohibited from participating in mainstream literary society: low-income workers, women, LGBTQ* folk, and BIPOC groups. Literary investigation and etymology will help us learn from our cultural ancestors who lived on the margins of their societies.
We will investigate these questions and more as we read poetry, stories, and plays from British history. One of our main tools will be etymology—the study of words and how they developed over time. By investigating the history of words like “man” and “wife”, we will trace meaning and change in both literature and society.
Along the way, we will pay special attention to tracing the footsteps of individuals who were prohibited from participating in mainstream literary society: low-income workers, women, LGBTQ* folk, and BIPOC groups. Literary investigation and etymology will help us learn from our cultural ancestors who lived on the margins of their societies.
- rhētor: Coral Lumbley
Since the invention of film, audiences have been fascinated by fantastic depictions of the Middle Ages on screen. Audiences love escaping into mysterious worlds of adventure with kings, warriors, and princesses. But how much do these movies really have to do with the historical Middle Ages? Do they illuminate truths or manufacture lies? Was this time period really as exciting, romantic, and dangerous as we imagine? In this class, we will dive into medieval movies and use actual historical sources to see how “accurate” the movies are. In the end, we will find out what modern movies say not just about medieval societies, but how they are actually a mirror for modern-day viewers.
As a First-Year Course, this class will familiarize you with college-level materials and methods, including seminar discussions and written analysis. The class will also introduce you to various resources on campus, from health services to tech rentals.
Learning Outcomes:
Develop analytical skills and critical vocabulary using film and text
Generate profound ideas using community knowledge-weaving
Learn how the Middle Ages get translated for modern audiences
Demonstrate understanding in analytic writing and creative film-making
As a First-Year Course, this class will familiarize you with college-level materials and methods, including seminar discussions and written analysis. The class will also introduce you to various resources on campus, from health services to tech rentals.
Learning Outcomes:
Develop analytical skills and critical vocabulary using film and text
Generate profound ideas using community knowledge-weaving
Learn how the Middle Ages get translated for modern audiences
Demonstrate understanding in analytic writing and creative film-making
- rhētor: Coral Lumbley
Course Description:
This course examines and critically analyzes various approaches to the study of how different individuals and communities in particular historical and cultural scenarios in contemporary Latin America create meanings about their past experience with political violence. The course addresses questions related to the tension between remembering and forgetting, the presence of conflicting memories and truths and how these are negotiated or not through distinct forms of representation. The cultural analysis of different means of representation: human rights and truth commissions’ reports, testimonials, film, art and memorials will be the basis for class discussions on different notions of truth and different forms of truth-telling. A close examination of these forms of representation will reveal the extent to which they can conflict with each other while at the same time feed on each other, creating “effects of truth” and leaving room for secrecy as a mode of truth-telling. Finally, the course will also compel students to think about what the consequences the politics of memory have for the future in Latin America.
The content and discussion in this course will necessarily engage with historical contexts and personal testimonies of violence that include arbitrary arrest and detention, torture, sexual violence, genocide, massacres, extrajudicial execution and disappearances. Much of the material will be emotionally and intellectually challenging to engage with. We will do our best to flag especially graphic or intense content that discusses or represents violence and will do our best to make this classroom a space where we can engage bravely, empathetically and thoughtfully with difficult content every week.
This course examines and critically analyzes various approaches to the study of how different individuals and communities in particular historical and cultural scenarios in contemporary Latin America create meanings about their past experience with political violence. The course addresses questions related to the tension between remembering and forgetting, the presence of conflicting memories and truths and how these are negotiated or not through distinct forms of representation. The cultural analysis of different means of representation: human rights and truth commissions’ reports, testimonials, film, art and memorials will be the basis for class discussions on different notions of truth and different forms of truth-telling. A close examination of these forms of representation will reveal the extent to which they can conflict with each other while at the same time feed on each other, creating “effects of truth” and leaving room for secrecy as a mode of truth-telling. Finally, the course will also compel students to think about what the consequences the politics of memory have for the future in Latin America.
The content and discussion in this course will necessarily engage with historical contexts and personal testimonies of violence that include arbitrary arrest and detention, torture, sexual violence, genocide, massacres, extrajudicial execution and disappearances. Much of the material will be emotionally and intellectually challenging to engage with. We will do our best to flag especially graphic or intense content that discusses or represents violence and will do our best to make this classroom a space where we can engage bravely, empathetically and thoughtfully with difficult content every week.
- rhētor: Olga González
Climate change is no longer a distant, hypothetical threat. Yet, though more than half of Americans are “concerned” or “alarmed” about global warming, few are taking significant personal action in response, and only a small minority are involved in civic action to address the issue.
This course will take a broad psychological perspective on the questions, “Why are we not doing enough to address global climate change?” and "What will catalyze the social movement necessary to address the issue?" The class will explore psychological theories and studies that help explain why people respond to the climate crisis in the ways they do, and what psychological research tells us about how to shift that response.
This course will take a broad psychological perspective on the questions, “Why are we not doing enough to address global climate change?” and "What will catalyze the social movement necessary to address the issue?" The class will explore psychological theories and studies that help explain why people respond to the climate crisis in the ways they do, and what psychological research tells us about how to shift that response.
- rhētor: Christie Manning
Reading Plays guides students in close readings of dramatic literature, in particular of plays that are typically left out of the traditional theatrical canon.
Students will learn about the socio-historical context of each play, and in-
class exercises will introduce them to the foundation of script analysis: they will
examine the play's given circumstances, dialogue, dramatic action, characters, and style. Students will read a new play every week; assignments include weekly in- class writing exercises and short critical papers. This course introduces students to contemporary Indigenous theatre and performance (writ large) produced and performed in what is now known as Canada and the United States, and to the theoretical frames provided by Indigenous scholars and artists to engage with these works. While in no way exhaustive, this broad survey includes theatre, dance, film, and music and begins in the 1960’s and ends with current productions.
Students will learn about the socio-historical context of each play, and in-
class exercises will introduce them to the foundation of script analysis: they will
examine the play's given circumstances, dialogue, dramatic action, characters, and style. Students will read a new play every week; assignments include weekly in- class writing exercises and short critical papers. This course introduces students to contemporary Indigenous theatre and performance (writ large) produced and performed in what is now known as Canada and the United States, and to the theoretical frames provided by Indigenous scholars and artists to engage with these works. While in no way exhaustive, this broad survey includes theatre, dance, film, and music and begins in the 1960’s and ends with current productions.
- rhētor: Sam Mitchell
Self-defense is, by its simplest definition, the act of keeping oneself safe. Our curriculum covers a continuum of scenarios and actions, from a no-contact interaction to a full-blown physical attack. We will discuss body language, awareness, and using one’s voice assertively. We will also explore physical resistance options and how to create the maximum amount of force possible in any given scenario. Warmups are included in all but the first class. Classes, except for the first class, will be conducted in bare feet unless other accommodations are made.
- rhētor: Gina Wood
Our class website is here: https://sites.google.com/macalester.edu/engl115-shakespeare/home
- rhētor: Penelope Geng
Description
This course has been an ongoing experiment. Students have often asked why our department does not offer a basic course on the religions of the world. They have sought a kind of classic survey, to give them a certain cultural literacy in the world’s major religions (on “literacy,” cf. S. Prothero, Religious Literacy. Also look at https://rpl.hds.harvard.edu/what-we-do/our-approach/what-religious-literacy and https://rpl.hds.harvard.edu/what-we-do/our-approach/core-principles as well as the Pew survey http://www.pewforum.org/2010/09/28/u-s-religious-knowledge-survey/). At the same time, several critics have raised questions about the whole project of defining, locating, and comparing the major religious traditions, often accusing the authors of world religions textbooks of western biases and masked theological agendas. Meanwhile, a revised version of Huston Smith’s 1958 book Religions of Man is continually reprinted and continually outsells far more sophisticated textbooks. When reading a world religions textbook, one should ask if the author is trying to make a particular religion look good, or, more likely, trying to make certain versions of all religions look good.
Our goal will be to try to comprehend just what cultural literacy would mean when studying the major religious traditions of the world, while at the same time developing an appreciation for some of the blind spots and problems in this enterprise. To a large extent, we will do some serious construction before we feel ready for de-construction. Most weeks, we will cover one of five major areas (South Asia, East Asia, Judaism, Christianity, Islam) and students will read a different authors’ treatment of this material. We will have a general discussion of the material covered in the variety of books we are considering, to get a sense of the different authors’ choices and to shake our confidence in the idea that there are simple facts that any objective observer would record. At the end of each area, we will have a short quiz on some of the agreed upon “facts.”
The final paper will be the student’s critical reading of their chosen textbook, in light of the issues raised throughout the semester and the questions raised by theorists in the study of religion (e.g.,Masuzawa, Nongbri, Laine et al. …and take a look at Religion for Breakfast: https://religionforbreakfast.com/ .
This course has been an ongoing experiment. Students have often asked why our department does not offer a basic course on the religions of the world. They have sought a kind of classic survey, to give them a certain cultural literacy in the world’s major religions (on “literacy,” cf. S. Prothero, Religious Literacy. Also look at https://rpl.hds.harvard.edu/what-we-do/our-approach/what-religious-literacy and https://rpl.hds.harvard.edu/what-we-do/our-approach/core-principles as well as the Pew survey http://www.pewforum.org/2010/09/28/u-s-religious-knowledge-survey/). At the same time, several critics have raised questions about the whole project of defining, locating, and comparing the major religious traditions, often accusing the authors of world religions textbooks of western biases and masked theological agendas. Meanwhile, a revised version of Huston Smith’s 1958 book Religions of Man is continually reprinted and continually outsells far more sophisticated textbooks. When reading a world religions textbook, one should ask if the author is trying to make a particular religion look good, or, more likely, trying to make certain versions of all religions look good.
Our goal will be to try to comprehend just what cultural literacy would mean when studying the major religious traditions of the world, while at the same time developing an appreciation for some of the blind spots and problems in this enterprise. To a large extent, we will do some serious construction before we feel ready for de-construction. Most weeks, we will cover one of five major areas (South Asia, East Asia, Judaism, Christianity, Islam) and students will read a different authors’ treatment of this material. We will have a general discussion of the material covered in the variety of books we are considering, to get a sense of the different authors’ choices and to shake our confidence in the idea that there are simple facts that any objective observer would record. At the end of each area, we will have a short quiz on some of the agreed upon “facts.”
The final paper will be the student’s critical reading of their chosen textbook, in light of the issues raised throughout the semester and the questions raised by theorists in the study of religion (e.g.,Masuzawa, Nongbri, Laine et al. …and take a look at Religion for Breakfast: https://religionforbreakfast.com/ .
- rhētor: James Laine