Courses

• GRS RN 710: Religion, Community, and Culture in Medieval Spain
  Interactions between Muslims, Christians, and Jews in medieval Europe's most religiously diverse region -- from the establishment of an Islamic al-Andalus in 711 CE to the final Christian "reconquest" of the peninsula and expulsion of the Jews in 1492 CE. Also offered as GRS HI 710.
• GRS RN 723: Core Texts and Motifs of World Religions: West
  An intensive seminar in primary texts and key ideas of theology and religious philosophy as developed in representative world religions: Judaism, Christianity, Islam. First course in a year-long sequence. Each semester may be taken independently. Also offered as STH TT 901.
• GRS RN 724: Core Texts and Motifs of World Religions: East
  An intensive seminar in primary texts and key ideas of theology and religious philosophy as developed in representative world religions: Hinduism, Buddhism, Daoism, Confucianism. Second course in a year-long sequence. Each semester may be taken independently. Also offered as STH TT 902.
• GRS RN 727: Topics in American Religion
  Topic for Fall 2018: God, the Bestseller. Close reading of twentieth-century American religion books, with an eye on the shift from Protestantism to pluralism and the emergence of today's "spiritual but not religious" mindset. Possible authors: Martin Luther King, Dorothy Day, Huston Smith, Jiddu Krishnamurti.
• GRS RN 735: Women, Gender,and Islam
  Investigates the way Muslim religious discourse, norms, and practices create and sustain gender and hierarchy in religious, social, and familial life. Looks at historical and contemporary challenges posed to these structures.
• GRS RN 739: Jewish Bioethics
  Exploration of Jewish perspectives on life, death and dying, abortion, the new reproductive technologies, organ transplantation and genetic engineering. Examination of the impact of the Nazi doctors, racial hygiene, euthanasia, and genocide on contemporary bioethics.
• GRS RN 752: Topics in Religious Thought
  Topics vary from year to year. Topic for Fall 2016: Mysticism: East and West. What is mysticism? In this interactive seminar, we engage in close reading and analysis of texts describing direct communion with a divine or absolute reality. Texts drawn from Chinese, Indian, Jewish, Christian, Islamic, and Neoplatonic traditions.
• GRS RN 753: Topics in Religion and Sexuality
  Topic for Fall 2018: Sex, Art, and the Sacred in Modern America. Traces heated debates over sex, art, and religion to reveal competing genealogies of the sacred and profane in the modern US. Looks at feminist and queer visual and performance art, literature, and memoir in the context of culture wars conservatism.
• GRS RN 754: Sexuality and Religion in the U.S.
  Religion and sexuality in the U.S., including theoretical and historical approaches to religious and sexual desire, identity, ritual, and regulation. Possible topics include religious and sexual freedom, plural marriage, the Sexual Revolution, reproductive justice, sex and secularism, and LGBTQ rights.
• GRS RN 760: Seminar on the Holocaust
  Seminar examining ethical and religious issues raised by the Holocaust, including anti-Semitism; treatment of Jewish women; nature of the perpetrators; actions of different countries; importance of ideology; the nature and degree of Jewish resistance; post-Holocaust theology.
• GRS RN 766: Religion and the Problem of Tolerance
  Explores the religious roots of tolerance as an alternative to secular, more liberal foundations for pluralism. Grapples with the challenge of tolerance to the revealed religions and the ways different societies have met or failed to meet this challenge.
• GRS RN 791: Approaches to Religion I: Classical Approaches
  Surveys in roughly chronological order classic theoretical and methodological works in religious studies. Covers the history of the field, and critically analyzes the ways religion is studied and taught in modern universities.
• GRS RN 794: Magical Texts: Literature & Practice
  An advanced course in the interpretation of ancient magical texts, emphasizing the use of theoretical models (Malinowksi, Tambiah, J.Z. Smith) for understanding a selection of ritual manuals, amulets, binding tablets, and mystical ascent texts from Greco-Roman, Jewish, and Christian antiquity.
• GRS RN 795: Humanities Approaches to Religion
  Introduces major theoretical questions in the humanistic study of religion. Examines the nature and origin of religion as well as definitions and critiques of religion from comparative, historical, sociological, literary standpoints as well as postmodern and gender studies approaches.
• GRS RN 796: Social Science Approaches to Religion
  Introduces major theoretical questions in the social scientific study of religion. Examines approaches of Marx, Durkheim, and Freud among others.
• GRS RN 797: Philosophical and Theological Approaches to Religion
  An introduction to philosophical and theological approaches to the study of religion(s) as distinct from other humanities-based and social-scientific approaches. Provides a common vocabulary for students pursuing historical, constructive, or interdisciplinary projects related to religious thought.
• GRS SO 699: Teaching College Sociology I
  The goals, contents, and methods of instruction in sociology. General teaching-learning issues. Required of all teaching fellows.
• GRS SO 701: Advanced Sociological Theory (Classical)
  Primarily for first-year graduate students. Required for master's degree in sociology. Advanced survey and review of classical sociological theory and theorists.
• GRS SO 702: Proseminar: Sociological Methods
  Designed primarily for first-year graduate students. Review of major sociological methods.
• GRS SO 708: Contemporary Sociological Theory
  Covers the basic elements of the major theoretical paradigms in modern sociology, covering topics and problems in the philosophy of social science and current controversies in the field.

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