Courses

The listing of a course description here does not guarantee a course’s being offered in a particular semester. Please refer to the published schedule of classes on the Student Link for confirmation a class is actually being taught and for specific course meeting dates and times.

• GRS RN 720: Maimonides
  A study of major aspects of the thought of Maimonides. Primary focus on the Guide of the Perplexed, with attention to its modern reception in works by Baruch Spinoza, Hermann Cohen, Leo Strauss, and others. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings, Oral and/or Signed Communication.
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  • Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings
  • Oral and/or Signed Communication
• 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 2019: The First Practice: Wandering in the World's Religions. Exploration of the wandering of key religious founders and how the movements they established incorporated into both practice and memory the ideals of wandering and settling, escape and return. Possible examples include Buddha, Laozi, Confucius, Jesus, Muhammad, Guru Nanak.
• 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
  Topic for Fall 2019: The First Practice: Wandering in the World's Religions. Exploration of the wandering of key religious founders and how the movements they established incorporated into both practice and memory the ideals of wandering and settling, escape and return. Possible examples include Buddha, Laozi, Confucius, Jesus, Muhammad, Guru Nanak.
• 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 759: Primo Levi and Holocaust Literature
  A study of Primo Levi's writings and scientific, theological, and philosophical approaches to the Holocaust. Other theorists (Arendt, Wiesel, Muller--Hill) and other survivors' testimonies (Delbo, Borowski, Fink) are read in conjunction with Levi's works.
• 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 768: Symbol, Myth, and Rite
  Historical overview of ritual behavior, the role of symbolism in the study of culture, and the narrative quality of worldview and belief. Emphasis on verbal performance and public display events in specific cultural contexts
• 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 792: Approaches to Religion II: Religion and Contemporary Theory
  Surveys contemporary theoretical and methodological works in religious studies. Topics might include the category of experience; ritual; modernism and postmodernism; sexual, racial, and cultural difference; postcolonial theory; historicism; narrative theory; gender and sexuality studies; secularism; and the politics of interpretation.
• GRS RN 793: Professional Development Seminar for Doctoral Students in Religion
  Prepares Religion doctoral students for advanced research, writing, and teaching in the field. Topics include: comprehensive exams, conference presentations, syllabus design, fellowship applications, and job markets.
• 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 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.

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