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.

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  • CAS RN 420: 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. Also offered as CAS PH 409. 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.
    • Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings
    • Oral and/or Signed Communication
  • CAS RN 424: 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.
  • CAS RN 427: Topics in American Religion
    Topic for Fall 2020: Historiography of US Religions. Exploration of key scholarship, both classic and contemporary, in the study of American religions. Possible authors include: Ahlstrom, Albanese, Braude, Douglas, Kruse, Marsden, Orsi, Raboteau, Tweed, Weisenfeld.
  • CAS RN 435: 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.
  • CAS RN 452: Topics in Religious Thought
    Topics vary from year to year. Topic for Fall 2020: Religion, Secularism, and Power. What forms does religion take in the modern world? This seminar exams the growing field of secularism studies, including its intersections with anthropology, feminist and queer studies, and critical race theory. Possible authors: Foucault, Asad, Mahmood, Sullivan, Coviello, Lloyd, Pellegrini.
  • CAS RN 453: 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. Also offered as CAS WS 305 C1.
  • CAS RN 459: Primo Levi Within Holocaust Literature
    Levi's writings employ scientific, literary, ethical, theological and philosophical approaches to the Holocaust. An examination of Levi's works both within the context of other writers such as Elie Wiesel, and within the practice of Holocaust testimony, ethics and witnessing. Effective Spring 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Ethical Reasoning.
    • Historical Consciousness
    • Ethical Reasoning
  • CAS RN 460: Seminar on the Holocaust
    This course will examine historical, ethical and religious issues arising from the Holocaust. We will discuss antisemitism and ideology; what communities were considered "other"; human motivation regarding collaborators, perpetrators and bystanders; the role of individuals, organizations and governments; the treatment of women; the ethics of resistance; the behavior of the Jewish Councils; and attitudes to the existence of God during and after the Holocaust. We will also compare the Holocaust to contemporary crises now occurring around the world. Effective Spring 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Oral and/or Signed Communication, Ethical Reasoning, Historical Consciousness.
  • CAS RN 468: 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.
  • CAS RN 504: Topics in Religion and the Visual Arts
    In-depth discussion of special issues in the study of religion and art. May be repeated for credit as topics change. Topic for Fall 2015: Religious Architecture in Islam: Mosques, Shrines, and Tombs. Examines a select group of buildings from the Islamic world in terms of architecture and religious practice. Topics include monuments such as the Ka'ba, the Dome of the Rock, or the Taj Mahal. Also offered as CAS AH 504.
  • CAS RN 524: Topics in Religion and Literature
    May be repeated for credit as topics change. Two topics are offered Spring 2018. Section A1: Dostoevsky's Brothers Karamazov. Close, careful study of Dostoevsky's masterpiece, with eye to philosophical, theological, cultural, literary significance; explores Dostoevsky's reinvention of the novel alongside questions of morality, justice, selfhood, modernity, the meaning of life. In English. Also offered as CAS LR 456 A1 and CAS XL 560 A1. Section B1: Gender and Religion in the Graphic Novel. Examines the aesthetics of comic art and the graphic novel as they emphasize gendered, religious, and cultural identities. Focus on Judaism and Islam, two storytelling traditions that use graphic novels to transport readers in time and space. Also offered as CAS WS 300 C1 and CAS XL 560 B1.
  • CAS RN 530: Gensex Buddhsm
    An introduction to Marxist cultural criticism that examines the transformation of concepts in classic Marxism (Marx, Lukacs, Althusser, Adorno, and Gramsci) into contemporary debates about race, gender, sexuality, colonialism, modernity, and language (Said, Zizek, Spivak, and others). Effective Spring 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Historical Consciousness, Critical Thinking.
    • Historical Consciousness
    • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
    • Critical Thinking
  • CAS RN 556: Dante: The Divine Comedy II: Purgatorio and Paradiso
    Focus on the literary, philosophical, and theological ideas Dante uses to represent his experience of himself and of human nature. Bi-lingual texts. Lectures and discussions in English. Also offered as CAS LI 556 and CAS XL 385.
  • CAS RN 561: Religion and International Relations
    Explores the role of religion in contemporary international relations in the context of questions about the common core of modernity. Reviews scholarly and policy literature, and case studies, in order to elucidate religion's intellectual and operational diversity in international relations.
  • CAS SO 100: Principles in Sociology
    An introduction to the major theories and basic principles of sociological analysis. Explores culture, media, socialization, race and ethnicity, globalization, capitalism, gender and sexuality, inequality and poverty, power in American society, and health and medicine from a sociological perspective. Carries social science divisional credit in CAS. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Social Inquiry I, Critical Thinking. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Social Inquiry I, The Individual in Community, Critical Thinking.
    • Social Inquiry I
    • The Individual in Community
    • Critical Thinking
  • CAS SO 201: Sociological Methods
    Required of concentrators and minor concentrators. Scientific method, measurement, experimentation, survey research, observational methods, projective techniques, and content analysis. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Social Inquiry I, Research and Information Literacy.
    • Social Inquiry I
    • Research and Information Literacy
  • CAS SO 203: Introduction to Sociological Theories
    Required of sociology majors and minors. Theoretical problems in sociology. The works of the three major founders of the discipline are the focus: Marx, Weber, and Durkheim. In-depth comparisons and contrasts in respect to themes and approaches are offered.
  • CAS SO 205: American Families
    Examines the family as a historically and geographically contingent social construction. How families in the U.S. are organized. Considers diverse family formations and intersections of race, class, gender, and sexuality in the operation of family dynamics and politics. Carries social science divisional credit in CAS. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Social Inquiry I, Critical Thinking.
    • Social Inquiry I
    • Critical Thinking
  • CAS SO 206: Introduction to the Sociology of Globalization
    A sociological introduction to globalization. Explores the roles of technology, transnational corporations, and the state. Considers globalization's impacts on the workplace, the environment, and other institutions as well as the emergence of global social movements. Carries social science divisional credit in CAS. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Social Inquiry I, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy.
    • Social Inquiry I
    • Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy
  • CAS SO 207: Sociology of Race and Ethnicity
    This course examines the fundamental theoretical and empirical approaches regarding race/ethnicity and the current state of race relations in the U.S. that explore both contemporary social problems. Carries social science divisional credit in CAS. Also offered as CAS AA 207. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, The Individual in Community, Research and Information Literacy.
    • Historical Consciousness
    • The Individual in Community
    • Research and Information Literacy

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