COURSE WEBSITE / ONLINE SYLLABUS

Religious Studies 701: Issues in the Study of Religions (Fall 2022)

This online syllabus/course website is posted at https://socialsciences.mcmaster.ca/danahol/701/ and is also accessible by way of my home page (see below) or by way of the Department of Religious Studies website. In case there are changes to our schedule or to other aspects of the course, this web syllabus will be updated and students will be notified by email. Please be sure to keep me up to date about your email addresses.


Class Meetings: Mondays, 2:30-4:30 p.m., L. R. Wilson Hall (LRW) 1003

INSTRUCTOR:  Professor Dana Hollander, Department of Religious Studies,  danahol@mcmaster.ca*,  https://socialsciences.mcmaster.ca/danahol/

*in your email messages, please let me know how I can reach you by phone.
Office Hours: Thursdays, 6-7 p.m., or by appointment


☛ JUMP TO WEEKLY SCHEDULE: September / October / November / December


COURSE DESCRIPTION. Religious Studies 701 - "Issues in the Study of Religions" is required of all students completing a graduate (MA or PhD) degree in Religious Studies at McMaster. It offers a forum for the discussion of issues central to the field of religion, and for the exploration of recent developments.

COURSE MATERIALS: Details on how to obtain each reading will be communicated in class and by email.

It is a requirement of this seminar that you use and bring to the relevant class meetings your own print copies of the works we are studying - in the same edition selected for the class.

Detail from a mural in Highland Park, Los Angeles. Photo used with permission.

updated October 11, 2022

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

Grades will be based on Participation/Presentation(s) 45%, Final Paper 55%.


Please observe McMaster's COVID protocols (complete info at covid19.mcmaster.ca):
  • The university continues to strongly encourage our community to wear a mask when indoors, especially in classrooms, libraries, crowded spaces or enclosed workspaces. Masks will continue to be available for free on campus.
  • I will be wearing a mask in our class meetings, and encourage you to wear a mask in class, labs, studios, seminars, and any crowded spaces. Wearing a mask in our shared classroom space will help to keep yourself and others healthy throughout the term in the face of COVID19 (as well as other airborne illnesses). For you, staying healthy allows you to attend classes in-person, study, complete course work, and collaborate with your peers, all of which will be key to your academic success this year. Wearing a mask in the classroom also provides increased protection to other students, instructors, and TAs, who may have elevated needs in their own health or that of their families.
  • If you are feeling unwell, stay home.
  • While daily COVID screening on MacCheck is not required, you must use the provincial self-assessment screening tool if you or someone you live with has symptoms or tests positive for COVID.
  • What to do if you've been exposed to COVID-19
If you need to stay home or isolate due to COVID or for another reason, please notify me with as much notice as possible, so that I can make alternate arrangements for this course as needed.



WEEKLY SCHEDULE


Week 1 (Sept. 12) - Introductions, Planning Meeting



Week 2 (Sept. 19) - Methodological Directives and Dilemmas, and What Is Theory?

William E. Arnal, "On the Definition of Religion" (2000/2013), chap. 1 in Arnal/McCutcheon, The Sacred Is the Profane. The Political Nature of "Religion" (2013)

selection from Daniel Boyarin, Judaism. The Genealogy of a Modern Notion (2019), chap. 1: "The Debate of the Terms": pp. 3-12, skim 12-19.

Russell T. McCutcheon, Critics Not Caretakers. Redescribing the Public Study of Religion (2001): part 1 (=chapters 1 and 2)

---, Studying Religion: An Introduction (2019), chap. 2

James S. Bielo, Anthropology of Religion: The Basics (2015), pp. 1-8

Kieran Healy, "Social Theory Through Complaining" (syllabus, 2013)

excerpt from SAGE Encyclopedia of Qualitative Research Methods (2008) s.v. "Theory"



Week 3 (Sept. 26) - The University and Academic Disciplines. Conceptions of "Religion," part 1

Bill Readings, The University in Ruins (1996): chap. 4

Immanuel Kant, The Conflict of the Faculties (1798), trans. Mary J. Gregor, in Kant, Religion and Rational Theology, ed. Wood/Di Giovianni: 247-52, 255-56, 262-64

Background: Allen W. Wood, "General Introduction" to Kant, Religion and Rational Theology; Mike Higton, "Berlin," chap. 3 of A Theology of Higher Education (2012), esp. 61-67 top.

Roger I. Simon, "The University: A Place to Think?" (2001)

Mark C. Taylor, "End the University as We Know It," New York Times, April 27, 2009

Adam Kotsko, "Higher Education in the Age of Coronavirus. Not Persuasion, But Power: Against 'Making the Case,'" Boston Review, May 6, 2020

F. Max Müller, Lectures on the Origin and Growth of Religion (1882), Lecture 1: "The Perception of the Infinite."

Background: Lourens van den Bosch, "Friedrich Max Müller and the Science of Religion," chap. 5 in Religion, Theory, Critique. Classic and Contemporary Approaches and Methodologies, ed. Richard King (2017)


Further Background:

John Hinnells (ed.), Routledge Companion to the Study of Religion, 2nd ed. (2010): skim chapters by Sharpe, Alles, and Allen.



Week 4 (Oct. 3) - Origins and Conceptions of "Religious Studies" and of "Religion," part 2

Brent Nongbri, Before Religion: A History of a Modern Concept (2013): intro., chaps 1 and 6, conclusion

William Arnal, "The Origins of Christianity Within, and Without, 'Religion': A Case Study," chap. 8 of Arnal/McCutcheon, The Sacred Is the Profane (2013)

Gregory Schopen, "Archaeology and Protestant Presuppositions in the Study of Indian Buddhism," History of Religions, vol. 31, no. 1 (August 1991).

Final Paper Assignment will be communicated this week


Background/Supplementary

Tomoko Masuzawa, The Invention of World Religions (2005) [Mills Library print reserve]

Kristian Peterson's interview with Arnal and McCutcheon on their book The Sacred is the Profane for the New Books Network (June 27, 2014).



October 10-14: FALL BREAK

October 17 - No Meeting; Instructor away

Please read: Gerald Graff et al., They Say/I Say. The Moves That Matter In Academic Writing, 2nd ed. [on reserve at Mills Library]: chapters 1-12. OR 5th ed. [purchase your own copy]: chapters 1-11 and 14-15.



Week 5 (Oct. 24) - Anthropology and the "Insider/Outsider Problem" rescheduled to Oct. 25, 2:30-4:30

Russell T. McCutcheon, Introduction to Part 1 of The Insider/Outsider Problem (1999), pp. 15-22,

Clifford Geertz, excerpt from "Religion as a Cultural System" (1966) in Theories of Religion, ed. Kunin, pp. 207-28.

---, "'From the Native's Point of View': On the Nature of Anthropological Understanding" (1974) in McCutcheon, The Insider/Outsider Problem

Talal Asad, "The Construction of Religion as an Anthropological Category" [1983/1993], in Genealogies of Religion

Jonathan Z. Smith, "The Devil in Mr. Jones" (1982), in McCutcheon, The Insider/Outsider Problem

Bielo, Anthropology of Religion: The Basics, chap. 2


Background/Supplementary

Basit Iqbal and Milad Odabaei, "Talal Asad," Critical Theory for Political Theology 2.0, Political Theology Network (May 11, 2021)



Friday, Oct. 28, 1:00 p.m. - Paper Proposal and Participation Self-Assessment due to Dr. Hollander

No meeting on October 31. Instead we will have individual meetings on paper proposals and the interim participation grade.



Week 6 (Nov. 7) - Identity and Differences

Jeffrey Nealon and Susan Searls Giroux, The Theory Toolbox, 2nd ed. (2012), chap. 10: "Differences"

Adele Reinhartz, "The Vanishing Jews of Antiquity," Marginalia Review of Books (June 24, 2014)

Annette Yoshiko Reed, "Ioudaios Before and After 'Religion,'" in "Jew and Judean: A Forum on Politics and Historiography in the Translation of Ancient Texts," Marginalia Review of Books (August 24, 2014)

Amy-Jill Levine, "Christian Privilege, Christian Fragility, and the Gospel of John," from Adele Reinhartz (ed.), The Gospel of John and Jewish-Christian Relations (2018)

Ann Taves, "Negotiating the Boundaries in Theological and Religious Studies" (2012)

"Decoloniality, Religion and Contending Modernities," The Kroc Cast: Peace Studies Conversations: interview with Atalia Omer and Ebrahim Moosa (June 16, 2021).

Atalia Omer, "Can a Critic be a Caretaker Too? Religion, Conflict, and Conflict Transformation," Journal of the American Academy of Religion 79 no. 2 (June 2011)



Week 7 (November 14) - Feminism, Gender, Sexuality, part 1

Cressida Heyes, "Identity Politics" in Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2002/2020)

Combahee River Collective, "Combahee River Collective Statement" (1977), from Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology, ed. Barbara Smith (2000)

Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, "Until Black Women Are Free, None of Us Will Be Free. Barbara Smith and the Black Feminist Visionaries of the Combahee River Collective," newyorker.com, July 20, 2020

Judith Butler, "Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory," Theatre Journal 40 no. 4 (December 1988)

Sarah Hansen, "Queer Performativity" in Gail Weiss et al. (ed.), 50 Concepts for a Critical Phenomenology (2020)

Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, "Queer Performativity. Henry James's The Art of the Novel," GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian & Gay Studies 1 (1993)

"The Awakening. Women and Power in the Academy," Chronicle of Higher Education (April 1, 2018): Sharon Marcus, "We're Not Even Close"



Week 8 (November 21) - Feminism, Gender, Sexuality, part 2

Leila Hadj Abdou, "Religion and Gender," chap. 5 in Routledge Handbook of Religion, Politics and Ideology, ed. Jeffrey Haynes (2021/2022)

Saba Mahmood, "Feminist Theory, Agency and the Liberatory Subject: Some Reflections on the Islamic Revival in Egypt" (2005) in Temenos. Nordic Journal of Comparative Religion 42 (2006) no. 1

from "Roundtable: Toward a Transfeminist Religious Studies," ed. Max Strassfeld, Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion 34 (2018) no. 1:

  • Max Strassfeld, "Transing Religious Studies" (37-53)

  • Melissa M. Wilcox, "Religion Is Already Transed; Religious Studies Is Not (Yet) Listening" (84-88)


Related Readings and Additional Resources:

Interview with Kecia Ali (Boston University) about her project on gender bias especially in the field of Islamic Studies (July 15, 2020)

Talia Bettcher, "Feminist Perspectives on Trans Issues," in Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2009/2014)

Saba Mahmood, Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject (2005)

Michael Allan et al., "Saba Mahmood," Critical Theory for Political Theology 2.0, Political Theology Network (April 20, 2021)

Melissa M. Wilcox, Queer Nuns: Religion, Activism, and Serious Parody (2018)

-----, Queer Religiosities. An Introduction to Queer and Transgender Studies in Religion (2020) [library purchase has been requested]



Week 9 (November 28) - Racism and Whiteness

George M. Fredrickson, Racism. A Short History (2002), chaps. 1 and 2

Frantz Fanon, selection from "The Fact of Blackness" (from Black Skin, White Masks [1952])

James Baldwin, selection from The Fire Next Time (1962), and excerpt from interview with Kenneth Clark (1963)

selection from Ta-Nehisi Coates, Between the World and Me (2015)

George Yancy, "Introduction: Flipping the Script" in Look, a White! Philosophical Essays on Whiteness (2012), pp. 1-14; and "Dear White America" (New York Times, December 24, 2015)

Kihana Miraya Ross, "Call It What It Is: Anti-Blackness," New York Times, June 4, 2020

Anya Topolski, "The Race-Religion Constellation," from Routledge Encyclopedia of Race and Racism, ed. John Solomos. Section: "Origins and Genealogy," ed. Nasar Meer (forthcoming)


Related Readings and Additional Resources:

Jesse McCarthy, "On Afropessimism," Los Angeles Review of Books, July 20, 1920

A Conversation Between Frank Wilderson III and Bill Hart (professor of Religious Studies at Macalester College), East Side Freedom Library, Minneapolis.

Black Lives Matter and Anti-Racism Resources, compiled by members of the Inclusivity, Diversity, and Equity Committee at the University of Minnesota School of Nursing



Week 10 (Dec. 5) - Race, Coloniality, Decolonization, Indigeneity

"Postcolonialism" in SAGE Encyclopedia of Qualitative Research Methods (2008)

Nelson Maldonado-Torres, "Race, Religion, and Ethics in the Modern/Colonial World," Journal of Religious Ethics 42 (2014), no. 4

An Yountae, "A Decolonial Theory of Religion: Race, Coloniality, and Secularity in the Americas," Journal of the American Academy of Religion 88, no. 4 (Dec. 2020)

Brennan Keegan, "Contemporary Native American and Indigenous Religions: State of the field," Religion Compass 16 no. 9 (September 2022)

Audra Simpson, "On Ethnographic Refusal: Indigeneity, 'Voice' and Colonial Citizenship," Junctures. The Journal for Thematic Dialogue 9 (December 2007)


Related Readings and Additional Resources:

Nelson Maldonado-Torres, "Secularism and Religion in the Modern/Colonial World-System: From Secular Postcoloniality to Postsecular Transmodernity," in Mabel Moraña et al., Coloniality At Large. Latin America and the Postcolonial Debate (2008)

Fred Moten, "Blackness and Nothingness (Mysticism in the Flesh)," South Atlantic Quarterly 112, no. 4 (Fall 2013)

George Shulman, "Fred Moten," Critical Theory for Political Theology 2.0, Political Theology Network (April 13, 2021)

Atalia Omer, "Decolonizing Religion and the Practice of Peace: Two Case Studies From the Postcolonial World," Critical Research on Religion (published online May 2020)

Maile Arvin, "Analytics of Indigeneity," in Native Studies Keywords, ed. S. N. Teves et al. (2015)

"Doctrine of Discovery stands in reconciliation's path," Catholic Register (March 23, 2022)



December 9 - Final Paper Due (detailed instructions to follow)




Copyright © Dana Hollander