Fall 2017
REL 200A. Historical Roots of the Study of Religion (4 units)
Daniel Stolzenberg
M 2:10-5:00P
922 Sproul Hall
CRN 59120
Course Description: Consideration of the historical and philosophical formation of religion as a concept. Treats the emergence of religion as a category of analysis and understanding from the Reformation through the Enlightenment.
Prerequisite: Graduate standing or consent of instructor (dstolz@ucdavis.edu).
Format: Seminar - 3 hours; Term Paper.
Textbooks:
- TBA
REL 230F. Circulation of Culture: South Asian Documentary Cinema (4 units)
Gargi Sen
W 3:10-6:00P
111 Wellman Hall
CRN 63581
Course Description: This seminar explores how the local and global impact and shape the other and consequently how culture circulates through an examination of South Asian Documentary Cinema. We will examine issues around representation, meaning creation and structures of power through the study of documentary films. Understand issues of gender, labor, ecology, development and culture from a rights based perspective.
The seminar is based on viewing and discussing documentaries; its content, form, aesthetics and practice. In each session we will view film/s and clips to study the issues in depth, identify overlaps and commonality of issues across histories and times. Relevant readings about documentary cinema and issues for each session will help frame the discussion. Our focus will be on the decades from the 1990s to today, and will look at how the documentary form changes to accommodate the complexities of the subjects/ representation.
Cinema will provide a visual entry into a myriad set of subjects and explore those in depth. It will place the human at the centre of social, political and economic change and study the different points of view. The post screening discussions will study the film as an art form, the position taken by the filmmaker/s, the context of the film, the time when it was made, the subjective versus the objective, the ‘real’ versus the constructed and the documentary practice.
Through the seminars students will learn how to read documentary text, deconstruct representation, understand meaning creation, and structures of power.
May be repeated for credit when topic differs.
Prerequisite: Graduate standing or consent of instructor (gsen@ucdavis.edu).
Format: Seminar - 3 hours; Term Paper.
Textbooks:
- TBA
Winter 2018
REL 200B - Foundational Theories of Religion
Prof. Seth Sanders
Thursdays, 2:10-5:00pm
922 Sproul Hall
This course asks, what is the distinctive role of Religious Studies in the academy; that is, what is it able to tell us that other disciplines cannot? Our angle on the question is the very widespread human phenomenon of sacrifice. We will examine some classic and neglected theories from four angles:
1.The history of the comparative study of religion as a series of arguments over sacrifice
2.Sacrifice as a form of giving and sharing, a tool for forming bonds, that also creates loss via destruction
3.Sacrifice as performative, revealed through language and cognition, vs. sacrifice as material, revealed through archaeology
4.Sacrifice as suffering and trauma vs. sacrifice as skilled culinary activity
Spring 2018
REL 200C - Contemporary Approaches to the Study of Religion
Eva Mroczek
This is the final class in the 200-series of required courses for graduate students. The goal of the class is to prepare you to write and speak about religion in a way that:
a) is clear even to people who are not in your subfield;
b) helps you balance collaboration and critique in order to become part of a larger intellectual community, making a distinctive new contribution that fully recognizes the role and value of other participants in the field;
c) makes people want to read or hear more about your ideas—and remember your contribution.
We will work toward these goals by practicing several genres beyond the research paper that scholars of religion need to master: a book review, a conference paper/public lecture/job talk, and a short essay for a broader audience. This work is not separate from research but symbiotic with it, putting your rigorous, peer-reviewed work in dialogue with the questions that motivate it and the audiences that will support it and benefit from it. Throughout, we will study the work of key scholars and writers on religion who will serve us as models and interlocutors.
Working on these projects will help you develop your own voice as a scholar and articulate your project clearly and concisely. These skills will position you well for presenting at conferences, applying for funding, and planning for the job market in both research and teaching institutions, as well as the wider world where good research, new ideas, and convincing expression are always valued.
REL 210A- Special Topics in American Religious Cultures
Meaghan O'Keefe