Study of Religion Courses 2021-2022
Fall 2021 GRADUATE COURSE OFFERINGS
**all topics courses can be repeated for credit
REL 230D (52907): Subjectivities of Sexuality (Naomi Janowitz)- Tuesdays 1:30-4:30
Sexual Subjectivities: Transgender Approaches to Religion and Psychoanalysis
Recent studies in religion draw attention to a series of figures who are sometimes cast as precursors of the contemporary transgender movement. These include the hijra in India, two-spirit individuals in native American communities and the Hawaiian mahu. We will examine the modern interpretation of these figures especially in relation to the question of special religious roles. Alongside these investigations we will review recent psychoanalytic studies of sexuality, gender and identity. Freud rejected then-standard physical moorings of sexual identity, substituting the concept of malleable object choice and complex fantasies about embodiment. Recent psychoanalytic studies specifically investigate transgender embodiment and issues of sexual difference. We will consider whether these theories offer insights into the range of sexual subjectivities religious practices appear to entail.
Readings include
Hinchy 2019 Governing Gender and Sexuality in Colonial India
Nanda 1999 Neither Man No Woman: The Hijras of India
Gherovich 2017 Transgender Psychoanalysis
Gherovich 2010 Please Select your gender
Jacobs (ed.) 1997 Two-Spirit People: Native American Gender Identity, Sexuality and Spirituality
REL 230C (52906): Medicine, Alchemy, Science (Lynna Dhanani)- Mondays, 3:10-6:00- COURSE CANCELED. PLANNED FOR FALL 2022
This course examines the widespread pre-modern science of alchemy in various periods across three major civilizations: Indian, Islamic, and European. Alchemy, currently labeled a pseudo-science or precursor to modern chemistry, involved a range of ideas and practices that went beyond transmuting base metals into gold. We will examine a range of alchemical texts that demonstrate a marked interest in medicine and other medieval sciences and will explore the views of self and the material world present in these readings. Towards the end of the course, we will situate our study within the larger context of the history of science and religion and changing theories of knowledge.
REL 230E (53792): Value, Ethics, Human Rights--Religion and Environment (Yael Teff-Seker)- Wednesdays 10:00-1:00
In this course, we will discuss the connection between environmental ethics, values, and behaviors and different religions, faiths, or belief systems. It will explore religious themes and narratives that address nature, plants, and animals in different traditions and texts, and delineate the complex and at times contradictory role of humans as stewards of nature, and their simultaneous place inside and outside, and in some cases above, the natural world. In their projects, students will discover these narratives, as well as examine past, present and future role religions have, or can have, in regard to environmental problems and their potential solutions. Projects will focus on case studies of various connections between religion and environment from around the world, and will include student-led and project-based learning, where students will be able to focus on topics and cases in which they find special interest, encourage peer learning, and experience a free, supportive, and in-depth discussion of their findings. The course will be conducted in person (health guidelines permitting), and will include sessions of outdoor learning at the UC Davis Arboretum.
COM 298: Forms of Professional Writing-(Archana Venkatesan)-Wednesday 2:10-3:30 p.m.- CRN: 27145
This course will train graduate students in different genres of professional writing with a focus on book reviews, public scholarship, and grant writing. We will also work on students’ CV-s. The course will involve peer-review and workshopping of drafts. At the end of the quarter, students will have produced one book review, one piece of public scholarship, and completed one grant proposal. We will also discuss how to place articles, reviews, and items of public scholarship, and the venues available for publication.
This is a two-unit course. Students will register for this course as COM 298: Directed Group Study. Grading is S/U.
Winter 2022 GRADUATE COURSE OFFERINGS
**all topics courses can be repeated for credit
REL 210C: Topics in Med. Religion - Otherworldly Presences: Experience and Authority in the History of Knowledge (Seth Sanders)
When a prophet sees God, what do they see? Ancient writers were already concerned with whether prophecies and mystical visions were real or fictional. Today many explain otherworldly experience as hallucination or neurological disturbance. Are these the right questions, or are there other, more productive ways of understanding the subjective, personal basis of knowledge, including that of God? Starting with ancient accounts and critiques of prophetic visions and mystical journeys, we will explore some of the key perspectives from Sociology, political theory, linguistic anthropology, and philosophy of religion, including the relationship between institutional authority and individual charisma, accounts of the senses versus accounts of language, and contests over truth and authority where mysticism finds its place in the history of science.
REL 210B: Topics in Asian Religions- Shariah, Modernity, and Post-Coloniality-(Mairaj Syed)
The past decade has witnessed an increased interest in ethics and law beyond what is found in modern Western liberalism. One historical tradition with a long and global discursive history articulating a legal and ethical vision that does not originate in Western Europe is the Sharia, also known as Islamic law. Because of this, the study of Sharia is a particularly rich site for the examination of how a powerful and global non-Western tradition of moral and legal thought has contested and synthesized with Western modernity. As such, this seminar will examine academic scholarship from religious studies, area studies, law, history and anthropology on the relationship between Shariah, modernity, and post-coloniality. It will tentatively organize scholarly approaches addressing the course's core theme into four broad camps: critical Muslim studies, synthesizers, liberal/progressive reformers, and traditionalists. By surveying these four approaches, students will gain a broad knowledge of the ethical vision and epistemological suppositions of each group and thereby gain an in-depth understanding of how one field has negotiated post-coloniality with Western modernity.
Potential Readings drawn from:
Wael Hallaq- Impossible State
Wael Hallaq- Restating Orientalism
Salman Sayyid - Recalling the Caliphate
Kecia Ali - Sexual Ethics and Islam
Mohamed Fadel - "The True, the Good and the Reasonable: The Theological and Ethical Roots of Public Reason in Islamic Law"
Sarah Eltantawi - Shariah on Trial
Nada Mumtouz - God's Property: Islam Charity and the Modern State
Khaled Fahmy - In Quest of Justice: Islamic Law and Forensic Medicine
Hussein Ali Agrama - Questioning Secularism: Islam, Sovereignty, and the Rule of Law in Modern Egypt
Iza R. Hussin - The Politics of Islamic Law: Local Elites, Colonial Authority, and the Making of the Muslim State
Nurfadhzila Yahava - Fluid Jurisdictions: Colonial Law and Arabs in Southeast Asia.
Muhammad Qasim Zaman - Islam in Pakistan: a History
REL 231E/HMR 200A: Human Rights (Keith Watenpaugh)
This seminar explores the human rights idea and the field of Human Rights Studies. Participants will read and discuss influential and recent work in the field. The seminar will provide an opportunity for students to develop research projects from within their own disciplines and scholarly engagement activities, and create syllabi and lesson plans appropriate to their field(s).
Readings include:
Keck, Margaret E., and Kathryn Sikkink. Activists beyond borders: advocacy networks in international politics. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2004.
Quataert, Jean H. Advocating dignity: human rights mobilizations in global politics. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011.
Gündogdu, Ayten. Rightlessness in an age of rights: Hannah Arendt and the contemporary struggles of migrants. Oxford University Press, 2014.
Moses, A. Dirk. The problems of genocide: permanent security and the language of transgression. Cambridge University Press, 2021.
Atapattu, Sumudu. "Climate change and displacement: protecting ‘climate refugees’ within a framework of justice and human rights." Journal of Human Rights and the Environment 11, no. 1 (2020): 86-113.