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Graduate Seminars 2025-2026

GRADUATE COURSE OFFERINGS 2025-2026

**all topics courses can be repeated for credit

Fall 2025

REL 200A- Historical Roots of  the Study of Religion- Lynna Dhanani- Wednesdays 2:10-5:00 in Sproul 922
In this graduate seminar, we examine how “religion” emerges as distinct category of analysis and understanding by looking at its relationship with the intertwined categories of alchemy, medicine, and science from pre-modernity through the Reformation, Scientific Revolution, Enlightenment, and modern period.  Drawing on primary sources—including theological, alchemical, yogic, scientific, medical, and theosophical texts—from European, Islamic, and Indian contexts, we trace the shifting boundaries and epistemologies between religion, science, and medicine as we explore views of the material world, body, and self in these texts and contexts.

  •  RELL 230B- Thematic Topics - Language, Rhetoric, and Performance -Topic: Religion and Translation; Religion in Translation- MOVED TO SPRING Quarter 2026
This course explores the intersection of religion and translation with a focus on the Indian subcontinent. Some topics we will explore--the particularities of translating Indic religious texts, translation as a metaphor for cultural and religious exchange, and colonial legacies and receptions of translated religious texts. We might also discuss how to teach religious texts in translation in the classroom.
 
The reading list for this course has not been finalized, but will include the following:
 
Ronit Ricci. Islam Translated: Literature, Conversion, and the Arabic Cosmopolis of South and Southeast Asia
Sankar Nair. Translating Wisdom: Hindu-Muslim Intellectual Interactions in Early Modern South Asia
Elaine Fisher. Meeting of Rivers (Forthcoming)
Anna Schultz. , Echoes of Translation: Audibility and Relationality in Bene Israel Women’s Song (Forthcoming)


 

 


 

Winter 2026

REL 200B- Foundational Theories of Religion- Mairaj Syed - Tuesdays, 2:10-5:00, Sproul 922

 

REL 230C- Thematic Topics - Modernity, Science, and Secularism- Gregory Dobbins- Wednesdays 2:10-5:00, Sproul 922
esoteric” movements as they relate to religious formations leading to theosophy and other more contemporary categories of religion. 

Spring 2026

REL 200C- Contemporary Approaches to the Study of Religion- Naomi Janowitz- Tuesdays, 2:10-5:00, Sproul 922

REL 230B- Thematic Topics - Language, Rhetoric, and Performance -Archana Venkatesan- Topic: Religion and Translation; Religion in Translation

This course explores the intersection of religion and translation with a focus on the Indian subcontinent. Some topics we will explore--the particularities of translating Indic religious texts, translation as a metaphor for cultural and religious exchange, and colonial legacies and receptions of translated religious texts. We might also discuss how to teach religious texts in translation in the classroom.
 
The reading list for this course has not been finalized, but will include the following:
 
Ronit Ricci. Islam Translated: Literature, Conversion, and the Arabic Cosmopolis of South and Southeast Asia
Sankar Nair. Translating Wisdom: Hindu-Muslim Intellectual Interactions in Early Modern South Asia
Elaine Fisher. Meeting of Rivers (Forthcoming)
Anna Schultz. , Echoes of Translation: Audibility and Relationality in Bene Israel Women’s Song (Forthcoming)
 
REL 297: The Study of Religion--Understanding the Profession-Archana Venkatesan- TBD
 
This course is focused on the academic field of Religious Studies. Students in this course will be trained in grant writing, developing research skills, working on public scholarship and composing book reviews. In addition, we will have the opportunity to discuss other elements of academic professionalization as it pertains to the academic discipline of Religious Studies.