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.