Alexander Rocklin

This course includes brief introductions to four or five major religious traditions while exploring concepts and categories used in the study of religion, such as sacredness, myth, ritual, religious experience and social dimensions of religion. Traditions such as Judaism, Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, Confucianism, Taoism, Hinduism and Native American traditions may be presented through important texts and practices. This counts toward the 100-level introduction to religious studies course requirement for the major. No prerequisite. Offered every semester.

This course explores the religious history of the United States, with an emphasis on the relationship between religious beliefs/values and broader social and political processes. We first examine the attempt of European immigrants to establish church-state compacts in New England and Virginia, while the middle colonies adopted a more pluralistic approach. Next, we survey the period between the American Revolution and the Civil War, looking at the separation of church and state, the growth of religious pluralism and the continued existence of the "Peculiar Institution." We then look at how various social forces shaped religion in the United States from the Civil War to World War II: immigration: urbanization: prejudice and the Social Gospel; expansionism and missions; and modernism and fundamentalism. Finally, we examine the shaping of the American religious landscape from World War II to the present through such forces as religious revitalization, activism for personal and civil rights, new waves of immigration and new communication media. This counts toward the religions of distinct geographic regions requirement as American. No prerequisite. Offered every other fall.

The South Asian subcontinent has been the home of a fascinating array of religions and religious movements. Focusing on Hinduism, this course examines the development of religious practice in South Asia and the interaction of competing religious ideas over time. The course includes discussions of Indus Valley religion; Vedic Brahmanism; Jainism and Buddhism; the Upanishads; classical Hinduism; Bhakti; South Asian Islam; and modern Hinduism. This counts toward the religions of distinct geographic regions requirement as South Asian. No prerequisite.

This course familiarizes students with the diverse histories of religious traditions in the greater Caribbean. This class focuses on the diversity and complexity of religious life, particularly what Cuban anthropologist Fernando Ortiz called transculturation, the unequal cultural exchanges, interactions, and combinations between different groups in a society. Ortiz exemplified this with the Cuban dish ajiaco, a stew that brings together African, European, indigenous American, and Asian ingredients. With this in mind, we focus specifically on Afro-Atlantic, European, Indigenous, and Asian American traditions in the Caribbean and ways in which their practitioners have adapted to the often times violent circumstances of European colonialism, the trans-Atlantic slave trade, the indentured labor scheme, and their aftermaths. Examples may include Santería or Lucumí, Hinduism, Vodou, popular forms of Christianity, and Palo Monte, among other religions. We study the ways in which peoples from all over the world came or were forced to come to the Caribbean and had to make new lives in new places with one another and the cultural and material resources they had available to them. The course explores themes such as slavery, colonialism, and resistance, diversity, racialization, and religious racism, race and policing, authority and popular culture, religious freedom and the law, and migration and diaspora. This course counts toward the religious geographic region requirement for the major as American religions. No prerequisite.

The zombies, ghosts, and ghouls that go bump in the night have still living human histories behind them. Taking examples primarily from the religious history of the Americas, this course examines the diversity and complexity of narratives and rituals surrounding spirits and dead and not-quite-dead bodies and their intimate entanglements with histories of social inequality. The course tracks the complex interrelations, influences, and commentaries between narratives of unquiet spirits, animalistic transformations, and living-dead bodies and the histories of slavery, colonization, and economic exploitation. This course introduces students to a variety of grass roots religious traditions of the African and Asian diasporas in the Caribbean such as Vodou, Palo Monte, and Hinduism, and the politics of their representations in popular media around the world. We analyze such traditions, their stories and their related practices through the approaches of history, anthropology, film and literature studies. This allows us to raise questions about the ways in which histories of violent exploitation still haunt the present and why and how monsters have been so good form humans to think with. This course counts toward the religious geographic region requirement for the major as American religions. No prerequisite.

This course is designed to explore the resurgence of religion in the contemporary world. More specifically, we discuss the phenomenon of "fundamentalism" within the major world religions and its influence on national and international politics. Early in the course, we discuss the theory of secularization, the recent resurgence of religion in public life, and some literature theorizing the phenomenon of fundamentalism and religious nationalism. We then turn to reading and discussing texts on Hindu nationalism, Buddhist nationalism, Jewish fundamentalism, the Christian right in the United States and Islamism. We conclude by reflecting on what Mark Juergensmeyer calls “The Logic of Religious Violence” (Terror in the Mind of God). This counts as a theory/methodology course for the major. No prerequisite. Offered every fall.