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Department of Religions and Cultures

Department of Religions and Cultures

Graduate course descriptions

Fall 2025

RELI 6001 Methods and Theory in the Study of Religion  
M. 11:45-14:30     

This course provides students with an understanding of the major approaches to the academic study of religion.  It introduces students to key theories of religion as a social and cultural phenomenon, as well as the ways contemporary methodologies represent religious experiences and expressions. Students develop a critical theoretical orientation for their research and a familiarity with the skills that they apply in their coursework and final paper.

RELI 6002/RELI 820 The Devil & the Concept of Evil in History and Culture
M. 14:45-17:30       

Adversary - Tempter - Fallen Angel - Deceiver - Evil Incarnate - King of Hell - Anti-Hero: shifting portrayals of Satan reflect changing ideas about the nature of the universe and our place in it. This seminar explores the figure of the Devil in literature, art, and culture from its origin in biblical antiquity to the present day. Our primary focus is on the Devil in the modern era and in popular culture, and on representations of evil in secular forms.

RELI 6006/821 Feminist and Queer Theory: Christianity  
J. 14:45-17:30      
   

This seminar will engage feminist and queer theory from the last two decades, and address what this scholarship offers to the historical study of Christianity (or other traditions more generally). We will take up recent challenges to identity-based critique, considering a wide range of analytics beyond this frame, such as emotion/affect, aesthetics, fantasy, chronormativity, homonationalism, biopolitics, as well as borders and diaspora. The course will principally center the work of queer and feminist scholars in a variety of fields (e.g., Anzaldúa, Cvetkovich, Freeman, Halberstam, Nash, Muñoz, Puar, and Wallach Scott, among others). We will also periodically consider queer and feminist readings of Christianity.

RELI 6007/823 Religion and Politics in Asia
W. 14:45-17:30    

This survey course is divided in three parts: The first part examines the two main systems of statecraft prevalent in Asia that were used in pre-modern societies, the Chinese Confucian and the Indian Dharmasastra models. These explorations will be supported by historical examples in East or South Asia’s societies. The second part examines case studies of religiously fuelled rebellions and revolutions that shook the foundation of established kingdoms. The third part focuses on contemporary politics and their sometimes difficult relationship with religious movements, foreign and indigenous. The goal is to highlight the dynamics between religion and politics based on historical instances. Case studies of Asian polities will be selected according to the speciality of the instructor and will be chosen among those ascribed to East Asia (China including Tibet, Korea, Japan), South-East Asia (Burma, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia, etc) and South- Asia (India and Pakistan). The goal of this course is to provide the necessary historical perspective on political models of Asia which were long lasting and influenced the contemporary worldviews in Asian countries on religions with regards to statecraft, control and leniency.

 

 


Winter 2026

RELI 6003/825 Ethnographic Fieldwork: Theory, Ethics, Applications 
M. 11:45-14:30              

This course examines the theory, ethical questions, and the many practical methods and applications of ethnographic fieldwork in a wide array of contexts and formations. Topics of study include qualitative and quantitative research methods, approaches to data analysis, and ethical research considerations when conducting ethnographic fieldwork. There is a specific focus on topics involving music or sounding practices in minority communities as well as exercising sensitivity when working with minority communities in Quebec or Canada. There will also be an emphasis on religious ritual and ritual, and performance practices. As part of their classwork, students will observe and document rituals and processes in the world around them, such as, religious practices, musical events, eating and food-related practices and habits, with the goal of connecting these field experiences to the broader theories and discussions in the classroom.

 

RELI 6004/824 Caste, Race, and Indigeneity
W.14:45-17:30  


This class explores the categories of caste, race, and indigeneity in terms of their ontological manifestations and reinventions, the institutions invested in their epistemological integrity, and the creative and productive forms taken by them in liminal and liberated spaces and times. While caste, race, and indigeneity are all categories of meaning-making and social power, they have their own histories and morphologies. By studying the contexts of their formation, the ways in which they evolve, and the circumstances of their interaction, students will understand the vernacular particularities of each category, as well as the transactional, transformative, and transgressive potentials that they possess. Furthermore, this course will attempt to explore the possibilities and limits of comparative methods of analysis, which can be vulnerable to reductive framing, but can also offer creative extrapolations unencumbered by disciplinary habitus. Students will also consider the interactional aspects of the classifications of caste, race, and indigeneity, and the “out of place” forms that they can take, such as ethnicity, colorism, casta, as well as alternative modalities of known signifiers, such as “Korean whiteness.”
 
 

 

 

 

 
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