Spring 2009 Graduate Course Schedule

RELS 5000.001.  Advanced Biblical Hebrew II.  A continuation of the fall semester seminar, featuring a critical reading and translation of biblical, para-biblical, and postbiblical Hebrew prose and poetic texts.  R 3:30-6:15 (John C. Reeves)

 RELS 5000.002.  Topics in Religious Studies: Sacrifice and the Political.   ‘Sacrifice’ has been a topic of perennial interest in the discipline of religious studies.  In this course, we will examine ‘classical’ understandings of sacrifice (Hubert and Mauss, Durkheim, Freud, Robertson Smith) as well as more contemporary voices (Girard, Jay, Derrida) with sustained attention given to the work of Georges Bataille.  We will be especially concerned with the on-going usefulness of sacrifice as a tool of cultural and political analysis.  R 3:30-6:15 (Kent Brintnall)

 RELS 6000.001.  Readings in Jewish Aramaic II.  A continuation of the fall semester seminar, featuring a close study of select Jewish Aramaic literature.  F 11:00-1:45 (John C. Reeves)

 RELS 6000.002.  Elementary Sanskrit.  TBA (J. Daniel White, on demand).

Note: students interested in this course should contact Prof. White directly in order to set up its place and time.

 RELS 6000.003.  Readings in Greek/Latin.  TBA (Jeremy Schott, on demand).

Note: students interested in this course should contact Prof. Schott directly in order to set up its place and time.

RELS 6602.090.  Seminar in the Religion of Ancient Israel.  ‘Current and seminal issues related to the study of the religion of ancient Israel.’  The topic this spring is ‘Bible and Myth.’  We will conduct a comparative examination of select myths and mythemes contained in Hebrew Bible and Jewish parascriptural sources (apocrypha/pseudepigrapha, midrash, and kabbalah) in the light of older (or in some cases contemporary) Mesopotamian and West Semitic mythologies and religions.  Considerable attention will be devoted to some of the methodological issues surrounding the use of the category ‘myth’ by modern western scholars in the study of ancient Near Eastern religiosity, including its biblical expressions.  W 6:30-9:15 (John C. Reeves)

RELS 6615.001.  Seminar in the Religions of Late Antiquity.  ‘Current and seminal issues related to the academic study of one or more of the religions practiced in the Roman and/or Sasanian Empires during late antiquity.’  The topic for this spring’s seminar will be ‘Education and Intellectual Culture in the Greco-Roman World.’  The Greek and Latin classics remain staples in modern curricula.  These ancient cultural productions, of course, depended on the cultivation of literacy and an intellectual culture. In this seminar, students will explore the social, economic, and political history of ancient and late-ancient education, with a focus on the Grecophone communities of the empire.  How did ancient students learn?  What was the place of students and teachers in the social structures and economies of Greco-Roman cities?  How was education different for men and women in antiquity?  To what extent did different ethnic and cultural groups develop alternative educational institutions and methods?  We will also consider the place of major public intellectuals (e.g. famous philosophers, rhetoricians, orators, rabbis, and scholar-bishops) in ancient and late-ancient society.  T 3:30-6:15 (Jeremy Schott)

 RELS 6625.090.  Seminar in American Religions.  ‘Current and seminal issues related to the academic study of one or more of the religions of North America.’  In this course we will consider the methods, theories, and interpretations that have been influential in the study of religion in the United States.  The course will be divided into two sections.  First, we examine American religious historiography, delineating how scholars have studied and narrated the history of religion in the U.S.  Second, we critically consider both classic approaches and recent innovations in the field by reading influential works that demonstrate a variety of methods and sources.  These monographs use intellectual and cultural historical methods, ethnography, art history, sociology, and literary studies to examine numerous groups and topics in American religion. T 6:30-9:15 (Sean McCloud)

 RELS 6671.090.  Seminar in Theory and Methods.  ‘Current and seminal issues related to contemporary theory and cultural studies and their import for the academic study of religion(s).’  The topic for this seminar is ‘Theorizing the Self.’  Whether we read a text, interpret a ritual, examine the historical impact of a religious tradition, or try to understand the significance of an image, we begin with an assumption about what it is to be a human being engaged in writing, reading, and symbolic practices.  Often we find ourselves stumbling over commonly held dualisms such as the body and the mind and the individual and the collective or confronting the problem of insider/outsider knowledge. This course interrogates some of the not-necessarily-acknowledged assumptions we impose upon our academic interpretive enterprise.  It will examine recent theoretical discussions regarding the self as resources for our own practice as scholars in religious studies.  M 6:30-9:15 (Judith Fagan)

 RELS 6800.001-003.  Directed Readings/Research.  (John C. Reeves)

 RELS 6999.001-002.  Thesis.  (John C. Reeves)

 RELS 7999.001.  Master’s Degree Residence.  (John C. Reeves)

Language courses: The university offers undergraduate language courses relevant to graduate study in religion and religions.  For the spring 2009 offerings, consult the schedule listings under CHNS, FORL, FREN, GERM, GREK, JAPN, and LATN for courses in Chinese, Arabic, biblical Hebrew, French, German, Greek, Japanese, and Latin. Introductory and/or advanced instruction in Arabic, Aramaic, Chinese, Coptic, Greek, Hebrew, Latin, Sanskrit, and Syriac language sources is often available as a Topics or Directed Studies course, subject to the instructor’s consent and student demand.