Religious Studies

The course provides an introduction to Islam, exploring key aspects of its thought and practice and early history. The course content is built on the structure of the Hadith of Gabriel, which presents the religion as comprising Islam, or submission (action), iman, or belief (understanding), ihsan, or doing what is beautiful (sincerity), and proper understanding of human history. Topics covered typically include the social and cultural setting in which Islam emerged, religious and political developments during and after the Prophet's life, internal divisions within the Muslim community, the authoritative texts, law, and major schools of Islamic thought.

This course takes a comparative perspective and highlights the theoretical and practical problems related to this field of study. The course explores several themes: 1) concepts and conceptualization 2) state, modernity and secularism, 3) Gender equality and plurality in religion and 4) capitalism and commercialization in religion. More than just faith, personal beliefs and practice, religion is also a site for many of these dynamics involving the power of the modern nation-state, gender relations and economic systems. The course also examines case studies of diverse religious and spiritual traditions in Southeast Asia. 

This course traces the development of both Theravāda and Mahāyāna Buddhism in Southeast Asia. Major topics include the spread of Buddhism, the rise of Buddhist kingdoms, the development of popular traditions, the impact of European colonialism, the relationship between Buddhism and nationalism, the emergence of modern reformist movements, and Buddhist minorities in maritime Southeast Asia.

This course provides a critical introduction to Buddhism and interrogates the origins and transhistorical resonances of Buddhist thought, practice, and praxis. It examines the possibility of the Buddhist turn in critical theory, one which must be irreverent and far reaching in its approach, and engages with a polyphony of voices ranging from lamas and practitioners to psychoanalysts and philosophers. The course explores whether Buddhism can function as a comprehensive framework for rethinking philosophy, politics, psychology, and the aesthetic in our current moment. It rethinks debates concerning what Buddhism really is (religion, psychology, empiricism, spirituality, tools for living, etc.) and explores how Buddhism problematizes commonplace understandings of belief and reason, mind and body, idealism and materialism, immanence and transcendence, ontology and anti-foundationalism, dream and reality, desire and gratification, and pain and pleasure. The radical Buddha is rediscovered as both a person and allegorical nexus for rethinking the condition of the world and the condition of being in the world.

This course is part of the LM degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrolment is by consent of the instructor. The course focuses on the main interdisciplinary theoretical, methodological, and technical tools of the historical-religious studies that deal with religious pluralism in urban contexts in the Modern and Contemporary Ages. The course focuses on different source materials to highlight and describe how religions create their worldviews and interact with the broader cultural, economic, and material context. The aim of this course is to investigate the relationship between religion and urban life, focusing on the theme of religious diversity, as it is organized and present in different urban contexts. A historical journey through different cities offers several different urban examples of how religion contributed to shape the environment, how religious interactions and encounters were established and negotiated, and ultimately how religious conflict and interactions might determine the future of cities.

Contemplative practices such as mindfulness and yoga, silent retreats and pilgrimages have seen a significant rise in popularity in recent years, in part driven by a rapidly growing body of scientific literature on the purported benefits of such practices for the relief of the ills of modern life, such as stress, anxiety, depression, but also as elements in the enhancement of human resilience and capacity. A sustained, critical and practical engagement with this field using a broad humanities approach can offer students an unusually rich and concrete experience in combining scholarly and personal inquiry. Through a close engagement with contemplative practices as objects of academic study and debate, as social phenomena in contemporary society, and as lived practices, this course provides an opportunity to explore fundamental questions in the humanities; for example, about the nature and meaning of being human; about consciousness, cognition and experience; about the relationship between mind and body; about freedom and connectedness; and about the relationship between the humanities and the sciences. The course introduces a rapidly growing field of research with considerable public interest to which humanities research makes significant contributions. By exploring contemplative practices in context, in theory, and in practice, students have an opportunity to develop a critical ability for assessing scholarly and popular claims about the nature and purported effects of contemplative practices. Literature for the course includes both scholarly texts about contemplative life and practice and historical and contemporary texts from contemplative traditions, including from classical philosophy, Christian, Sufi, and Buddhist contexts, as well as modern forms, such as Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction.