Religion

A weekly year-long Religion workshop focusing on the research and writing of graduate students, faculty, and visitors in Islamic Studies. This workshop provides a forum for presentation of works in progress: drafts of dissertation chapters, dissertation proposals, seminar papers, conference papers, articles and book chapters. All Islamic Studies graduate students are encouraged to participate as presenters and as commentators. The workshop fosters collegiality and professional development. Note: REL 529 (fall) and REL 530 (spring) constitute this year-long workshop. Students must take the course both semesters to receive credit/grade.

A weekly year-long Religion workshop focusing on the research and writing of graduate students, faculty, and visitors in Islamic Studies. This workshop provides a forum for presentation of works in progress: drafts of dissertation chapters, dissertation proposals, seminar papers, conference papers, articles and book chapters. All Islamic Studies graduate students are encouraged to participate as presenters and as commentators. The workshop fosters collegiality and professional development. Note: REL 529 (fall) and REL 530 (spring) constitute this year-long workshop. Students must take the course both semesters to receive credit/grade.

Critical examination of enduring and recent scholarship on popular Chinese religion, modernity, and ethnography. Designed for graduate students preparing general examinations or other work in Chinese religion.

This seminar will introduce representative primary texts in classical Japanese and kanbun from the medieval Japanese Buddhist tradition. It will focus on introducing students to a range of genres, such as doctrinal writings, ritual manuals, temple and shrine origin legends, vernacular sermons, didactic tales, and personal letters. Some readings may be selected to accommodate the research interests of seminar participants. Attention will be given to grammar, vocabulary, genre, literary and philosophical issues, and research methods.

This course is a survey of major text traditions in Indian religions, with an emphasis on the historical/cultural framework against which to read the development of Buddhist traditions. Major topics addressed are: "Orientalism" & "Hinduism"; Vedas & Upanisads; Early Buddhism; Dharmasastras & Mahabharata; Mahayana Buddhism; and Tantra & Vajrayana.

This course introduces Tibetan Buddhist traditions based on sources in translation, emphasizing the historical development of the major lineages and their distinctive practice traditions. Course topics will include Tibetan tantric systems and rituals; Tibetan innovations in and approaches to Buddhist philosophy; Tibet's distinctive approach to religion and politics; Tibetan views of space and locality; Tibetan scholasticism; and the challenges posed by modernity and Chinese rule.

The course focuses on reading and discussion of the works of one or more of the major rationalist philosophers of the early modern period. Normally the course focuses on the writings of Descartes, Spinoza, and/or Leibniz.

Selected works of Kant are read, analyzed, and discussed.

A study of a number of central problems, historiographical issues, and primary sources relevant to the history of the Jewish minority under Islam in the Middle Ages.

This seminar focuses on Islamic thought and society during the 17th and the 18th centuries. Our key concerns are two: to understand what Islam, and Islamic thought, looked like in the late medieval and the early modern world; and to think about how we should try to approach the study of Islam in that world. A good deal of our focus is on South Asia, though we also read about other regions, including Iran and the Arab Middle East. The required readings are in English. For those interested, some weeks might have supplementary readings in Arabic as well.

How far reaching is the ¿fragmentation¿ of religious authority in modern Islam? How have traditional religious scholars sought to rearticulate their authority in conditions of radical change? On what basis do ¿new religious intellectuals¿ make their claims to authority? How has the state shaped structures of religious authority? What is peculiar to modern Islam so far as conceptions of and contestations over religious authority are concerned? These are among the questions this seminar seeks to examine.