Syllabus: Geography of Religion (Beloit College, Fall 2014)

Geography of Religion Beloit College RLST 210 01 3B C Fall 2014 (MWF 1:30 – 2:35 p.m., MI 10) Instructor: Christopher M. Jones, Ph.D. HOW TO CONTACT ME Email: [email protected] Phone: (608) 234-1952 (not after 10 p.m.) Office Hours: 2:45 – 3:30 p.m., MWF, at Java Joint WHAT THIS COURSE IS ABOUT This course explores the relationship between religion (whatever that is) and geography (the study of the world’s spaces and places). We will learn about: Why religion is a difficult word to define The difference between space and place, and which one is really universal The spatial origins and diffusion of major world traditions (e.g., Hinduism, Judaism) and the unique manifestations of these traditions in different localities, particularly where they come into contact with other religious communities The strategies that people use to advance, control, and subvert religious agendas, particularly in the public sphere News literacy: how to look for the oft-neglected geographical and religious dimensions of news and opinion articles ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS THAT GUIDE THIS COURSE How much of the world (in time and space) do you have to understand to be able to understand any one particular part of it (in time and space)? How has religion shaped the world’s spaces and places? How is religion shaped, in turn, by space and place? REQUIREMENTS AND GRADING Course requirements Attendance and Participation: 15% Focused Reading Guides: 15% (Due daily) Exams: 40% (Exam 1: 10%; Exams 2 and 3: 15% each) Exam due dates: Sept. 17, Oct. 18, Dec. 12. Project: 30% Prospectus: 10% (Due Oct. 24 at 11:59 p.m.) In-class presentation: 10% (Date TBD) Final write-up: 10% (Due one week after presentation) LEARNING GOALS Students will gain a working knowledge of the world’s major religious traditions, their spatial diffusion over time, and the current distributions of their adherents. Students will understand that analytical terms like “religion,” “space,” and “place” have histories and contain biases that need to be acknowledged. Students will learn to read news and opinion articles critically, looking out for signs of bias and agenda, and they will learn to apply religious and geographical concepts to their understanding of current events. Students will learn, above all else, to think spatially about religion. That means imagining the life of a given religious community on the full range of geographical scales, from the local to the global, and it means using geographical analytical tools, where applicable, to explain religious behavior. COURSE ASSIGNMENTS Attendance and Participation Attendance and participation are graded daily on a ten-point scale. Showing up on time and doing nothing else will net you a 7, a C. To earn an 8, 9, or a 10, do the following: Bring your readings. You can bring hard copies or electronic. You’ll need them to participate in discussion. Come to class prepared. Do the readings. Identify one or two things in them that you want to talk about. Ask questions. 1) There are no bad questions. 2) If you think you are about to ask a bad question, see #1. Answer questions in class. Volunteer. Make comments. Chase rabbits. Let me be in charge of keeping us “on task.” Participate enthusiastically in group work. Overall: make it such that your presence in class helps us to create a vibrant learning community. Absences will be excused if you let me know in advance. Unexcused absences will result in zeroes for daily participation. Focused Reading Responses For each class session, I will ask you to respond, in writing, to a short prompt about the day’s readings. Find these on Moodle alongside the reading. We will use these during class, so write them with the expectation that your peers will read them. Write no more than 500 words. Upload your response in .doc or .docx format to Moodle no later than 12:30 p.m. on the day of class. Because we will be using your responses in class, late work absolutely cannot be accepted. Exams There will be three exams. Exams are not cumulative, but you will need to transfer knowledge from earlier units to later units of the course. The first exam will be in class. It will consist of straightforward questions about the characteristics and spatial distributions of world religious traditions. It may include blank maps with cues to identify states, regions, or landmarks that have figured prominently in class discussion. The second and third exams will be take-home exams, consisting of short essay questions. You will be asked to apply your understanding of the concepts of religion and place (on exam 2) and religious territoriality (on exam 3) to current events. Take-home exam questions will be posted to Moodle a couple of days before the exam date. While you are welcome to study for the exams with your peers, once you access the questions you must work alone, and your work must be solely your own. Project For your project, you will identify a developing situation in the world with significant religious and geographic dimensions. You will read up on current news, familiarize yourself with the people and places involved in the situation, and ultimately make a substantive public policy proposal that you think would improve conditions for those involved. The project has three phases: Prospectus, Presentation, and Final Paper. Phase 1: Prospectus Your prospectus should follow the basic form of a grant proposal (see Moodle for samples). Your rhetorical purpose is to convince your audience (me) of two things: 1) your project is doable, and you are likely to finish it; and 2) your project is likely to result in a meaningful public policy proposal. It should answer the following questions: What is the nature of the situation that you are addressing? Who is suffering, and what are they suffering? Who, if anybody, is benefiting? How long has the situation been going on? How has it changed over time, and especially recently? What are the religious and geographical dimensions of the situation that make it relevant to this class? Who, in your opinion, is responsible for the situation? What caused it? What do the people involved say that they want? Where do their interests and desires conflict? Make a suggestion for how you think the conflict might be resolved. What resources will you need to research the situation more fully and thus transform your suggestion into a substantive public policy proposal? This is your working bibliography. Phase 2: Presentation The date of your presentation will be determined by a sign-up sheet during the first weeks of class. You will present your work, in condensed form, to the class. Your presentation should be accompanied by multimedia aids, including maps, graphics, and photographs. Address the same issues as in your prospectus, but by this time you should conclude with a serious public policy proposal. Phase 3: Final write-up Your final write-up will expand on both your prospectus and your in-class presentation, and it should incorporate the feedback that you receive in the process. It is due one week after your in-class presentation. It should address the same questions as your prospectus, but in much greater detail, and it should provide a concrete public policy proposal. See Moodle for a grading rubric that provides greater detail on what I’m looking for in these assignments. You are required to meet with me twice: once before the prospectus is due, and once before your in-class presentation. You are encouraged to meet with me more than that, as often as you need to, at any phase of your project. You may work on this project with a partner (and receive one grade between yourselves) as long as both of your names are on the prospectus. MISCELLANEOUS POLICIES If you have a disability and need accommodations, contact the Learning Enrichment and Disability Services Office located on 2nd floor Pearsons (north side), call x: 2572, or email [email protected]. For accommodations in my class, you must bring me an Accommodation Verification Letter from the Director of that office; then, we will discuss how to meet your needs. Contact that office promptly; accommodations are not retroactive. Free peer tutoring is available for most classes. For a tutor, apply by going to your Portal, to the Student Life tab, and then apply using the Tutoring Forms (on left) and Request a Tutor. If you have any questions, contact Learning Enrichment and Disability Services. I will try to refrain from scheduling assessments and due dates around major religious holidays. If you have any sort of conflict, let me know in advance and I will accommodate. Please adhere to the Beloit College Statement on Academic Honesty: http://www.beloit.edu/studentaffairs/assets/ACADEMIC_HONESTY_POLICY.pdf If you have any questions about what constitutes academic dishonesty, please don’t hesitate to ask me. Late work will be penalized at 5% per 24 hour period past the due date. Late focused reading responses will not be accepted. Most important: Nothing matters more to me, in my role as instructor, than your success and well-being in this class. If anything is preventing you from engaging fully in the life of this learning community, please talk to me. I am here to help. TEXTBOOKS AND READING MATERIALS Both textbooks are required, and are in stock at Turtle Creek Books, and may be purchased, rented, or acquired as ebooks. Roger W. Stump, The Geography of Religion: Faith, Place, and Space (Lanham, Md.: Rowman and Littlefield, 2008) GR Thomas A. Tweed, Crossing and Dwelling: A Theory of Religion (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press) CD Additional readings posted to Moodle: AR. Note that most of these are not yet on the syllabus, as I will be adding timely news articles throughout the semester. Most course sessions, particularly towards the second half of the semester, will pair contemporary journalism with textbook readings. Read whatever is posted to Moodle for any given day. COURSE SCHEDULE Aug. 25 – Course introduction (No Readings) Aug. 27 – Religion as a Cultural System GR 1-16 AR Clifford Geertz, “Religion as a Cultural System,” in The Interpretation of Cultures (New York: Basic, 1973), pp. 87-125 (optional) Aug. 29 – Religious Hearths GR 16-19, 33-39 (19-32 optional) Sept. 1 – Indic Hearth GR 39-49 Sept. 3 – Semitic Hearth GR 49-63 Sept. 5 – Hinduism GR 109-121, plus news articles Sept. 8 – Judaism GR 121-133, plus news articles Sept. 10 – Buddhism GR 133-159, plus news articles Sept. 12 – Christianity GR 159-188, plus news articles Sept. 15 – Islam GR 188-218, plus news articles Sept. 17 – Exam #1 (in class) Sept. 19 – Geography AR Mike Heffernan, “Histories of Geography,” in N. Clifford et al. eds., Key Concepts in Geography (2nd ed.; London: Sage, 2009), pp. 3-20. Sept. 22 – The Genealogy of Place AR Tim Cresswell, “The Genealogy of Place,” in Place: A Short Introduction (Malden, Mass.: Blackwell, 2004), pp. 15-51. Sept. 24 – Religion and Human Geography GR 369-385 Sept. 26 – Religion, “Religion,” Religions AR Talal Asad, “The Construction of Religion as an Anthropological Category,” in Genealogies of Religion (Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993), pp. 27-54. AR Geertz, “Religion as a Cultural System” (optional; see above) Sept. 29 – Theory as Itinerary CD 1-28, “Itineraries” Oct. 1 – Religion and other Analytical Categories CD 29-53, “Boundaries” Oct. 3 – Defining Religion CD 54-79, “Confluences” Oct. 6 – Emplacement and Religion CD 80-122 Oct. 8 – Itinerancy and Religion CD 123-163 Oct. 10 – Exam #2 (Due Oct. 18 at 11:59 p.m.) Oct. 11-19 – Midterm Break Oct. 20 – Migration: Incidental Diffusion GR 63-68, plus news articles AR Jason Young, “African Religions in the Early South,” Journal of Southern Religion 14 (2012). Oct. 22 – Migration and Religious Meaning GR 68-77, plus news articles Oct. 24 – Conversion GR 77-97, plus news articles Oct. 27 – Contraction GR 97-101, plus news articles Oct. 29 – No Class: Advising Practicum Oct. 31 – Internal Territoriality: The Communal Scale GR 221-239, plus news articles Nov. 3 – Internal Territoriality: Narrower Scales GR 239-250, plus news articles Nov. 5 – Internal Territoriality: Wider Scales GR 252-266, plus news articles Nov. 7 – External Territoriality: The Communal Scale GR 266-283, plus news articles Nov. 10 – External Territoriality: State and Cosmos GR 283-300, plus news articles Nov. 12 – Forms of Sacred Space: Cosmos GR 301-309, plus news articles Nov. 14 – Forms of Sacred Space: Holy Lands and Cities GR 309-319, plus news articles Nov. 17 – Forms of Sacred Space: Local Spaces GR 319-329, plus news articles Nov. 19 – CANCELLED for Symposium Nov. 21 – Worship and Life Transition at Material Sacred Spaces GR 329-334, plus news articles Nov. 24 (M) – CANCELLED for SBL/AAR Nov. 26 (W) – CANCELLED for SBL/AAR Dec. 1 – Pilgrimage to Material Sacred Spaces GR 334-345, plus news articles Dec. 3 – Interactions with Imagined Sacred Spaces GR 345-349, plus news articles Dec. 5 – Contested Sacred Space GR 349-358, plus news articles Dec. 8 – Contested Sacred Space and Secularism GR 358-363, plus news articles Dec. 10 – Exam #3 (Due Dec. 12 at 5 p.m.)