Course Descriptions

The location itineraries and course offerings may change slightly from year to year but sample courses from previous years are listed below. 

FWPR 3920 Religions of India
The main focus of this course is an introduction to various traditions within Hinduism, through readings, visits to temples in southern and northern India, and a two week stay in Varanasi. The curriculum explores scholarly thought, popular practice, the arts, and more. Students study the Bhagavad Gita, a classic text of near-universal appeal among India’s peoples. A long essay is the basis for evaluation of learning in this unit. Students are also introduced to at least three other traditions in India through combination of academic lectures, field trips and encounter with practitioners. These may include Jainism, Christianity, Islam, Sikhism, Baha’i and other contemporary movements. In each case, students must write substantive papers reflecting on these encounters.

Past Readings:

• Vedas, Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita
• T. Richard Blurton, Hindu Art.
• Sathianathan Clarke, Dalits and Christianity: Subaltern Religion and Liberation Theology in India.
• John E. Cort, Jains in the World: Religious Values & Ideology in India.
• Ainslie T. Embree, Sources of Indian Tradition, 2 volumes.
• Asghar Ali Engineer, Rethinking Issues in Islam.
• John Ferraby, All Things Made New: A Comprehensive Outline of the Bahá’í Faith.
• L.M. Joshi, Sikhism.
• Rana P.B. Singh and Pravin S. Rana, Banaras Region: A Spiritual and Cultural Guide.

FWAS 3902 Indian Culture and Society
In past years, students have documented learning gained through such different experiences as a course on Indian identity and diversity, visits to an ecological intentional community in rural Tamil Nadu, bargaining encounters with shopkeepers, and long train journeys through India. A series of short response papers arise from additional field trips and classes, which may attend to a variety of matters including temple life, ayurvedic health, classical Indian dance, and contemporary concerns in Indian society such as globalization and women’s rights. Students may also attend a daily class in Hatha Yoga, keeping a journal and writing a shorter essay incorporating readings on yoga as well as their own practice.

Past Readings:

• Amrita Basu, "Hindu Women’s Activism in India and the Questions it Raises," in Resisting the Sacred and the Secular, ed. Patricia Jeffery and Amrita Basu.
• Sudhir Kakar, The Colours of Violence.
• A.G. Mohan (ed. Kathleen Miller), Yoga for Body, Breath and Mind: A Guide to Personal Reintegration.
• Tejaswini Niranjana, P. Sudhir, and Vivek Dhareshwar (eds.). Interrogating Modernity: Culture and Colonialism in India.
• K.N. Panikkar, "Globalization and Culture."
• A.K. Ramanujan, Collected Essays.
• Leela Samson, "The Classical Dance Forms of India."

FWPR 3940 Western Religions/Classical Roots
Topics considered in this course have included Athens, Rome, & the Ancient Mediterranean world, historical and contemporary Judaism, Roman Catholic & Orthodox Christianity, and questions of national identity in contemporary Europe. Lectures by academics and practitioners are coupled with visits to ancient sites (including the Roman Pantheon, the Athenian Acropolis, Delphi), museums (such as the Vatican Museums and the Jewish Museum of Greece), and living communities (e.g., Sabbath prayer at synagogue and the Sabbath meal with a Jewish family in Rome, Eastern Orthodox liturgy and a convent in Athens, and the prayer and social work of a Catholic lay community in Rome). Assessment is primarily based on short reflection papers, though some longer papers may be required.

Past Readings:

• The Bible, the Qur’an
• John Binns, Introduction to the Christian Orthodox Churches.
• Leif Beck Fallesen, "The Nation-State Redefined," in Robert J. Guttman (ed.), Europe in the New Century: Visions of an Emerging Superpower.
• Ruth Liliana Geller, Jewish Rome: A Pictorial History of 2000 Years.
• James Pettifer, The Greeks: The Land and People Since the War.
• Simon Price, Religions of the Ancient Greeks.
• David Turner, "Orthodox Christianity in the East Roman Empire," unpublished MS.

FWHI 3906: Comparative Religion and Culture I
Students read and discuss writings by theorists and practitioners pursuing a variety of approaches to the study of religion and culture. Students must acquire basic concepts and vocabulary current in comparative religious and cultural studies, and begin to apply them in thinking about their own experience encountering different people, religions and cultures. Students are expected to demonstrate the skills of analysis and application in short reflection papers responding to the readings. Further, students are expected to bring these skills to bear in reflections on, for instance, field trip events, practical classes, or special lectures. Additional lectures, workshops and events may also be included in the course according to the particular opportunities available in any year. Finally, students write a 2-2500 word formal essay in which they should advance and defend an argument concerning one of the overarching themes of the course in light of their experience and readings over the course of the semester.

Past Readings:

• Pema Chödrön, The Wisdom of No Escape and the Path of Loving Kindness.
• Clifford Geertz, "Thick Description," The Interpretation of Cultures.
• Robert M. Gimello, "Mysticism in its Contexts," in Steven T. Katz (ed.), Mysticism and Religious Traditions.
• Thich Nhat Hanh, Being Peace.
• Paul F. Knitter, One World, Many Religions: Multifaith Dialogue and Global Responsibility.
• Michael Molloy, Experiencing the World’s Religions, 2nd edition.
• William Paden, "Worlds," Religious Worlds: The Comparative Study of Religion.
• "Interpretive Frames," Interpreting the Sacred: Ways of Viewing Religion.
• Oliver Sacks, An Anthropologist on Mars: Seven Paradoxical Tales.
• Edward W. Said, "Identity, Authority, and Freedom: The Potentate and the Traveler," Reflections on Exile and Other Essays.

FWHI 3907 Comparative Religion & Culture II
The course extends its precursor, FW 3906, by focusing on the challenges and possibilities of living together in a world of many religions and cultures. It combines regular seminars with occasional lectures and workshops to develop theoretical sophistication and practical skills in comparative/cross-cultural understanding. In addition to evidence of comprehension and application of ideas gained in class, students should strive to grow in abilities to: 1. analyze arguments and situations to identify their salient features, 2. synthesize their prior knowledge and skills in new ways to creatively match new arguments and situations, and 3. evaluate their learning in a comparative perspective, critically identifying the motives, values, and interests that distinctively enable and/or limit their vision of things. Assessment is based primarily on short response papers and a long final essay. For example, students may be required to analyze one text in light of theoretical tools found in another, or to explain how they would apply an argument made in a text to a situation they have encountered. In spring 2003, students also participated for credit in a series of occasional workshops on conflict resolution and negotiation, including a simulation on the Cyprus conflict keyed to the CRC’s stays in Greece and Turkey. Finally, students write a 5000 word comprehensive year-end paper in which they distil and evaluate what they understand world citizenship to entail, exercising skills in description, analysis, reflection, and construction.            

Past Readings:

• Hannah Arendt, "Understanding and Politics," Essays in Understanding 1930-1954.
• Milton J. Bennett, "A Developmental Approach to Training for Intercultural Sensitivity," International Journal of Intercultural Relations 10, 2 (1986).
• Peter L. Berger, "Introduction: The Cultural Dynamics of Globalization," in Peter L. Berger and Samuel P. Huntington (eds.), Many Globalizations: Cultural Diversity in the Contemporary World.
• Lynn Mikel Brown and Carol Gilligan, Meeting at the Crossroads: Women’s Psychology and Girls’ Development.
• Diana Eck, Encountering God: A Spiritual Journey from Bozeman to Banaras.
• Clifford Geertz, "Whose Life Is It Anyway?" Works and Lives: The Anthropologist as Author.
• Naomi R. Goldenberg, "Stepping Out of the Circle: Overcoming Tribal Identities," Celebrating the Human Experience.
• Samuel P. Huntington, "A Universal Civilization? Modernization and Westernization," The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order.
• George Lakoff & Mark Johnson, Metaphors We Live By.
• Daphne Patai, "U.S. Academics and Third World Women: Is Ethical Research Possible?" in Daphne Patai & Sherna B. Gluck (eds.), Women’s Words: The Feminist Practice of Oral History.
• Amartya Sen, Reason Before Identity.
• John Tomlinson, "The Possibility of Cosmopolitanism," Globalization and Culture.
• Michael Walzer, Thick and Thin: Moral Reasoning at Home and Abroad.

FWCC 390 Theory and Method in the Study of Religion
This course focuses on the craft of ethnography.  Ethnographies are the means by which anthropologists convey their analysis of their field work, and this course is an in-depth exploration of how anthropologists collect, analyze, and write up their data, together with reflections on these methods and the ethnographic genre itself.  In other words, the course emphasizes practical techniques as well as the “theory of method” with a view to deepening our approaches to cross-cultural understanding.  In addition to readings, films, and classroom discussion, each student learns through doing a short ethnographic project.  This course may be used to fulfill the Junior Research Seminar requirement. 

Past Readings:

• David L. Haberman, Journey Through the Twelve Forests: An Encounter with Krishna (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994).
• Eric Wolf, Europe and the People without History (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1982). [Portions of this book will be used in both the first and second semester.]

Religions of China and Thailand
The student surveys major periods and problems in the history of religions I China and Thailand.  In the China segment, the Confucian, Daoist, and Chinese Buddhist traditions are covered, beginning with an introduction to Chinese notions of cosmological and social order and the problem of death as a disruption of that order.  The student explores in detail how these religious traditions have developed different ideals of human transformation, in the form of the sage, the immortal, and the bodhisattva, and the reconciliation with the inevitability of death that they imply.  In the Thailand segment, greatest emphasis is given to Thai Buddhism, with secondary focus on Hindu, Islamic, Sikh, Christian, and ethnic minority religions in Thai society.  Fieldtrips supplement readings, lectures, and classroom discussion.

Past Readings:

• Carolyn Brown Heinz, Asian Cultural Traditions (Long Grove, Ill.: Waveland Press, 1999).
• Linda Woodhead, Paul Fletcher, Hiroko Kawanami, and David Smith, eds., Religions in the Modern World: Traditions in Transition (New York: Routledge, 2002).
• Faith Adiele, Meeting Faith: The Forest Journals of a Black Buddhist Nun (New York: W. W. Norton, 2004).

FWCC 220 Introduction to Chinese and Thai Culture and Society
The course is designed to provide students with a basic understanding of the histories and cultures of China and Thailand.  It includes several fieldtrips and participatory activities, as well as readings, lectures, films and classroom discussions.

FWCC 391 Religions and Globalization
This course explores the interactions between the processes of economic and technological modernization, globalization, and religions, looking at them historically and as processes that affect and are affected by psychological and cultural/religious configurations.  Building on our reflections on cross-cultural encounters in the first semester, an additional theme of this course is the implications of globalization and religious commitment for what it means to be a world citizen.  An extra research project may be undertaken to earn more credit. 

Past Readings:

• Peter Berger and Samuel P. Huntington, eds., Many Globalizations: Cultural Diversity in the Contemporary World (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002).
• Sudhir Kakar, The Colors of Violence: Cultural Identities, Religion, and Conflict (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996).
• Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, trans. Talcott Parsons, (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1958 [1904-1905]).
• Stephen Prothero, The White Buddhist: The Asian Odyssey of Henry Steele Olcott (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1996).