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Academic Year 2004/2005

Religion and the Social Construction of Race
RELI 391 FA

This course will examine aspects of the interactions between race and religion in a number of historical and social contexts. We will place at the center of our discussions the question of how race functions as a prism through which people come to both understand and experience their own religious life and that of others. In examining race, we will privilege interpretations that emphasize the construction of race as a process in which power plays a pivotal role and means through which communities form collective identities. We will read a wide range of historical analysis and primary source materials from the U.S. and the Caribbean. We will examine pro-slavery documents, Native American missionary works, analyses of anti-Semitism, and works on Father Divine, the Nation of Islam, Rastafari, Haitian Vodou, Jonestown, and Christian right supremacist groups like Aryan Nation.

MAJOR READINGS

EXAMINATIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS and/or COMMENTS

COURSE FORMAT: Seminar

REGISTRATION INFORMATION

Level: UGRD    Credit: 1    Gen Ed Area Dept: SBS RELI    Grading Mode: Graded   

Prerequisites: NONE Links to Web Resources For This Course.

Last Updated on MAR-21-2005

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