virginia tech critical thinking in the humanities classes

Virginia Tech Humanities Week

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From Al technology to prison reform, join experts from Virginia Tech and across the nation as we explore issues facing society.

What is Humanities Week?

Virginia Tech Humanities Week highlights the essential work happening in the humanities at Virginia Tech and around the world. Members of the Virginia Tech community and beyond are invited to attend panel discussions, Q&As, and more interactive activities throughout the weeklong celebration set for October 22-27, 2023.  Humanities Week is sponsored by the  Center for Humanities  and the  College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences . All Humanities Week events are free and open to the public unless otherwise noted.

Register for Humanities Week in advance to receive program updates, Zoom links for virtual attendance, and more!

Events and Speakers

From Jail to Yale:

Education is Humanization in the Carceral Context and Beyond

George Chochos

Keynote Speaker

Date: Wednesday, Oct. 25

Time:  6:00 p.m.

Location:  Squires Student Center: Haymarket Theatre, 290 College Avenue

Description:  George Chochos’s keynote address, "From Jail to Yale: Education is Humanization in the Carceral Context and Beyond" will focus on prison education initiatives and the power of a humanities education. The keynote address is free and open to the public.

George Chochos is a senior program associate with Vera, a social justice organization. A skillful, charismatic speaker who understands personally the value of humanities education, Chochos earned a graduate humanities degree from Yale University. He also earned four degrees during his nearly 12 years in prison.

Get Involved

Support the Virginia Tech Prison Book Project

A team of students and faculty in our college are working together to send books to incarcerated people across Virginia. The Virginia Tech Prison Book Project embodies  Ut Prosim  (That I May Serve), a motto of selfless servitude and passion for community outreach that searches for humanity in everyone.

• Monday, Oct. 23
• Tuesday, Oct. 24
• Wednesday, Oct. 25
• Thursday, Oct. 26
• Friday, Oct. 27

Oral History Presentation and Workshop

Ren Harman, Jason Higgins, and Jessica Taylor

Time:  9:00-11:00 a.m. Location:  Newman Library, Special Collections and University Archives (First Floor)

Description

For the past few decades, scholars and practitioners at Virginia Tech have collected and used oral histories to incorporate the voices, memories, and perspectives of the people and communities at the heart of important historical events and trends. The practice of oral history and the realization for a more defined research center, led to the establishment of the University Libraries’ Center for Oral History.  Members of the stakeholders committee for the Center for Oral History will additionally offer a workshop session on best practices for oral history and information about the equipment available from the Center.

Oral history and the humanities share a deep and symbiotic relationship, as both disciplines seek to understand and preserve the rich tapestry of human experiences, cultures, and narratives.  Oral history, a methodology within the broader field of history, involves the collection and preservation of firsthand accounts and narratives from individuals and communities.  Through humanities, oral histories gain meaning, revealing broader social, cultural, and philosophical themes that resonate with the human experience. Moreover, oral history humanizes historical events and gives voice to marginalized or silenced perspectives, promoting empathy, inclusivity, and a more holistic understanding of our shared past.

A Poetic Meditation on Re(new)al After Lockdown

Carol A. Mullen and Charles L. Lowery

Time:  12:00 p.m. Location:  Zoom Only: Register to Receive Link in Advance

Participants are invited to engage in “repairing the world” in post-pandemic times, in alignment with Dewey’s concept of growth and Freire’s notion of becoming. The democratic discourse will invite listeners to reflectively engage their emotional, aesthetic, and intellectual acumen.

This interactive session will engage the humanities from an educational-poetic perspective. A broader aim is to foster intellectual and aesthetic engagement with poems while sharpening critical and creative thinking skills.  

Two faculty in educational leadership will spark deep listening and meaning-making through the live reading of an original educationally-steeped poem and the interpretive unpacking of its verses.   

Let’s All Play D&D: A Live Demo of Cognitive Access Tools and Inclusive Adventures

Open the Gates Gaming: Elizabeth McLain, Christopher Campo-Bowen, and Alice Rogers with Ashley Shew, Tyechia Thompson, and Kereshmeh Afsari, and special guests Caitlin Martinkus and Scott Hanenberg from the Cleveland Institute of Music

Time:  1:00–2:30 p.m. (presentation), 3:00–6:00 p.m. (hands-on workshop) Location:  Newman Library Room 207A and Zoom: Register to Receive Link in Advance

Note: Presentation from 1:00 to 2:30 p.m. From 3:00 to 6:00 p.m., we will be available to anyone who would like to try out the tools and play Dungeons & Dragons with us.     Hosted by Open the Gates Gaming: Elizabeth McLain, Christopher Campo-Bowen, and Alice Rogers with Ashley Shew, Tyechia Thompson, and Kereshmeh Afsari, and special guests Caitlin Martinkus and Scott Hanenberg from the Cleveland Institute of Music

Our project, Open the Gates Gaming (OtG), is part of the Disability Community Technology Center, supported by the Mellon Foundation. OtG formed in response to our local disability community’s desire to play D&D together despite the challenges this rules-heavy game poses to neurodivergent people, such as those with ADHD, autism, and chemo brain. As we developed tools to expand who can tell their stories, we also discovered that we needed to broaden how they can be told. 

Showcasing this intersectional approach to access, College of Architecture, Arts, and Design faculty member Christopher Campo-Bowen will guide Kereshmeh Afsari (Myers-Lawson School of Construction), Ashley Shew and Tyechia Thompson (CLAHS) on an adventure that reconsiders the totalizing narratives inherent in one of the most elite art forms in European history: opera. The audience will learn about our open-access tools – which can support them as they slay monsters, solve mysteries, and create new and better worlds. Participants will also learn how engaging with the humanities through play yields better access outcomes than simple technical compliance, but most importantly, all work that strives to empower historically marginalized communities must be led by them.

Is This Home? Sharing Stories and Art About Making Home in Southwest Virginia

College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences Storytelling Collective

Time: 5:00 p.m. Location:  Haymarket Theatre

Experience an examination of what “home” is through a range of storytelling techniques, from traditional storytelling to spoken word, dance and song – creating a space that is respectful of diverse forms of cultural expression.

Audience members will hear a set of prepared short stories, then explore ways to tell your own stories through movement and visual arts. The event will conclude with a resource expo of campus and community support for making home among the joys and struggles we all face.

This is planned to be the first in a series of events throughout the year along this theme, both on campus and in the community.

Poe’s Shadows , an immersive theatrical installation

Meaghan Dee, Amanda Nelson, Todd Ogle, Ashley Reed, Natasha Staley, Tanner Upthegrove, Ethan Candelario With additional contributions from students from SOPA, SOVA, and ARIES.

Time: 2:00-5:30 p.m. Location:  Moss Arts Center, Sandbox and Perform Studio

Drawing from two of Edgar Allan Poe’s most well-known works, “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Raven,” the installation explores what happens when literary texts are lifted from the “page to the stage” and then reimagined through the use of new technology. Inspired by Poe’s texts themselves, crankies (a 19th century artform in which a long, illustrated scroll is wound, revealing imagery related to spoken stories or songs), and shadow play (or puppetry), this installation explores the concept of shadow through text, image, and sound, including recordings of Virginia Tech students reading Poe's works.

Stop by at any point during the timeframe to experience the 15-minute looping display. 

When Mind and Body Meet: Liberal Arts, Martial Arts, and the Academy

Kenneth Hodges and Spencer Bennington

Time: 12:00 p.m. Location:   340 Shanks Hall

This round table conversation will focus on the various ways the humanities and martial arts intersect as objects of study, as part of lived practice, as richly signifying components of human experience.  It may include demonstrations both of martial arts and of VR video games involving martial arts, and discussion of literature.

From the wrestling in Beowulf to Bruce Lee’s Enter the Dragon, how people fight – how they move, how they train, how they imagine conflict and peace – has played a significant role in the human experience.  The Japanese concept of 文武両道 (bunbu ryodo) celebrates the way of excelling in both literary and martial arts, but the concept is not unique to Japan or even East Asia: medieval European chivalry or Renaissance humanism likewise celebrated both.  Scholars are beginning to pay more attention to the embodied human experience of martial arts, both in their own lives as people who are both scholars and martial artists, but also in literature, art, and history, where fight scenes carry far more information than may first appear to untrained audiences.   

Spencer Bennington is a black-belt in taekwondo who works on rhetoric and martial arts, particularly in hip-hop and videogames.

Kenneth Hodges is a professor of medieval English and an intermediate student of aikido. 

Histories of Sexual Violence at Virginia Tech

Rosa Mata, Madelyn Nogiec, Kiera Schneiderman, Cait Simson, and facilitated by Alicia Cohen, director of diversity programs in the Office for Inclusion and Diversity

Time:  5:00 p.m. Location:  Liberal Arts and Human Sciences Building (200 Stanger St), Ground Floor Conference Room

This moderated roundtable discussion will feature the findings of original undergraduate student research from a Spring 2023 course. Students reviewed university manuscript collections and wrote an edited volume of chapters, highlighting the campus culture surrounding sexual violence during historical time periods and with different student population segments at Virginia Tech. Come listen to what the students discovered and what conclusions they drew, which were proposed as future action for the Sexual Violence Prevention Initiative committees launched this Fall.

Differ We Must - Lecture and Book Signing

Steve Inskeep

Time: 7:30 p.m. Location:  Lyric Theatre

Sponsored by the Virginia Center for Civil War Studies

Steve Inskeep of NPR's "Morning Edition, discusses his latest book, Differ We Must, which uncovers Lincoln's ability to bridge political divides. 

The event is sponsored by the Virginia Center for Civil War Studies and features a lecture from Steve Inskeep and a book signing.

Performing Alternative Economic Models

Ralph Hall and Steven T. Licardi

Time: 9:00 a.m. Location:  Squires 134 and Zoom (link distributed to guests who register for the week)

For many, our current economic models no longer meet our basic human needs. Over the past two years, performance artist Steven T. Licardi and SPIA faculty member Ralph Hall have been exploring ways to advance new economic thinking – related to Community Wealth Building – through a SciArts project. Through this collaboration, they arrived at “Pingpongomics” and performance art as an engaging way to reveal economic inequality and challenge participants to imagine, explore, and develop alternative economic models.

A Practical Public Goods Mechanism for Policing

Jordan Adamson

Time: 11:00 a.m. Location:  Newman Library Goodall Room, Multipurpose Room

Jordan Adamson , Assistant Professor at the Institute for Empirical Research in Economics in Leipzig (Germany), will give a talk with the title “A Practical Public Goods Mechanism for Policing.”

Lunch will be served.

Fashion History Quiz Game

Dina Smith-Glaviana

Time: 12:00 p.m. Location:  Wallace Hall Atrium

Do you know when Hollywood stars begin to influence fashion?

Stop by and show off your knowledge of fashion history by matching clues like photographs and art prints to historical garments from our Fashion Study Collection! 

Demonstration: Conversational AI for Children's Learning

Jisun Kim, PhD candidate in Child and Adolescent Development, and her fellow researchers

Time: 1:00 p.m. Location:  Wallace Hall Atrium and Zoom (link distributed to guests who register for the week)

We propose to offer a hands-on demonstration in which the public audience can experience how advanced interactive technologies involving conversational AI can be used to understand and support human development, with a focus on young children’s learning. These emerging interactive technologies have been rapidly integrated into our daily lives, presenting both unprecedented opportunities as well as developmental concerns. To maximize their benefits and minimize potential harms, understanding human development in the context of technology is critical.  

Interact with our conversational AI agents deployed on smart speakers, computers, and tablets. These technological tools will read a children's storybook and pose questions to the audience based on a pre-programmed system designed by our team to provide educationally meaningful human-technology interaction. Explore our head-mounted eye trackers and wearable devices as we walk participants through the use of these methodological tools for understanding human cognitive processes.  

Given the growing use of technology in educational settings, we aim to provide the audience with the opportunity to observe how these new conversational AI technologies can be effectively applied in educational contexts to foster learning.

Intelligibility and the Burden of Communication

Abby Walker

Time: 2:00 p.m. Location:  Room 010 Liberal Arts and Human Sciences Building (200 Stanger St.)

Why and how do miscommunications between speakers of the same language happen?   Even though this it's predictable and unavoidable to some degree, why is (un)intelligibility socially fraught and ideologically-laden?  

Learn the answers to these questions and more from a linguist!

Keynote: From Jail to Yale: Education is Humanization in the Carceral Context and Beyond

Time:  6:00 p.m. Location:  Haymarket Theatre

"From Jail to Yale: Education is Humanization in the Carceral Context and Beyond" will focus on prison education initiatives and the power of a humanities education.

What Humans Can Do but AI’s Can’t: How AI Can Fuel a Renaissance in Jobs for Humanities Majors

Lee M. Pierson

Time:  12:00 p.m. Location:  Liberal Arts and Human Sciences Building, Ground Floor Conference Room

Bachelor’s degrees conferred by Virginia colleges in English, History, and Philosophy have declined by more than a third from the 2011-12 academic year to the 2012-22 academic year. (State Council of Higher Education). A likely factor in this decline is the perceived lesser availability of higher-paying jobs as compared to many other majors, especially those in STEM fields. Paradoxically, though, the recent rise of generative AI technology creates new and exciting employment opportunities for students in the humanities, including but not limited to “prompt engineer.” There is a need for human partners to manage and fact-check AI systems. This need is not going away soon, if ever.  Generative AI—despite its recent impressive achievements—is notoriously prone to errors, biases, and hallucinations, as well as to excessively second-handed inside-the-box “thinking” that misses creative possibilities. Why? Because an AI program cannot override itself to correct its missteps. Unlike AI’s, humans can override their faulty programming, especially by challenging the faulty assumptions that make bad critical thinking and break good creative thinking. This skill of overriding assumptions will be demonstrated interactively in this session.

Conceptual Solutions with the Innovation Collab

LAHS 3984 Students

Time:  2:00-3:15 p.m. Location:  Newman Library Room 101 (Goodall Room)

LAHS 3984 Innovation Collab is a project-based class focused on guiding students to develop skills in technological innovation with an emphasis on public interest technology. Students work together to develop solutions to real-world problems provided by partners in industry (with Boeing partnership) and nonprofits.  

Students will present their conceptual solutions related to the broad project areas of Electrifying Air Travel, Collaborative Autonomy, Environment & Sustainability, and Healthy Travel. The assignment focused on enabling technology with regard to inclusivity and access for specifically identified public stakeholder groups.

Time:  12:00-2:00 p.m. Location:  Moss Arts Center, Sandbox and Perform Studio

Speed Solving Not Getting Away with Murder

Shoshana Milgram Knapp

Time: 12:00 p.m. Location:  370/380 Shanks Hall and Zoom (link distributed to guests who register for the week)

Sometimes, in a matter of minutes, we can find our way to the core of a conundrum, finding out the facts that a criminal has tried to hide.  

In this interactive session, we will work, individually or in teams, to solve a number of concise puzzles, matching wits with (fictional) criminals. The stories are invented, but plausible.  Our puzzle stories—according to the former warden of Sing Sing Prison—"represent a very adequate cross-section of the problems perennially confronting the law-enforcers.”

The Digital Witch Hunt

Hannah Steinhauer, Corry Higgs, and Michael Senters

Time: 1:00 p.m. Location:  132 Lane Hall

Examining the rhetoric and imagery of feminism, queerness, and witches in online spaces, across the political spectrum, we use iconographic tracking and visual rhetorical analysis to analyze how these various groups utilize imagery to stake their positions— with special attention to the imagery and rhetoric of witches, witchcraft, and queer-cryptid icons.  

As students in an interdisciplinary Ph.D. program who research various issues of social media rhetoric, this research utilizes our respective training in political science, gender studies, communication, Appalachian studies, and technology studies to gain a clearer picture of the role of social media discourse around the “queer” and the “demonized.” Join us and become bewitched.

Tea and Bannock from the VT Indigenous Friendship Garden: Harvest Celebration

Time: 2:00-4:00 p.m. Location: Shadow Lake Village Community House (1741 Ginger Lane)

Come by and enjoy a variety of foraged teas and bannock (breads) made from the Native Corn we grow in the friendship garden. We will offer samples from foraged plants as toppings for the bannock. We will have additional activities set up to learn about the ingredients involved, help us save seeds for next year's garden, and process acorns for upcoming tasting events.

Time: 2:00-7:30 p.m. Location:  Moss Arts Center, Sandbox and Perform Studio

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The Importance of the Humanities at Virginia Tech and Beyond

Pathways to General Education

Per State Policy on Transfer, students who take their entire course work toward the baccalaureate degree by enrolling in transfer programs at a Virginia Community College or Richard Bland College, and who graduate with associate degrees based upon a baccalaureate-oriented sequence of courses, and who are offered admission to Virginia Tech, will be granted junior level status upon admission. Additionally, these students will have fulfilled the requirements of the University Pathways to General Education ; however, it may take such students longer than two years to complete the baccalaureate degree because of major prerequisites and other circumstances or requirements. ( State Policy on Transfer, Section II )

The Pathways to General Education is a vibrant, flexible, and innovative general education program, that provides a coherent and meaningful learning experience and allows students to integrate the learning for use throughout their lifetimes.

Some courses must be taken in sequence to fulfill the Pathways Concept requirement. Refer to your major’s checksheet to determine which courses are required for a Concept.

Pathways Curriculum requires a total of 45 credits to fulfill the 7 core concepts and both integrative concepts. Students might pursue a minor or an alternative Pathway as means of completing a portion of the requirements.

It is advisable to view checksheets/program curriculum (list of courses required to complete degrees) of your intended major at Virginia Tech. This will help you determine which Areas you may choose and which are prescribed by your selected College or major.

Students who have earned an associate degree at a Virginia Community College or through Richard Bland College will have fulfilled requirements toward Pathways.

Bachelor of Science in Public Health (BSPH) Degree Program Curriculum

Pathway general education courses (total: 45 credits), discourse (9 credits).

• COMM 1015 & 1016 Communication Skills (3 credits each)
• Choose Advanced Course (2000+) (3 credits)

Critical Thinking in the Humanities (6 credits)

• Choose Humanities Course (3 credits)

Reasoning in the Social Sciences (6 credits)

• PSYC 1004 Introductory Psychology (3 credits)
• SOC 1004 Introductory Sociology (3 credits)

Reasoning in the Natural Sciences (6 credits)

• BIOL 1105 Principles of Biology (3 credits)
• BIOL 1106 Principles of Biology (3 credits)

Quantitative and Computational Thinking (9 credits)

• MATH 1014 Precalculus with Transcendental Functions (3 credits)
• MATH 1025 Elementary Calculus (3 credits)
• STAT 3604 Statistics for the Social Sciences (3 credits)

Critique and practice in Design and the Arts (6 credits)

• Choose Art Course or Integrated Art/Design Course (3 credits)
• Choose Design Course or Integrated Art/Design Course (3 credits)

Critical Analysis of Identity and Equity in the United States (3 credits)

Public health core requirements (total: 42 credits).

• HNFE 1004 Foods, Nutrition, and Exercise (3 Credits)
• PHS 1514 Personal Health (3 credits)
• PHS 1984 First Year Experience (1 credit)
• PHS 2004 Introduction to Public Health (3 credits)
• ADV 2134 Introduction to Health Communication (3 credits)  OR  ADV 4324 Issues in Health Communication (3 credits)
• HNFE 2664 Behavioral Theory and Health Promotion (3 credits)
• PHS 3014 Introduction to Environmental Health (3 credits)
• PHS 3534 Drug Education (3 credits)
• PHS 3634 Epidemiologic Concepts of Health and Disease (3 credits)
• PHS 4014 Public Health Program Planning and Evaluation (3 credits)
• SOC 3314 Social Movements OR SOC 3504 Population Trends and Issues OR  SOC 4414 Drugs and Society OR STS 3124 Societal Health (3 Credits, Junior Standing)
• PHS 4044 Public Health Policy and Administration (3 credits, Junior Standing)
• PHS 4054 Concepts in One Health (3 credits, Junior Standing)
• PHS 4064 Modeling Infectious Diseases (3 credits, Senior Standing)
• PHS 4074 Practicum in Public Health (3 credits, Senior Standing)

Additional Major/Minor/Free Electives  (Total: 33 Credits)

Undergraduate program offices:.

262 Wallace Hall 295 West Campus Drive Blacksburg, VA 24061 (540) 231-3945 [email protected]

New food science class brings diverse flavors and students to the table

The course, offered by the Department of Food Science and Technology, is using food as a teaching tool to explore science and civilization.

• Mary Hardbarger

15 Mar 2023

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Students learn how to make fresh mozzarella in the new course From Raw to Burnt: Exploring Science and Society through Foods offered by Virginia Tech's Department of Food Science and Technology. Photo by Alex Hood for Virginia Tech.

The distinctive smell of baker’s yeast – nutty, warm, and slightly sweet – circulated around the classroom.

Sticky hands dug into balls of dough, pushing, folding, and stretching it – a tedious but necessary baking kneading process. The technique helps develop strands of gluten, resulting in a smooth, fluffy ball of dough perfect for a pizza.

This pizza would soon be joyfully consumed by Allison Richards, a student at Virginia Tech.

Richards is one of 60 students taking Virginia Tech’s new course, From Raw to Burnt: Exploring Science and Society through Foods, offered through the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences’ Department of Food Science and Technology . This is the second semester the university has offered the class that studies scientific principles and the development of society through the lens one of humans most desirable and most critical basic needs: food.

Students learn through weekly lectures taught by different professors in the department. Each professor offers an area of expertise and integrates chemistry, biology, and physics through topics such as salt and sugar, protein, dairy and eggs, and fats and oils. Each lecture is paired with a hands-on lab in which students prepare something related to these food topics.

From Raw to Burnt is Virginia Tech’s first course that counts as either a Pathways 2 (Critical Thinking in the Humanities) or a Pathways 4 (Reasoning in the Natural Sciences). This aspect attracted Richards, a first-year student majoring in commercial real estate, along with many other students, to the class.

Herbert Bruce, assistant professor of practice for undergraduate education, led a recent lecture and lab on carbohydrates. And there is no better way to demonstrate the science behind the beloved carb than through the college student food staple of pizza.

Bruce physically conducts the lab in Wallace Hall. In response to student feedback for more in-person workshops after the course’s inaugural semester, he now virtually instructs an additional lab in the Food Science and Technology Building as well as some students in their home kitchens.

“Food clearly has a science to it, but it also has a history,” Bruce said. “A whole history of exploitation, a history of power struggles. And while we were brainstorming this course, we thought, ‘Why can’t we be telling these kinds of stories?’”

Bruce started the cooking demo by activating baker’s yeast in warm water, called fermentation, a process with which he is very familiar. He is a co-creator of the Fightin’ Hokies lager, one of two beers created by Virginia Tech faculty in partnership with Hardywood Park Craft Brewery in Richmond.

“Sometimes people have this idea that fermentation just makes alcohol,” Bruce said. “I’m like, ‘yes,’ but, it also makes pizza dough, many other foods, including pepperoni and yogurt, and a lot of the drugs that the pharmaceutical industry produce.”

Students worked in pairs to make the dough, learning about leavening agents, gluten, carbon dioxide, and the characteristics of acids and sugars along the way.

Bruce said what he enjoys most about the course is the diversity of its participants. Much like food, the class brings students from different backgrounds, academic years , and majors to the table.

Students like Mario Alvarez, an undecided life sciences major from Mechanicsville, Virginia.

“I enjoy how this course builds on my prior knowledge of biology, and hopefully it will help inspire me to decide what career to pursue,” Alvarez said.

Whatever that career path may be, it may involve food and the family business, Alvarez said. His parents own and operate a restaurant in his hometown.

Max Esterhuizen

540-231-6630

• College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
• Food Science and Technology

Related Content

2023-2024 Academic Catalog

2023-2024 course catalog.

Welcome to Virginia Tech! We are excited that you are here planning your time as a Hokie.

Explore Programs

Search courses, religion and culture.

Our Website

The Department of Religion and Culture critically investigates religion, culture, and their relationships by problematizing what is commonly considered self-evident, especially since these subjects are intrinsic to understanding the human condition both locally and globally. In our research, teaching, and engagement, we seek to craft and apply new forms of critical inquiry that advance integrative intellectual thought. These paths of inquiry inform our engagement with students, who become well prepared to understand complex transformations throughout their lives, whether they pursue graduate studies or other life trajectories.

The department offers undergraduate degrees in Religion and Culture (RLCL) and Humanities for Public Service (HPS) and minors in American Studies, Appalachian Cultures and Environments, Judaic Studies, Medieval and Early Modern Studies, Middle East Studies, Popular Culture, and Religion.

The department also offers an M.A. in Material Culture and Public Humanities, two graduate certificates--one in Religion and the Public Sphere and the other in Material Culture and Public Humanities; and is a core member of the Alliance for Social, Political, Ethical, and Cultural Thought ( ASPECT ) Ph.D. program.

For more information on the department or any of our degree programs, please contact [email protected] .

Degree Requirements

The graduation requirements in effect during the academic year of admission to Virginia Tech apply. When choosing the degree requirements information, always choose the year you started at Virginia Tech. Requirements for graduation are referred to via university publications as "Checksheets." The number of credit hours required for degree completion varies among curricula. Students must satisfactorily complete all requirements and university obligations for degree completion. The university reserves the right to modify requirements in a degree program.

Please visit the University Registrar's website at https://www.registrar.vt.edu/graduation-multi-brief/checksheets.html for degree requirements.

Religion and Culture Major (RLCL)

The Bachelor of Arts degree in Religion and Culture (RLCL) combines the strengths of the department in the areas of the humanities and study of religion in order to provide students with opportunities to examine several of the twenty-first century's most important global phenomena. Students completing this cutting-edge, one-of-a-kind degree will explore the impact of religious and cultural practices on politics, economics, the arts, and everyday life (including pop culture), as well as the impact of these practices on moral and ethical practices in today's world. Graduates will be prepared to contribute as employees and citizens to the state of Virginia, the United States, and indeed the world as all levels of society seek better ways to live and work together in the increasingly diverse contexts of the twenty-first century. Religion and culture shape the world and will continue to do so in dramatic and changing ways.

Students who choose this major will develop complex problem-solving skills, alongside critical thinking that will prepare them for a wide range of careers. The global focus of the major affords career opportunities in education, business, government, many private industries, and the non-profit sector. The major has a strong academic and career-advising component.

Humanities for Public Service Major (HPS)

The major in Humanities for Public Service gives intellectual weight to the Virginia Tech motto Ut Prosim ("That I may serve"). The course of study allows students the depth of knowledge to understand the religious and/ or cultural issues confronting modern society, both at home and abroad, while also allowing the flexibility to work directly with faculty on specialized topics ranging from environmental issues in Appalachia, to the impact of Artificial Intelligence on human flourishing.

Students in the major, Humanities for Public Service, build a strong foundation in humanistic learning about cultural and religious traditions with the aim of preparing for careers in public service. The major cultivates cultural awareness and critical thinking skills, familiarizing students with the ways that people have conceptualized, encoded, and reflected on human experience. Therefore it prepares them to sensitively and thoughtfully work for the public good. Requirements include selected courses in theory and practices, as well as a field study/ internship to give students direct experience that will benefit their future careers.

Study Abroad

Students are strongly encouraged to complete an approved study abroad program outside of the U.S. Study abroad programs are occasionally run by faculty in the department.

Honors College

Eligible students are encouraged to participate in the University Honors Program. Completing a degree "In Honors" is an excellent way for outstanding students to integrate the knowledge from several disciplines. Honors students have considerable flexibility in completing the degree requirements.

Double Majors

For information on earning a double major or second degree, contact the Department Chair. Since Religion and Culture major is flexible and dynamic, students are encouraged to earn a second major.

Religion and Culture Minors

The department offers the following minors. Please contact our undergraduate advisor, Benjamin WIley ( [email protected] ), for more information.

American Studies

Appalachian cultures and environments, judaic studies, medieval and early modern studies, middle east studies, popular culture.

American studies is an interdisciplinary field that draws upon a number of academic disciplines, including history, literature, and sociology, to consider relationships between culture and society in the United States as it is embedded in global processes and issues.

Appalachian Cultures and Environments is a Pathways minor supporting teaching, research, outreach, and service on topics pertaining to Appalachia in relation to pertinent transglobal issues. Courses focus on these issues from a critical regionalism perspective in which the relationship between these issues and region is considered problematic and open to investigation.

Endowed in 1996, the Malcolm and Diane Rosenberg Program in Judaic Studies offers students the opportunity to explore, examine, and critically engage the rich and multifaceted history, religion, and culture of the Jewish people. Judaic culture has significantly contributed to Western and other civilizations.

Medieval & Early Modern Studies fosters an interdisciplinary approach to the Medieval and Early Modern Worlds (roughly 300-1700 C.E.).

The interdisciplinary minor in Middle East Studies allows students to gain a broad understanding and appreciation of the languages, religions, and cultures of the Middle East and of the region's history and its place in international relations.

The Minor in Popular Culture provides an understanding of the broadly shared cultures made possible by mass production. Popular culture includes all widely practiced and distributed expressions: news; entertainment; religion; sports; popular art; and styles of decoration, dress, and architecture.

By examining a diversity of traditions and viewpoints, a program in religious studies provides the resources for an intellectually responsible appraisal of one's own value commitments. A minor in Religion is part of a broad liberal arts education and may lead to graduate study in a variety of fields or to professional training in ministerial or social service vocations.

• Humanities for Public Service Major
• Religion and Culture Major

Chair: Matthew Gabriele Professors: B. Britt, M. Gabriele, S. Johnson, E. Satterwhite, 10 and R. Scott Associate Professors: A. Abeysekara, A. Ansell, D. Christensen, Z. Ni, 10 P. Schmitthenner, and P. Seniors Assistant Professors: A. Armstrong, C. Buckner, S. Patel, 10 and D. Polanco Instructor: T. Edmondson Post-Doctoral Associate: S. Plummer

Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Advising

Academy of Teaching Excellence inductee

Wine Award recipient

Sporn Award recipient

Alumni Award for Extension Excellence

Alumni Award for Research Excellence

Alumni Award for Teaching Excellence

Academy of Faculty Service

Commonwealth of Virginia Outstanding Faculty Award

Diggs Teaching Scholar Awards

Undergraduate Course Descriptions (APS)

Introduces students to the history of the Appalachian region from European contact to the present. Traces the idea of Appalachia by tracing ways in which Americans have imagined the region over time. Explores humanistic problems of cultural identity, race and ethnicity, place and globalization, and impacts of natural resource extraction.

Survey and study of music traditions in Appalachia. Investigation of the formal elements of this music, including instruments and musical terms and forms. Exploration of style as a reflection of many cultural influences. Study of the impact and development of these traditions in contemporary musical practices.

Examination of the expressive genres and cultural processes of communities in Appalachia. Documentation of art and skill in everyday life, including material culture (e.g., foodways, architecture), customary behavior (e.g., music, ritual, occupational practice), and verbal art (e.g., narrative, speechplay), and analysis of how people have used these forms to shape social identities, physical spaces, and power relations.

Examines cultural, political, and social aspects of music in, of, and about Appalachia, including such commercialized and increasingly globalized products as “old-time,” “bluegrass,” and “country.” Ways in which music contests and reproduces social relations of race, class, and gender. Role of migration and racial diversity in formation of Appalachian music. Economic significance of music, such as Virginia’s The Crooked Road as a regional touristic undertaking.

Study of human health within and across a variety of geographic contexts in North America. Describe the health consequences of inequity and injustice within and across American contexts. Consider the roles of collectives, social movements, mutual aid, interdisciplinary thinking, power and social justice in addressing pathologies of power and working towards human well-being. Advocate a biosocial lens that considers the dynamic relationships between biology and environmental, social, geographic, and historical contexts.

Early settlement, religion, the pre-industrial economy, the coming of the coal and lumber industries, labor activism, politics, migration, and regional identity.

The concept of community in Appalachia using an interdisciplinary approach and experiential learning. Interrelationships among geographically, culturally, and socially constituted communities, public policy, and human development. Pre: Junior standing.

Appalachian literature from the region’s beginnings to the present, including such diverse voices as women, Native American, Affrilachian, LGBTQ, and Latinx populations. Literary perspectives on the relationships between self, family, and community; place and displacement; and humans and the natural world. Analysis of stereotypes that have perpetuated inequity and displacement of power, as well as consideration of regional efforts to reclaim equity, power, place, and identity.

An empirical examination of how Appalachian speech both reflects and constitutes regional cultures. Emphasis is on applying sociological and anthropological methods and theories to the study of language in use.

Undergraduate participatory community research as applied to issues of cultural heritage, sustainability, and identity. Students engage in projects defined by community groups and organizations as being critical to their well-being, continuity, or growth. Emphasis is on developing concepts of civic professionalism and developmental democracy.

Research conducted by students on issues relevant to local or regional sustainability in contemporary Appalachia on contemporary environmental and community issues. Focus on environmental justice ethical issues expressed in or created by various forms of discourse.

Undergraduate Course Descriptions (HUM)

The shifts in thought and values during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in the global imagination, including issues of commerce, scientific inquiry, industrialization, nationalism, war, labor, gender, class differences, race, and the beginnings of postmodernity. Emphasis on interpretive and analytic skills in terms of reading, discussing, and writing about the interrelationships among the arts, literature, philosophy, history, religion, and science, and their contributions toward shaping the values and aspirations of the age, including global contexts and Asian cultures.

The development and formation of the category of popular culture. Competing theories and methods for analyzing popular culture. Activities, objects, and ideas included under the rubric of popular culture. Critical thinking about the production of popular culture in relation to race, gender, class, and other forms of human difference.

Explores the written, visual, and performing arts of selected periods and cultures, setting them in the context of their times. Study of these periods linked with overarching questions of cultural encounters, interactions, and negotiations. Introduces principles of each art form as well as the means of appreciation. Students taught methods in researching, writing, and presenting on these art forms.

Examination of the worlds great oral traditions, both ancient and contemporary. Emphasis on performance contexts, relationships among multicultural traditions, including American Indian oral traditions, and the relationships among orality, literacy, technology, media, and culture.

Explores ways in which creativity and design can be understood historically as well as understood and practiced in a classroom setting. Subjects include any or all of the following: theories of creativity; traditions associated with understanding and making several kinds of art; studying artworks from different cultural backgrounds, working with the limitations and possibilities inherent in design projects, and examining how and why they were created; and preparing final creative projects for classroom presentation.

Methodology and tools of American studies, with a focus on developing analytic skills to assess discourse across varied media. Interdisciplinary investigation of histories, politics, cultures, and beliefs in the Americas, including the impacts of encounter and exchange. Intensive study of a specific topic or period.

Examination of theories for understanding the ways in which popular objects and practices (such as television programs, films, or attending sporting events) represent, maintain, and contest societal norms, including norms regarding gender and sexuality, race and ethnicity, and class and place, with an emphasis on the United States.

Focuses on interdisciplinary topics involving interrelationships among various arts and/or artists. Explores the religious and/or cultural impacts of arts and/or artists on societies and of societies on artistic expression. Investigates humanistic debates about the nature of art. May be taken a maximum of 3 times for credit with different topics.

Exploration of communication in and among various cultural groups through an examination of communicative practices, registers, discourse, and performance. Emphasis on understanding cultural differences and similarities in the different styles and stances in communication and their meanings to participants.

In-depth study of special interdisciplinary topic. Topics vary but involve a close and extensive study of the interrelationship between cultural ideas and their expressions in several of the following forms: literature, philosophy, religion, art, music, drama, material culture, and popular culture. May be repeated with different topics, for a maximum of 9 credits.

Uses sociological, anthropological, as well as artistic and humanist paradigms to analyze culture. Discusses 20th and 21st century cultural trends. Analyzes the implications of social context for cultural artifacts such as art. Topics are variable. Example topics include the cultural construction of race and the cultural of the nineteen sixties. Course may be repeated with different course content for up to 6 credits. Pre: Junior or Senior standing.

Undergraduate Course Descriptions (JUD)

Introduction to speaking, listening, reading, and writing the modern Hebrew language. Emphasis on developing proficiency in practical language use, comprehension and cultural competency. 1105: Basic tasks such as greetings, counting, and simple requests; for students with no prior knowledge of the language. 1106: More advanced tasks like asking directions, expressing personal preferences, or making purchases.

Introduction to the academic study of Judaism; a variety of scholarly approaches to Jewish textual and cultural sources, including the Hebrew Bible, rabbinic literature, and diverse contemporary cultural, religious, and social expressions. Emphasis on developing skills in critical thinking, reading, and writing about Judaism as a way of understanding the beliefs, philosophies, and histories of global Jewish communities past and present.

Introduction to the academic study of the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament), including its contents, contexts, major themes, and reception; a variety of scholarly approaches, including historical-critical, literary, ethical, and gender studies methods. Emphasis on developing skills in critical thinking, reading, and writing about the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament).

Detailed study of the first five books of the Bible, known as the Torah or Pentateuch. Scholarly approaches will include historical-critical research; comparative mythology; form and canon criticism; gender and literary studies; and the reception of these books in the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament and beyond.

Detailed study of the first five books of the Bible, known as the Torah or Pentateuch. Scholarly approaches will include historical-critical research; comparative mythology; form and canon criticism; gender and literary studies; and the reception of these books in the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament, and beyond.

This course provides a historical account, a psychological analysis, and an occasion for philosophical contemplation on the Holocaust. We will examine the deliberate and systematic attempt to annihilate the Jewish people by the National Socialist German State during World War II. Although Jews were the primary victims, Gypsies, people with disabilities, homosexuals, Jehovahs Witnesses and political dissidents were targeted; we will discuss their fate as well. The class will be organized around the examination of primary sources: written accounts, photographic and film, personal testimony.

This course provides a survey on the political history of the State of Israel and highlights major themes uniquely characterizing the specific events surrounding its establishment and its first 50 years of existence. Additionally, the course will add a comparative dimension by using the political history of Israel as a case study to discuss major themes in political science such as democracy, government, political economy, etc.

Selected topics in Jewish culture, history and thought. Possible topics includes: the philosophy of Maimonides, Spinoza or Buber, or a course dedicated to one of the following topics: Kabbalah, Hasidism, The American Jewish experience in the first half of the 20th century, and Oriental Jewish art and folklore. Two JUD courses or senior standing required. Alternate years.

Undergraduate Course Descriptions (RLCL)

This course introduces students to foundational concepts and debates within the humanities and social sciences by studying one of a rotating set of themes (e.g. love, evil, apocalypse) located at the intersection of religion and culture. Emphasis on cultural diversity, historical transformation, interdisciplinary inquiry, problem-solving and the application of academic discussions to everyday life situations.

Formation of the category of world religions in the modern West. Basic worldviews, embodied practices, and traditions included under the rubric of world religions. The encounter of and mismatch between traditions identified as world religions and the category of world religions as an instrument of colonialism and imperialism.

Nature of religion and the analysis of it from an academic perspective. Basic tenets of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, including their manifestations in the United States and their involvement in critical issues in a global context Interpretation of key texts from various historical and cultural contexts.

Modern challenges to traditional religion and responses to these challenges, including: religion as an object of critique; law, sovereignty, and religion; religion, gender, and race; religion, science, and technology; religion and media presentations.

Influential representative social and religious ethical perspectives from ancient Greek philosophers to the present; ethical reasoning on current pressing and perennial social issues - bioethics, sexuality, family, poverty-- based on historical and ethical analysis of case studies; theoretical assumptions about morality as the relation between living a virtuous life and performing ethical duties.

Interdisciplinary introductory course explores how food shapes and is shaped by culture and society. Examines how people use food to express meanings (e.g., via foodways, story, art, architecture, religion, ethical codes), how food options, practices, and inequities are shaped by social structures (e.g. cultural and legal norms regarding race, class, and gender), and how the material properties of food (e.g., chemical, ecological, technological) are linked to identities, ideological commitments, and historical moments.

Ancient cultures of the Mediterranean world with a focus on their embodiments in the arts, literature, history, philosophy, and religion. Emphasis on Greek, Hellenistic and Roman cultures, their interrelationships with each other and their historical, cultural, material and intellectual encounters with contemporary Mediterranean cultures as well as their influence on later and modern cultures.

Introduction to Europe and the Mediterranean world in the period between antiquity and the European encounter with the Americas. Investigation of the arts, literature, philosophy, and history of the period in the Christian, Jewish, and Islamic traditions and the multiple types of encounters that those communities experienced. Analysis of the impact the medieval world continues to have on the modern West.

Historical and geographical overview of diverse religious/cultural traditions in Asia, such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Confucianism, Daoism, and Shinto. Investigation of the categories religion and culture and their interactions in Asia. Examination of different methodological and interdisciplinary approaches and their integration, with emphasis on critical thinking about the complexities of studying religion and culture in Asia. Asia on a global stage, including Western views of Asia and Asian views of the West.

Significant case studies in the study of religion and culture with an emphasis on influential and emerging research. Focused engagement with humanities and social sciences research grounded in analysis, comparison, and evaluation of relevant case studies.

Introduction to the methodological tools used by anthropologists and other social scientists to study culture. Engagement with the development of, and debates about, ethnographic methods, as well as their application to case studies. Focus on sample ethnographic accounts of peoples throughout the world, as well as research techniques applicable to many different cultural environments.

Readings from the New Testament in Greek, with attention to grammatical analysis, historical background and other clues interpretation. May repeated with different content for a maximum of 9 credits.

Understanding and integrating source materials for the study of religion in American life. Genealogy of religion and culture in America (USA). Changes and transformations in religious beliefs and practices and their influences on American life. Debates about religion and culture. Entanglements of religion, politics, race, ethnicity, and law.

The role of religious (or belief) systems in African societies, especially the three predominant religious traditions in Africa: the so-called African Traditional Religious, Islam, and Christianity; the universe of religious systems and religious experiences and processes of Africa, in particular, Sub-Saharan Africa; critical examination of the mythic stature of Africas religions within Western cultural (and scholarly) world views and institutions.

Influence of race and gender on religion and culture. Overview of approaches to categories of diversity, particularly race and gender, in religious and cultural traditions. Utilization of humanistic and social scientific approaches to investigate geographically variable historical and/or contemporary case studies.

Addresses the rise of Islam under the Prophet Muhammad in Arabia, the development of Islam in the Middle Ages, and its resurgence in the 20th century. Issues of geographical, temporal, and ideological diversity, and critical thinking about representations of Islam in the West. Islamic orthodoxy addressed by examining the question of who represents Islam, when, and how.

History of India from pre-historical times to approximately 1700, with particular focus on the interplay between religion and politics. Emphasis on sources for and interpretations (historiography) of early Indian history. Literary versus archaeological record of pre-historic India, the earliest empires and rulers, and impact of the Islamic and wider world on India. Legacies of ancient and medieval India in the contemporary world.

History of India since approximately 1700, with particular focus on Gandhis influence on modern India and the world. Emphasis on sources for and interpretations (historiography) of modern Indian history. Examination of pre-colonial and colonial pasts and legacies. Exploration of Gandhis role in political, social, cultural, and religious movements of the early 20th century, and Gandhis legacy in the independent states of South Asia and the contemporary world.

Exploration of the evolution and alterations of food and cuisines throughout Asian history. Examination of the economic, geographical, political, philosophical/religious, and social underpinnings of food in premodern Asian societies; influence of the Columbian Exchange of Asian and global cuisines; Euro-American imperialism’s impact on food and society in Asia and in the European and American metropoles; emergence of national cuisines in Asia; and Asian food in the post-colonial diaspora.

Introduction to the academic study of the New Testament, including gospels, Pauline materials, theological themes, and sources on the emerging church. A variety of scholarly approaches to the New Testament texts and contexts, including historical-critical, redaction critical, and literary methods. Emphasis on developing skills in critical thinking, reading, and writing about the New Testament and the ancient Mediterranean world as a way of understanding the religion and history of early Christianity.

Introduction to legends of King Arthur, including stories, novels, and films from a wide historical timespan. Tales of knights, kings, and fair maidens that have entertained generations and irrevocably shaped cultural values surrounding gender relations, justice, violence, and the use and abuse of power. Analysis of individual texts and broader consideration of the Arthurian tradition during key literary-historical periods from the medieval era to the present.

Surveys ancient Greek and Roman mythology. Provides students with an introduction to selected myths from ancient Greek and Roman literature, including appropriate historical background information. Familiarizes students with how theories of myth have been applied to individual stories and how such mythological tales have been received by authors and artists in subsequent cultures. Explores the interaction and interdependence of mythological tales from different cultures and perspectives. In English.

Exploration of the relationships between religion and science in the western tradition. Basic frameworks for relationships between religion and science in historical and cultural context, types of human knowledge and truth, similarities and differences between science and religion, evolution, the origins of the creationist movement, and contemporary moral and ethical issues.

Investigation of the categories of religion and secularity as they apply to war and peace. Analysis of episodes from both past and present in which religion seems to have played a role. Introduction to research skills related to the study of religion and violence, building from theoretical and historical considerations.

Investigation of religion and politics as distinct categories in different times and places. Analysis of episodes from both past and present in which religion and politics have come together, or have been kept apart. Examination of the roles religion and politics play in the modern world and how they impact the lived experience of diverse populations both in the United States and throughout the world.

Methodology and tools of American Studies, with a focus on developing analytic skills to assess discourse across varied media. Interdisciplinary investigation of histories, politics, cultures, and beliefs in the Americas, including the impacts of encounter and exchange. Intensive study of a specific topic or period.

Interdisciplinary overview of the diverse Asian American experience, incorporating non-Eurocentric perspectives on the Asian immigrant experience and dialogue between Asian American and non-Asian American students. Examination of different historical tracks of various Asian ethnicities, experience of racism, discrimination, cultural adaptation and conflict, and economic survival and success. Gender, age, religious affiliation, family values and inter-generational differences among Asian Americans. The complexity of minority status and the stereotype of “model minority.” Activism, political participation, leadership and the meaning of citizenship among Asian Americans. Representations of Asian Americans in the arts and media.

An examination of women and gender in Islam from a variety perspectives including Muslim women in Islamic history, normative constructions of the role of women in Islam, and womens roles in contemporary Muslim societies. Understanding of women in classical Islam; feminist and reformist approaches; and Western constructions of the rights of women if Islam.

Read works from world literature, guided by selected critical readings. Compare/contrast diverse models of religion and literature. Study how modernity has impacted traditions of religion and culture. Interpret literary texts that draw from multiple religions. Analyze religion-literature controversies in a range of social, cultural, political contexts. Synthesize sources of multiple media, formats, and contexts.

Exploration of how racial and ethnic identity are expressed through the use of different languages and dialects. Examination of how language is related to issues of equality, social opportunity, and discrimination in the United States.

Interdisciplinary examination of the genealogy of Indian religions (including Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism) through anthropological, literary, historical, and textual source materials. Colonial construction and reform of these religions according to modern, universal European ideas of religion; how European notions of the modern nation-state, law, and religious tolerance, and European concepts of self, autonomy, community, (univocal) language, and multiculturalism impacted Indian religions. Pre-modern versus modern notions of tradition and power in Indian religions. Concepts of secularism, gender, race, conversion, caste, and religious-political identity.

Premodern model of Chinese and Japanese religions: interactions of various traditions (e.g. Confucianism, Buddhism, Daoism, Shinto, and folk); inseparability of religion, culture, society, and politics. Modern reinventions of religion in China and Japan in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Contemporary issues such as state-religion relations in East Asia, religions of China and Japan in America, East Asian religions and globalization.

Literary survey of the various representations of Jesus of Nazareth in canonical and apocryphal Christian literature of the first four centuries. Perspectives on Jesus and the interpretive authority involved in producing such variety. Ancient and modern interpretive frameworks for understanding the person and legacy of Jesus in earliest Christianity, including historical-critical frameworks, redaction criticism, genre criticism, and other literary methods. Analyses of modern religious/political discourses as continuations of ancient theological debates. Emphasis on developing skills in critical thinking and close reading of early Christian texts as a means of understanding the religion(s) and histories of the earliest Christians.

Literary survey focusing on the diversity of Christian beliefs in the first four centuries. Highlights a variety of theological debates and the historical and cultural contexts involved in the eventual production of a Christian orthodoxy, over and against so-called heresy. The history and content of early Christian texts, both canonical and apocryphal. Ancient and modern interpretive frameworks for understanding the variety and diversity of earliest Christian beliefs, including historical-critical frameworks, comparative reading, source criticism, and other literary methods. Emphasis on developing skills in critical thinking and close reading of early Christian texts as a means of understanding the religion(s) and histories of the earliest Christians.

A consideration of religious belief and its justification with attention to such philosophical issues as the nature and existence of the Judeo-Christian-Muslim God, proofs for the existence of God, the problem of evil, a religious basis for ethics, the nature of faith, and the variety of religious beliefs.

The origins and development of religious violence examined from an interdisciplinary and cross-cultural perspective; the place of that phenomenon in medieval society. Christianity, Islam, Judaism and their interactions in the medieval world.

This course provides a survey on the political history of the State of Israel and highlights major themes uniquely characterizing the specific events surrounding its establishment and its first 50 years of existence. Additionally, the course will add a comparative dimension by using the political history of Israel as a case study to discuss major themes in political science such as democracy, government, political, economy, etc.

Critical issues in religion in the Middle East. Competing methods for analyzing religion in the Middle East. Key concepts relating to religion and inter-religious relations in the Middle East such as minority, majority, tolerance, citizenship, and family law. Critical thinking about the relationship between Islam and other religions with particular reference to Muslim-Jewish and Muslim-Christian relations.

The impact of religion and culture in contemporary European politics and societies. Nationalism versus European cosmopolitanism. Religion, religious radicalism and religious tolerance in Europe. Culture and society in European urban and rural areas. Attitudes towards women and LGBTQ in Europe. Social foundations and cultural determinants of marginalization of social groups, migrants and refugees.

Debates about the resurgence of religion in the modern world. Complexities involved in defining religion. Social-scientific, phenomenological, and cultural approaches to the study of religion. Theories concerning what role religion should play in the public sphere. Theories about secularism, secularization, and the differentiation between religion and politics.

Religion as a social structure as well as an institution; with special attention to the functions of religion for individuals, groups and societies, social organization; and the interplay between religion and other social institutions including economics and polity. Taught alternate years.

Selected topics from the religions of the world such as time and the sacred, preliterate religions, women and religion, religion and science, mysticism. May be taken three times for credit with different topics.

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