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Description
Undergraduate
Module Content
What does it mean to study religion anthropologically? This course introduces students to anthropological approaches of studying religion. We will explore how anthropologists have struggled to define religion, and what debates and contestations about definition can tell us about the assumptions of classic anthropological understandings of religion, and how our thinking has changed since. We will explore multiple religious beliefs, meanings, experiences, expressions and practices across diverse sociocultural environments. Through an engagement with anthropological works on ritual, self-cultivation, and joy, we will learn how religion is understood, experienced and expressed.听
Learning Outcomes
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- To introduce students to the main anthropological approaches to the study of religion.听
- To provide students with an understanding of theoretical debates in the anthropology of religion through a听range of cutting-edge and classic ethnographic texts.听
- To examine how concepts initially outlined in the anthropology of religion have become of utility in anthropology and vice-versa.听
- To facilitate students in developing their skills in engaging with academic texts, critical analysis, and the construction of progressively developed and ethnographically supported argumentation.听
- To encourage students to reflect on the place of reflexivity in ethnographic work.听
Delivery Method
One 2 hour lecture followed by one 1 hour group seminar per week.
Additional Information
- Students are expected to complete the required reading in preparation for each seminar and to participate in seminar discussions.听
- Formative Assessment: Each student is invited to choose a monograph from a provided list and to write a book review summing up the main argument and how it links to themes discussed in the lectures.听
- Please note that this module has a large discussion element. Students are expected to have a high level of English.听
Please note the assessments may be subject to change.
Postgraduate
Module Content
This course selects topics in the anthropology of religion and considers them in the light of relevant theoretical debates. What does it mean to study religion anthropologically? This course introduces students to anthropological approaches of studying religion. We will explore how anthropologists have struggled to define religion, and what debates and contestations about definition can tell us about the assumptions of classic anthropological understandings of religion, and how our thinking has changed since. We will explore multiple religious beliefs, meanings, experiences, expressions and practices across diverse sociocultural environments. Through an engagement with anthropological works on ritual, self-cultivation and joy, we will learn how religion is understood, experienced and expressed.听
Learning Outcomes
- To enable students to understand and be able to analyse a range of theoretical approaches to the anthropological study of religion.听
- To provide students with an in-depth knowledge of contemporary and classic ethnographic studies.听
- To facilitate students understanding of the development of theoretical approaches to religion both within and beyond the discipline of anthropology.听
- To support students developing their capacity for analytic and critical thinking, academic reading, and the development of progressively developed and ethnographically grounded written arguments.听
Delivery Method
One 2-hours seminar per week and option to attend the Undergraduate lecture.
Additional Information
- Students are expected to complete the required reading in advance of the seminar and participate productively in seminar-based discussion and debate.听
- Formative assessments: Each student is invited to choose a monograph from a provided list and to write a book review summing up the main argument and how it links to themes discussed in the lectures.听
- Please note that this module has a large discussion element. Students are expected to have a high level of English.听
Please note the assessments may be subject to change.
Module deliveries for 2024/25 academic year
Last updated
This module description was last updated on 8th April 2024.
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