Catalogue

Interdisciplinary Study of Religions

religion.bard.edu

Faculty

Dominique Townsend (director), Karen Barkey, Bevin Blaber, Bruce Chilton, Claire-Marie Heffner, Nabanjan Maitra,  Shai Secunda

Overview

At Bard, the study of religion is undertaken as an interdisciplinary examination of various ways in which religion operates in and affects life. Courses in the program approach religion through multiple questions and perspectives, including the study of scripture, the performance of religion in everyday life, intersections of religion and politics, religion and material culture, and the evolution of concepts like tradition, modernity, and secularism. Moderation in the program equips students with key methods and approaches in the humanities and social sciences while also familiarizing them with central doctrines, practices, and narratives of major religious traditions.

Requirements

Prior to Moderation, a student should have pursued three elective courses in the Interdisciplinary Study of Religions, and three after that. Among those electives, at least three traditions among the five that are regularly represented should be addressed. After Moderation, the methodological course entitled Imagining Religion (Religion 317) is required. Most students take this course as juniors.

Students are also encouraged to study a language relevant to the particular religion or area of study that provides the focus for their Senior Project. Relevant languages taught at Bard include Arabic, Chinese, Greek, Hebrew, Japanese, Latin, and Sanskrit.

The Senior Project in the Interdisciplinary Study of Religions Program will be the culmination of the student’s investigation of religion at Bard and should reflect a sustained analysis of a carefully defined topic in the critical study of religion.

Recent Senior Projects in Religion

• “Eleguá Exits, Laughing: Revolution, Play, and Trickster Worship”
• “For the Birds: The Mystery of God’s Grace through Attar’s The Conference of the Birds”
• “A Myth of Two Cultures and Three Religions—A Study of the Green Dragon Cave Temple Complex in Zhenyuan”
• “Rewriting the Haggadah: Judaism for Those Who Hold Food Close”

Courses

Buddhism
Religion 103
CROSS-LISTED: ASIAN STUDIES
For more than 2,500 years Buddhist thought and practice have revolved around the problem of suffering and the possibility of liberation. Across diverse cultural landscapes, Buddhism comprises a wide array of philosophical perspectives, ethical values, social hierarchies, and ritual technologies. This course offers an introduction to Buddhism’s foundational themes, practices, and worldviews within the framework of religious studies.

Judaism
Religion 104
CROSS-LISTED: JEWISH STUDIES, MES
For millennia, Jewish communities have flourished around the globe and a dizzying variety of Jewish traditions have developed in these different places and during different times. This course introduces foundational practices, ideas, and expressions of Judaism while grappling both with its inner diversity and its sense of dissimilarity from surrounding non-Jewish communities. The course considers the history of rabbinic Judaism in ancient and medieval times, Hassidism, the Haskala (Jewish Enlightenment), modern European and American denominations, Zionism, and contemporary “cultural” Judaism.

Islam
Religion 106
CROSS-LISTED: GIS, MES
With more than 1.8 billion adherents, Islam is practiced in a diverse array of nations, ethnic groups, and cultural contexts. The objective of this course is to move beyond stereotypes and misconceptions in order to appreciate the lived complexities of Islam. After examining the historical roots of the tradition, the class considers key practices like prayer, fasting, pilgrimage, and veiling. Other themes include gender, education, and religious authority across Muslim worlds.

Religions of the World
Religion 108
CROSS-LISTED: ASIAN STUDIES, THEOLOGY
This course looks at the major religions of the world as they developed over the course of history, utilizing comparative and historic approaches. The class considers the formative ideas and practices of Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam; and explores some of the roles religious ideas and institutions have played in political power struggles from the time of Alexander the Great to the present.

The First Bible
Religion 111
CROSS-LISTED: JEWISH STUDIES, THEOLOGY
Students consider the text, meaning, historical background, and ancient Near Eastern literary and cultural context of the Hebrew Bible. The course examines the interplay between history and myth, various forms and purposes of biblical law, the phenomenon of biblical prophecy, and the diverse literary genres that are found within the Bible.

Hindu Religious Traditions 
Religion 117
CROSS-LISTED: ASIAN STUDIES 
DESIGNATED: ADI COURSE
This course investigates a series of religious movements in India, past and present, which have been collectively labeled “Hinduism.” Students analyze the roles, myths, and symbolism of Hindu deities in both classical literary texts and visual art, as well as foundational concepts from the Vedas (karma, jnana), epic literature (Ramayana, Bhagavad Gita), devotional songs and poetry of the medieval bhakti saints, and the role of Hinduism in Indian politics. The class also considers ethnographic accounts of how Hinduism is lived in India and the United States today.

Introduction to Christianity
Religion 118
CROSS-LISTED: THEOLOGY
The purpose of this seminar is to enable us to understand how Christianity developed through systemic changes, and to read selected authors against the background of that evolution.

Jewish Thought and Philosophy
Religion 132
CROSS-LISTED: JEWISH STUDIES, PHILOSOPHY
This course explores a range of what might be called “Jewish thought,” through readings in the Hebrew Bible, medieval philosophy, Enlightenment-era political thought, and modern and contemporary literature. While all the works studied engage and grapple with Judaism and Jewish traditions, the class considers each work in both the historical circumstances of its composition and in relationship to broader Jewish thought. 

The New Testament in Contexts
Religion 154
CROSS-LISTED: JEWISH STUDIES, THEOLOGY
This course investigates the literary, social, religious, and theological contexts in which Jesus’s movement arose and then produced an innovative literature all its own. Study proceeds chronologically, tracing the historical forces in play as accurately as possible.

Ascetics in Politics
Religion 205
CROSS-LISTED: ASIAN STUDIES, POLITICS
DESIGNATED: ADI COURSE
An investigation of the political institutionalization and mobilization of ascetic power in India. Divided into three periods—the precolonial and early colonial, nationalist, and postcolonial—the course examines the ways the ancient tradition of ascetic power has been deployed by various political actors and factions. Topics include the success of ascetic armies in the early colonial period; emergence of the monastery as an alternative to kingship; reliance on ascetic self-formation as the constitutive element of influential visions of self-governance; and rise of Hindu nationalism.

Digital Dharma: Buddhism and New Media
Religion 211
CROSS-LISTED: ASIAN STUDIES, EXPERIMENTAL HUMANITIES, GIS
Many high-profile figures associated with world religions, such as the Dalai Lama and Pope Francis, have adopted social media to communicate with followers. In the Buddhist world, teachers use digital technologies to disseminate Buddhist texts, practical and ethical instructions, and iconic Buddhist imagery to students across the globe. How have digital technologies reshaped how Buddhist teachers instruct students and attract new disciples, and what are the social and political risks and benefits of digital expressions of Buddhism? 

Jewish Mysticism
Religion 216
CROSS-LISTED: JEWISH STUDIES, THEOLOGY
Where is God? What is love? What is evil? These are questions that have preoccupied the Jewish mystical tradition, beginning with its late antique visionary origins and continuing with the poetic meditations of the Zohar, systematic speculations of Lurianic Kabbalah, and the heretical ecstasies of false messiahs, the Hassidic movement, and intersections with New Age. Readings from primary texts (in translation), secondary works of scholarship, especially by Gershom Scholem, and important tertiary texts, such as the correspon­dence between Scholem and Hannah Arendt.

Guilt, Atonement, and Forgiveness after Atrocity
Religion 217
CROSS-LISTED: HUMAN RIGHTS, JEWISH STUDIES
By what parameters should we assess guilt? What is required to atone for wrong done unto another? Under what circumstances should we forgive harm done to us? Students read theological and philosophical accounts of ethics—including the Bible, Aristotle, Kant, and Foucault —and consider what constitutes “guilt” in each. The course draws on these accounts to examine how these ideas have been shaped by or emerged during atrocities. Additional texts by Beauvoir, Arendt, Améry, Jaspers, and Derrida.

Ritual Bodies
Religion 218
CROSS-LISTED: ASIAN STUDIES, GSS
The course examines understandings of the body across religious traditions, asking: How can religion shape understandings of the body? How are notions of modesty and propriety religiously informed? How do different traditions understand the relationship between practice and interiority? Case studies include Hindu religious pedagogy and Indian classical dance, tattoo practices among Catholic men in Brooklyn, Muslim women’s veiling practices in Egypt, and menstrual taboos in Central Asia.

Islam, Pop Culture, and New Media
Religion 219
CROSS-LISTED: ANTHROPOLOGY, GIS, GSS, MES
How have new technologies and popular culture impacted religious experience and identity in the Muslim world? What roles have they played in the global Islamic revival? This course examines how changes in popular culture and media interact with new understandings and practices of piety, personhood, and religious performance; and how Islam is represented in “Western” media.

Goddess Traditions in South Asia
Religion 220 
CROSS-LISTED: ASIAN STUDIES, GSS
Goddesses have been a defining feature of South Asian religious traditions for more than two millennia. This writing-intensive course explores the role of female deities in shaping the religious beliefs and practices of Buddhism, Hinduism, and Jainism. The class investigates scriptures, scholarship, visual culture, and ethnographic evidence in order to better understand how and why devotees revere the divine feminine, in a variety of contexts, from before the Common Era to today. Prerequisite: one course incorporating religions of Asia or permission of the instructor.

Religion and Culture in Iran
Religion 230
CROSS-LISTED: MES
Students read primary and secondary materials as they examine the Persian tradition within literary, political, social, economic, and interrelated modes. Representations of Iran in film are also critiqued within a broader conversation about media representations of the Iranian people.

Jewish Textualities: Conceiving the Jewish Bookshelf
Religion 231
CROSS-LISTED: JEWISH STUDIES, LITERATURE
Since the Middle Ages, Jews have been known as a people of the book, though what that means depends on period, place, and perspective. Jews have produced an impressive variety of texts, many of which defy modern literary categorization. This course introduces 21 enduring Jewish “books,” spanning from antiquity to the present and including biblical works, classic rabbinic texts, mystical tracts, philosophical writings, Hassidic tales, memoirs, novels, and works of poetry. 

Hinduism in the Epics
Religion 242
CROSS-LISTED: ASIAN STUDIES, CLASSICAL STUDIES
The Indian epics have long been one of the major ways that the teachings of the Hindu tradition are transmitted. Students read the Mahabharata (including the Bhagavad Gita) and the Ramayana, with a view to the role of the epics in Hindu ritual and devotional life. In addition, the course examines the various ways these texts have been retold and performed.

Yogis, Monks, and Dharma Kings: Religious Cultures of Classical India
Religion 244
CROSS-LISTED: ASIAN STUDIES, CLASSICAL STUDIES
Mahatma Gandhi spoke of early India as the “nursery of religions.” Certainly the millennium of classical India (500 bce to 500 ce) was a time of intense religious innovation during which Buddhism and Jainism were established and the older Vedic order was transformed into Hinduism. Religious seekers pioneered the spiritual techniques now practiced in the United States, after considerable alteration, such as yoga, meditation, and mindful­ness. Texts include Buddhist sutras, Vedic Upanishads, the edicts of Emperor Ashoka, and Hindu epic poetry; archaeological remains are also studied.

Gender and Intimacy in the Muslim World
Religion 246
This course examines the many forms and understandings of gender and intimacy across the Muslim world. Themes include debates about ideal gender roles for men and women; religious authority; contemporary women’s activism in conservative pietist movements; changing images of masculinity, romance, and fatherhood; new forms of education that have changed real-life possibilities for women in many Muslim contexts; and Muslim transgender ritual specialists in South and Southeast Asia, where local understandings of sex/gender categories shed light on the complex intersections of gender, sexuality, and Islam.

Reckoning with the Holocaust 
Religion 260
CROSS-LISTED: HUMAN RIGHTS, JEWISH STUDIES, PHILOSOPHY
How might the Holocaust complicate notions of history, testimony, and representation? What kinds of ethical, theological, and philosophical traditions might the Holocaust call into question? This course grapples with these questions through careful examination of memoir, philosophy, theology, poetry, art, and literature—paying particular attention to works by Jewish thinkers and artists—while considering historical shifts in scholarship about the Holocaust and asking what is at stake in studying the Holocaust today.

Philosophies of the Islamic World
Religion 278
CROSS-LISTED: MES, PHILOSOPHY
An overview of the classical philosophical movement (al-falsafa) born in the medieval Islamic world and engaged by Christians, Jews, and Muslims alike. The course also considers mystical elements of classical philosophical texts and their impact on the development of philosophical mysticism; cross-fertilizations between philosophy (falsafa) and theology (kalam) in the Islamic and Jewish traditions within the Islamic empire; and ways in which modern Muslim thinkers engaged the medieval philosophical traditions in their responses to imperialism and calls for reform.

Death and the Afterlife in Islam
Religion 289
CROSS-LISTED: MES
The course examines understandings of death and the afterlife in Islam through multiple lenses, including the popular, elite, and esoteric. Students read philosophical texts that describe a neoplatonic vision of the afterlife of the human soul; classical theological texts that theorize about the nature of the human person and of his/her resurrection; and Sufi portrayals of the ascent of the soul to God. Also discussed are eschatological visions as portrayed in art and literature, and beliefs in, and appeals to, spirits of the dead. 

Race and Religion
Religion 291
CROSS-LISTED: GIS, HUMAN RIGHTS
DESIGNATED: HSI COURSE
An examination of the concept of race as it is formed by, and informs, religious difference, and how religion may serve as a tool to process and cope with racialized othering. The course begins with a grounding in the ways in which race has been (and continues to be) mobilized in systems of property, power, and control. Examples include religious racism in medieval Spain, the colonization of the Americas and the use of Christianity as a civilizing force, and modern articulations of white supremacy and anti-Semitism grounded in religious rhetoric.

Women in Islam
Religion 294
CROSS-LISTED: GIS, GSS, MEDIEVAL STUDIES, MES
How have Muslim women interacted with their religion throughout the ages? How have they contributed to the development of Islamic thought, art, and religious practice? And how have the lives of women of various classes and contexts been impacted by normative religious discourse? This course focuses on the ways that women have both been impacted by, and been active formers of, Islamic thought, practice, and ethics.

Hebrew Hip: Jewish Tradition and Israeli Popular Culture
Religion 295
CROSS-LISTED: JEWISH STUDIES, MES
Popular culture in Israel did not, in the early decades of its existence, draw much from Jewish tradition. Film and music were primarily seen as sites for shaping nascent Israeli society, which had been designed by secular Zionists. The trend has shifted in recent years, giving way to a synergy between classical Jewish sources and “hip” forms of culture from rock music to television. The course explores the relationships between religion and state and Judaism and “Israeliness” as they play out in Israeli popular culture. 

Yoga Philosophy
Religion 296
CROSS-LISTED: ASIAN STUDIES, PHILOSOPHY
Yoga has become embedded in American culture as a physical exercise to gain strength, mental agility, and holistic wellness. How did this Westernized, mindfulness-based practice emerge from ancient Indian religions? The course explores this question, tracing the philosophical underpinnings and historical developments that have led to modern yoga. Sources include the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, three major yogas of the Bhagavad Gita, and tantric yoga treatises of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism.

Qu’ran
Religion 2971
CROSS-LISTED: MEDIEVAL STUDIES, MES
The Qur’an, the holy book of Islam understood to be the revealed word of God, has influenced every aspect of cultural and intellectual production in the Islamic world. A serious understanding of the rich traditions of Islam begins, therefore, with a grounding in this sacred aural-literary text whose beauty is believed to be the miracle of the Prophet Muhammad. This course introduces the structure and content of the Qur’an, its intertextual relationship with other religious traditions, and the many ways it has been interpreted historically by Muslims (including theologians, philosophers, Sufis, and modern feminist thinkers). 

Sharing the Sacred: Space, Narratives, and Pilgrimages
Religion 298
CROSS-LISTED: SOCIOLOGY
This seminar explores the religious, sociological, historical, and political conditions that make the sharing of sacred sites possible. Conversely, what factors foreclose the possibilities of peaceful coexistence among different religious groups? Through historical materials, visual media and narrative accounts, the class considers pilgrimages to shared sites as well as the narratives, rituals, and objects that circulate across these spaces. 

Buddhist Poetics
Religion 299
CROSS-LISTED: ASIAN STUDIES
DESIGNATED: ADI COURSE
How does the writing and reading of poetry intersect with Buddhist practice? Does poetic language convey the transformative experiences of Buddhist enlightenment better than other modes? How do different Buddhist cultural contexts relate to the value of poetics in relation to other Buddhist values, particularly in regard to renunciation? Students read poetry in translation from Pali, Sanskrit, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and Tibetan to explore these questions and more. 

Visual Religion: Vision, Icon, Temple
Religion 316
In many religious traditions, gods and goddesses are visible beings who present themselves to their devotees in visions, icons, and grand image-filled temples. Other traditions consider the embodi­ment of God in material form as a sacrilege. This course examines the practices, issues, and debates surrounding divine icons and the religious arts in a comparative perspective, from the earliest recorded image practices of ancient Mesopotamia to contemporary icons, posters, and visual rituals in Hinduism and Catholicism.

Imagining Religion 
Religion 317
How does “religion” relate to our experiences of being human? How does it intersect with politics, cultural production, social hierarchies, and justice? With these questions in mind, the class explores diverse religious traditions, philosophies, and experiences, and reflects upon the field of religious studies as a discipline. Assigned texts focus on several religious traditions and demonstrate a spectrum of methodologies, including literary, historical, anthropological, cultural, and political. 

Buddhist Currents in American Poetry
Religion 319 
CROSS-LISTED: AMERICAN AND INDIGENOUS STUDIES, ASIAN STUDIES, LITERATURE
Since at least the 1950s, many American poets have engaged with Buddhist philosophies and practices, as their poems reflect both implicitly and explicitly. In this seminar, students read and discuss the writing of poets who have grappled with Buddhist ideas and learned from Buddhist teachers, texts, and places. Concurrently, they read examples of primary sources (in translation) from Buddhist traditions that shaped American poets, considering the dynamics of translation, appropriation, and naturalization.

The River and the Desert in Writing and the Religious Imagination
Religion 328
CROSS-LISTED: JEWISH STUDIES, MES, WRITTEN ARTS
This course, taught in collaboration with Israel’s Ben-Gurion University, spans two distinct sites that have loomed large in the religious imaginary—the river and the desert. Readings include river and desert writings in Christian, Islamic, and Jewish sources, as well as desert texts in Beduin poetry and river texts in Native American traditions. A series of videoconferences takes place between the Bard and Ben Gurion participants; the Ben Gurion class is also slated to visit Annandale for a few days of intensive writing and workshopping.

Sufism
Religion 336
CROSS-LISTED: MES
This course examines the mystical tradition of Islam, Sufism. Topics covered include Sufism and Orientalism, the history of Sufism, Sufi textual traditions, Sufi orders and the master-disciple relationship, gender and Sufism, and Sufism and modernity. Readings in translation.

Contemporary Talmud: History, Context, Culture
Religion 340
CROSS-LISTED: JEWISH STUDIES, MES
Even more than the Bible, the Talmud has traditionally been the nerve center of the classical Jewish canon. While the Talmud was composed during a specific period (third to seventh century) and place (Sasanian Mesopotamia), it has been read in many contexts since, from Baghdad to Bard. Often classified as a work of law, it is perhaps best described based on what it does: unrelenting interpretive and intertextual weaving. This course tackles the Talmud and Talmudic process through close readings of sample passages (in translation).

How to Talk about Religion in Public
Religion 360
DESIGNATED: CALDERWOOD SEMINAR
Religion is a complicated and sometimes charged topic for public dialogue and writing. What are the boundaries between the religious and the secular? How can we write dispassionately about religion while also taking seriously religious worldviews and commitments? This seminar challenges students to grow as scholars and writers as they build a portfolio that includes book and film reviews, op-eds, and NPR Academic Minute–style formats. Class sessions include collaborative editing workshops, guest lectures, and activities that build strong writing and editing foundations. 

Religion Colloquium
This colloquium, open to all students but required of religion moderands, fosters a community of scholarship among students and faculty interested in the study of religion and features public presentations of independent research. It is designed to encourage interdisciplinary and comparative perspectives on topics of interest.