This course is an introduction to the study of religion in the social sciences. It examines what people do with religion and what religion does to people. The guiding thread of this course is to investigate how “religion” itself as a category is debated and contested. A question we will regularly return to is: what counts as religion and who gets to decide? The course is divided into three parts. Part 1 explores the definitions of religion that have been provided by classical authors. Part 2 analyzes the intersections of religion with other social categories such as class, gender and race. Part 3 interrogates the politics of religion and how States, international organizations, political actors and citizens grapple with religion, how they seek to regulate it or use it to further political ends. The course is interdisciplinary and exposes students to various approaches of religion rooted in political science, sociology, and anthropology. By the end of this course, students will be equipped with theoretical and methodological tools to best appraise the place of religion in contemporary societies and discuss such complex and debated issues as secularism, religious freedom, religious discrimination, religious violence.
Maria Katrina Bianca CORTEZ,Juliette GALONNIER
Cours magistral seul
English
There is no prerequisite for this course. Students should have some general knowledge in social sciences and be ready to engage in collective discussions on topics related to religion, secularism, inequality.
Autumn 2024-2025
Participation (10%): oral participation in class and posting very short comments on Moodle about weekly readings.
Book review (40%): Students will have to write a 4-page book review on a book chosen from a selection established by the professor.
Final written exam (50%): Students will be presented with some news articles regarding a recent event related to religion and will have to use an author from the syllabus to analyze this event.
Emile Durkheim, 1912, The Elementary Forms of Religious Life, The Free Press, 1995 (excerpts).
Ahmet T. Kuru, 2007, Passive and assertive secularism: Historical conditions, ideological struggles, and state policies toward religion, World Politics, vol. 59, n°4, p. 568-594.
Sean McCloud, 2007, Putting some class into religious studies: Resurrecting an important concept, Journal of the American Academy of Religion, vol.75, n°4, p. 840-862.
Anya Topolski, 2018, The race-religion constellation: A European contribution to the critical philosophy of race, Critical Philosophy of Race, vol. 6, n°1, p. 58-81.
Linda Woodhead, 2007, Gender differences in religious practice and significance," in The Sage handbook of the sociology of religion, edited by James A. Beckford and N. J. Demerath III, Sage, p. 566-586.