Methodological Approaches to the Study of Religion
Religious Studies 586 (Fall 2004)
| Instructor | Douglas
E. Cowan |
| Office Hours | 1:00-2:00
Tuesday and Thursday |
| Class Location | Haag Hall 314 |
| Time | Tuesday, 7:00-9:45 |
class schedule | coursework and evaluation | important note
There will be one assigned text per week, fourteen texts in total. Students will be expected to have read the entire text carefully, and to come to class well prepared to discuss issues raised by the author(s). This class will be conducted in seminar format; the readings for each week will be introduced by student presentations. Should the class size dictate, some students should be prepared to present more than one text; rather than a burden, this should be viewed as another opportunity to sharpen one's analytical and presentation skills. Rather than simply a précis of the work, students will be expected to discuss intelligently the issues and questions raised in the work by the author(s). This includes: (a) the major issues addressed by the author(s) and conclusions reached; (b) the theory and method(s) employed in the study; (c) a critical evaluation of the strengths and limitations of the work; and (d) the significant questions or issues which are raised by the study. As the course proceeds, special effort should be made to relate the theory, method, and data encountered between and among the different class texts.
| August 24 | Introduction to the course Reading
for this class: |
Class reading will be available on electronic reserve and all students will be expected to have read it prior to the first class. |
| August 31 | Sam D. Gill Mother Earth: An American Story PLUS: Sam D. Gill, "A Response to Hugh Urban's 'Scholartracking: The Ethics and Politics of Studying "Others" in the Works of Sam D. Gill." Method & Theory in the Study of Religion 14 (2002): 219-225. AND Lisa Aldred, "Plastic Shamans and Astroturf Sundances: New Age Commercialization of Native American Spirituality." American Indian Quarterly 24 (2000): 329-52. |
Presenter: |
| September 7 | Emile
Durkheim |
Presenter: |
| September 14 | Peter L.
Berger The Sacred Canopy: Elements of a Sociological Theory of Religion |
Presenter: Preliminary
research proposals are due at the beginning of class today. See below
for details. |
| September 21 | Miranda
Shaw Passionate Enlightenment: Women in Tantric Buddhism |
Presenter: |
| September 28 | Rodney Stark
and William Sims Bainbridge The Future of Religion: Secularization, Revival, and Cult Formation |
Presenter: |
| October 5 | Claude
Levi-Strauss |
Presenter: |
| October 12 | Pierre
Bourdieu and Loic J.D. Wacquant |
Presenter: |
| October 19 | J. Gordon
Melton Finding Enlightenment: Ramtha's School of Ancient Wisdom |
Presenter:
Special guest: J. Gordon Melton |
| October 26 | Clifford
Geertz Local Knowledge: Further Essays in Interpretive Anthropology |
Presenter: |
| November 2 | Pauline
Marie Rosenau Post-Modernism and the Social Sciences: Insights, Inroads, and Intrusions |
Presenter: First drafts of research papers are due in class. |
| November 9 | Michel Foucault The Archeology of Knowledge & The Discourse on Language |
Presenter: |
| November 16 | Mary Douglas Natural Symbols: Explorations in Cosmology |
Presenter: |
| November 23 | Jonathan
Z. Smith To Take Place: Toward Theory in Ritual |
Presenter: |
| November 30 | Russell
T. McCutcheon Critics, Not Caretakers: Redescribing the Public Study of Religion |
Presenter: |
| December 7 | Class
presentation of term research |
Students will be evaluated on (a) class participation, (b) their presentation(s) of weekly readings, and (c) an original research essay on a topic of their choice, but within the purview of the course. Class attendance is mandatory, and only excused absences arranged in advance with me will be permitted.
Note well that class participation is not the same as class attendance. In seminar courses such as this, simply reading the class material accounts for only a small percentage of the learning that takes place. Rather, the majority of learning occurs in the midst of class interaction, discussion, and often disgreement—with each other, with the text under consideration, and with the instructor. At the Ph.D. level, this interaction is particularly important, and the crucial thing to remember is: You don't have to be right all the time, but you do have to step up and at least risk being wrong. A good rule-of-thumb for class participation is this: At the end of the course, if I cannot honestly answer the question, "Did Student A actually read the texts?" your participation has been inadequate.
Essays must be written to conform to the style of a particular peer-reviewed, academic journal, to which such an essay might be submitted for consideration for publication. As such, students will be expected to identify which journal would be an appropriate venue for their paper and to employ that journal's length, documentation, research, and discourse protocols in the preparation of their papers. Since the ability to connect with particular scholarly discourses is essential to success in academic publishing and the progress of one's career path, I cannot overstate the importance of this aspect of the assignment. Students in my seminars have gone on to present papers written for class in national meetings of the American Academy of Religion and to publish revised versions of their papers in peer-reviewed journals.
Final research papers are due in Haag Hall 204 by 4:00 pm on Friday, December 10. Since the ability to plan and manage one's time is a crucial component of the professional academic's life, late papers will be penalized, and Incompletes granted only in extraordinary circumstances. Since the only opportunity I have to offer feedback occurs if students turn in research drafts, I require that all students do so. There is a three-step process for this. (a) You must clear your topic with me by the fourth week of class and provide a written research proposal. This proposal should be no more than 3 single-spaced pages in length and include a general statement of the topic and its importance, a preliminary bibliography, and a one-paragraph description of your research method. Research proposals are to be submitted in hard copy. (b) First drafts are due in class on November 2. Turn them in on the disk provided in either Word or Rich Text Format. And (c), final papers will be submitted both in hard copy and on the disk with your draft(s); email submissions will be returned to the student unread.
Because the Interdisciplinary Ph.D. program in Religious Studies is meant to be broadly comparative in nature, students are NOT permitted to choose research topics related to the subject their dissertation.
| A note about using the Internet. While students are permitted to use the Internet to conduct research, citation of the Internet in research papers is permissible only under the following conditions: (1) Primary research sources are Internet-based and only available online—for example, you are writing about the Internet. (2) Secondary research sources are available online; this includes newspaper articles accessed through Lexis-Nexis, online peer-reviewed journals, and full-text articles from peer-reviewed journals accessed through databases such as JSTOR, EBSCOHost, and ATLA. (3) If secondary research sources are simply from Web sites, secondary print sources, whether scholarly or corroborative, must be used in the presentation and the research paper. For example, do not cite online versions of the Ante-Nicene Patristics; I expect you to go to the library and cite book, chapter, and page number(s). While the Internet is a tremendous boon to scholarship, it is also responsible for creating one of the laziest generations of students and scholars in the history of higher education. Failure to abide by these conditions will seriously affect the student's evaluation. If you are in any doubt about the acceptability of an Internet resource, do one or both of these: go offline, or see me for an evaluation of the source. |
Click here to see my grading scale, and here to see a written presentation rubric on which assessment is based.
Please note that I have a zero tolerance policy for plagiarism and other forms of academic dishonesty. Consequences can range from course failure (for undergraduate students) to dismissal from the academic program in which a student is enrolled (for graduate students). At the Ph.D. level there is simply no debate about this, and students are expected to know what constitutes plagiarism. If you are unclear about what plagiarism is, click here. Or, click here to see under what conditions I will exhibit leniency towards plagiarism.
Douglas
E. Cowan
The University of Missouri-Kansas City