This list is subject to revision. Schedules for courses that are co-taught with undergraduate courses will be available in July when the University releases the 2022-2023 Timetable. Courses that are for graduate students only will be scheduled after the University Timetable is released, and throughout the summer as instructor and student schedules are arranged.
Fall 2022
RELS 800 - Professional Development Seminar
Monthly seminar series for building graduate students¿ professional academic and alt-academic skills through workshops, Q&As, and presentations about topics including: publishing, conferencing, funding, applying for further graduate study or employment, etc. Topics will be timed to the appropriate point in the cycle of each academic year (i.e. sessions on SSHRC and OGS will occur early in Fall semester). This is a mandatory course. This course is graded on a Pass/Fail basis.
RELS 801 - Core Course I: Religion and Modernity
Examines the nature of religious transition in response to various pressures for religious change.
RELS 814 - Queering Religion (RELS 314)
This course examines the complex intersection of gender, sexuality and religion and the ways in which religious traditions have shaped and continue to shape complex notions of gender and sexuality in the modern era. It considers a review of feminist, gender studies and queer theories, thereafter we will apply these concepts to case studies.
RELS 854 - Theory in Religious Studies (RELS 354)
An introduction to major theoretical approaches to the study of religion.
RELS 887 - Problems in Ancient Mediterranean Religions
An interdisciplinary study of the religions and mythical traditions of Mediterranean and Near Eastern cultures from the Bronze Age to Late Antiquity. Topics will vary according to instructor. The course will have special regard for, but not be limited to, the Levant, and the Greek and Roman world.
RELS 888 - Critical Ethnographies in the Study of Religion
The course will engage in the theory and method of ethnography as it has been used in the study of religion. It will engage with various examples of ethnographic case studies, particularly as they interrogate questions of insider/outsider positionalities while exploring ways in which gender, sexuality and race, trauma and safety have been negotiated in various field work projects by religious studies scholars.
RELS 893 - Buddhism in the Modern World (RELS 393)
Encounter between Buddhism and the West, major movements and thinkers, and socio-politically engaged Buddhism.
RELS 896 - Islam in the Modern World (RELS 396)
Exploration of Islamic developments since the 19th century: major thinkers, trends of thought, and contemporary movements as responses to modernity.
Winter 2023
RELS 800 - Professional Development Seminar
Monthly seminar series for building graduate students¿ professional academic and alt-academic skills through workshops, Q&As, and presentations about topics including: publishing, conferencing, funding, applying for further graduate study or employment, etc. Topics will be timed to the appropriate point in the cycle of each academic year (i.e. sessions on SSHRC and OGS will occur early in Fall semester). This is a mandatory course. This course is graded on a Pass/Fail basis.
RELS 802 - Theory and Method in Religious Studies
Looks at recent articulations and applications of theories and methods in Religious Studies.
RELS 806 - Religion, Culture, and Death (RELS 301)
In this interactive, inquiry-based course students will develop their own research project in order to explore how human beings attempt to live with the dead and to share spaces and lives with those who are no longer alive.
RELS 807 - Judaism and Ecology (RELS 302)
It seems we are entering an ecological disaster that our conventional thinking and religious sources cannot help us understand. This class will look at marginal and repressed Jewish sources, to see what the tradition has to offer us as we try to cope with this crisis.
RELS 809 - Things and beings in Indigenous ontologies
By tracing material and immaterial "things" we can find in Indigenous cosmologies and practices we are going to address the question of whether or not “things” exist in indigenous worlds and what their forms of existence would be. The validity of dichotomies such as subject/object, human/non-human, or Nature/Culture will be assessed and criticized in order to grasp the Indigenous ontological status of what the West labels as animals, spirits, plants, objects, and “things” in general.
RELS 828 - Apocalypse (RELS 328)
The primary focus of the course will be the theological perspectives and social functions of apocalypse in select religious traditions. The course will also survey the appropriation of apocalyptic themes throughout history in artistic forms such as art, fiction, and film, with particular attention to our modern times and cultures.
RELS 846 - AI, Biohacking, and Future Technology (RELS 346)
This course looks at issues raised by the intersection of religion and human enhancement technologies. We will consider categories of biohacking, AI, and possible future technologies including mind uploading. Engaging diverse religious issues, we will consider what it means to be human and “better.”
More information about our graduate courses can be found in the School of Graduate Studies Academic Calendar.