RS 326 Religion, Race, and Ethnicity
This course explores the complex relationship between religious, racial, and ethnic identities. Understanding any given religious tradition requires an examination of the diverse communities that have contributed to and reinterpreted it, in light of their own history and concerns. At the same time, religion has played a major role in the construction of race and identity by establishing patterns of division and hierarchy, as well as visions for the transcendence of difference. This course will explore both sides of this area within the academic study of religion, with attention to topics such as caste in South Asian traditions; Jewish identity and anti-semitism; Christianity, the African-American experience, and white supremacism; and the Nation of Islam and concepts of diversity in global Islam.