SO 305 - Religion and Globalization

Credits: 4
This course takes as its starting point visions of global worlds that we live in every day. Students unpack the global movement of people, goods, technologies, and ideas and, in doing so, critically review our understandings of globalization to include its political, economic, and cultural aspects. After dispensing with some of the obvious questions about the function of these visions of “Brave New Worlds,” as well as discussing their schema, students consider some of the more complex contours of and societal costs of various paradigms of thought within cultural globalization. They then move on to consider globalization’s particular interaction with religion in the creation of utopic spiritualism and dystopic terrorism complexes. In particular, students consider the idea of progress and futurity in the context of Marxist, (post) modern, and poststructural theory as well as in the context of religious traditions.

Course Restrictions: Junior standing
Liberal Arts Perspective(s): Social and Psychological, Global Diversity and Justice