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Course module: UCHUMREL34
UCHUMREL34
Religion and (Post)secularity
Course info
Course codeUCHUMREL34
EC7.5
Course goals
After completing this course students are able to:
  • demonstrate a thorough understanding of key concepts and theories concerning religion, secularism, and postsecularism
  • uncover and to critically analyze tacit assumptions, power structures and blind spots in predominant approaches to religion and (post-)secularism
  • integrate the various perspectives and insights, and to use them in thorough analyses of social and political issues concerning religion, multiculturalism, new media and gender equality,
  • speak and write critically about religion, secularism and postsecularism, using specialized terms and academic vocabulary
Content
Teacher Fall 2016: Dr. Pooyan Tamimi Arab (P.TamimiArab@uu.nl)

This course provides students with a map of contemporary approaches to religion and (post-)secularism, and enables them to use the relevant concepts and insights in analyses of political and social issues concerning religion.
Secularism and the secularization narrative are essential parts of conceptions of Western modernity and the political self-understanding of many societies. However, by now we know that the assumption that the privatization and decline of religion is an inevitable consequence of ‘modernization’ fails to explain important social developments such as the resurgence and diversification of religious traditions and new forms of religiosities in Western societies, and the conspicuity of religiously motivated violence across the globe. The notion of the postsecular tries to grasp these developments and offers new ways to understand the various forms and functions of religion in contemporary pluralistic societies.
But what does it mean to live in a post-secular society? And what do concepts like ‘secularism’, ‘secularity’ or ‘post-secularism’ really entail – as a historical constellation, a mode of experiencing the world, or as a political doctrine? How do fundamental moral and political principles that are usually associated with secularism – freedom of expression, tolerance, gender equality, new media – relate to religion under condition of the postsecular?

This course explores these questions through multidisciplinary readings (incl. history, anthropology, religious studies, philosophy, gender studies and postcolonial theory). Theory and concepts concerning post-secularism will be discussed in relation to debates about, e.g., gender issues, (digital) media, multiculturalism, and ‘blasphemy’ or religiously offensive expressions such as the so-called Danish Muhammad cartoons.
The regional center of this course is Europe and North America. However, we will also investigate how the colonial heritage of the West influences the understanding of religion and secularity of people in Europa and in postcolonial societies such as India. Furthermore the fact that much of the way we think about religious themes in academia today is shaped by and remains to a large extent captive of colonial and imperialist traditions will be submitted to critical scrutiny.
 
Format
Classes will proceed in the form of a research colloquium, i.e. instructors and/or students will introduce readings, which all students are expected to study carefully in preparation of the classes. Much time will be devoted to interactive critical analyses of texts, concepts, and concrete ‘cases’. Students have the opportunity to come in touch with, and possibly be actively involved in research of the instructors. Students will receive detailed feedback on assignments and a draft version of their paper.
 
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Kies de Nederlandse taal