1. art and entertainment
2. books and literature

page 1 of 16
mini-catalog of
74 UW–Madison Spring 2015 courses
which include a
component about
religion or spirituality
Course information taken from the UW Course Guide in November 2014. Information on each class may not
be complete, or may have changed. This list may have
missed courses which would otherwise fit the loose
criteria, and does not include many “senior thesis” and
“directed study” course numbers. Please check the
UW Course Guide for the most current information,
including prerequisites.
Click on the title of each course to be linked to its
entry in the UW Course Guide.
RELIG ST 101
Religion in Global Perspective
Foundational and thematic approaches in the academic
study of religion applied across global religious systems.
Mon•Wed 11:00–11:50 am
104 VAN HISE HALL
credits: 3
Instructor: Anna Gade
level: Elementary • breadth: Humanities ANTHRO 104
Cultural Anthropology and Human
Diversity
Introduction to cultural anthropology for non-majors;
comparative cross-cultural consideration of social organization, economics, politics, language, religion, ecology,
gender, and cultural change. Includes 25% coverage of
U.S. ethnic and racial minorities.
Tue•Thu 9:55–10:45 am
6210 SEWELL SOCIAL SCIENCES
credits: 3
Instructor: Hayder Al-Mohammad
level: Elementary • breadth: Social Science HISTORY 115
Medieval Europe 410–1500
We will begin this class with a discussion of the relations
between Romans and barbarians, the rise of Christianity
and the role of Christianity in forging the new medieval
civilization. We will then move on to three heirs of the
Roman Empire: the Carolingian Empire, the Byzantine
Empire, and the Islamic Empire. After dealing with
the last major invasion of Western Europe, that of the
Vikings, we will move on to the age of castles and cathe­
drals, sometimes called the Twelfth-Century Renaissance. One of the features of this medieval Renaissance
was the expansion of Latin Europe into the Middle East
during the crusades. Another feature had to do with the
self-affirmation of the laity (those who were not part
of the official hierarchy of the Church). This self-affirmation resulted in the appearance of the new chivalric
culture and in the rise of heresy. The late Middle Ages
were both dramatic and traumatic with a major epidemic known as the Black Death and the Hundred Years War.
The course will conclude with a brief introduction to the
Renaissance.
Tue•Thu 2:30–3:45 pm
1131 MOSSE HUMANITIES BUILDING
credits: 4
Instructor: Elizabeth Lapina
level: Elementary • breadth: Humanities Social Science HISTORY 119
The Making of Modern Europe
1500–1815
Tue•Thu 11:00 am–12:15 pm
1641 MOSSE HUMANITIES BUILDING
credits: 4
Instructor: Suzanne Desan
level: Elementary • breadth: Humanities Social Science This list was produced by the
UW Lubar Institute for the Study of the Abrahamic Religions
lubar.wisc.edu
page 2 of 16
HISTORY 130
An Introduction to World History
Major themes in world history: empire and imperialism,
environmental impacts, global trade and globalization, war,
migration, gender, race, religion, nationalism, and class.
This course focuses on three large questions: 1. What are
the origins of human civilization? 2. How did human civilization become diverse and differentiated in the various
(sub) continents of the world? 3. How can we understand
the emergence of the modern world?
Tue•Thu 4:00–5:15 pm
1101 MOSSE HUMANITIES BUILDING
credits: 4
Instructor: Andre Wink
level: Elementary • breadth: Humanities Social Science HISTORY 200/ENVIR ST 404
Animals in World History
Animals are everywhere in human history, although we
do not often credit them as important historical players.
In this class, nonhumans are not supporting characters,
but move to center stage to highlight the multiple ways
in which human history rests on the backs of animals.
This class offers a broad survey of human relationships
with animals across various world regions and historical
time periods. Rather than a comprehensive study, we will
focus on historical case studies of particular animals and
species across four themes: agriculture and food; cosmol­
ogy and human identity; the environmental history
of empire; and conservation and animal rights. We’ll
explore animal symbols, from Native American totems to
Bucky Badger; the work animals do as laborers in places
as distinct as farms and outer space; and how certain
animals pets, livestock, conservation icons come to be
highly valued while others are not. Some of the questions
we’ll address include: What roles do animals play in constructing human identity and social organization? How
does the biology and ecology of different species shape
patterns of economic development? How are animal-focused political movements redefining how we relate to
nonhumans?
Tue•Thu 11:00 am-12:15 pm
175 SCIENCE HALL
Instructor: Elizabeth Hennessy
level: Intermediate
HISTORY 200
Muhammad and the Early Arab
Conquests
Mon 3:30–5:25 pm
5255 MOSSE HUMANITIES BUILDING
Instructor: Michael Chamberlain
level: Intermediate
RELIG ST 200
Goddess: The Divine Feminine
in India
This course examines the principle expressions of the
theology and ritual worship of the Goddess in India
in order to understand how the gendering of divinity
affects theological speculation, religious experience, and
embodied religious identity.
Tue 1:20–3:15 pm
2104 CHAMBERLIN HALL
credits: 3
Instructor: Elaine Fisher
level: Elementary • breadth: Humanities RELIG ST 200
The Religion of Anime
Gods, demons, and priests populate the storyboards
of anime; apocalypse, spirit possession, and the use
of super­natural powers drive many anime plots. This
course uses the anime medium to explore trends in contemporary Japanese religions through formal analysis of
directorial style, ethnographic study of anime producers
and consumers, and examinations of anime (and some
manga) produced by lay directors and religious organizations. The course covers films by directors such as
Miyazaki Hayao, Takahata Isao, Kon Satoshi, and Ōtomo
Katsuhiro; it also features readings in cutting-edge
research on relationships between visual media and
religion.
Tue•Thu 4:00–5:15 pm
5231 SEWELL SOCIAL SCIENCES
credits: 3
credits: 3
credits: 3
Instructor: Jolyon Thomas
level: Elementary • breadth: Humanities This list was produced by the
UW Lubar Institute for the Study of the Abrahamic Religions
lubar.wisc.edu
page 3 of 16
HISTORY/RELIG ST 212
The History of Western Christianity
to 1750
A survey of Christianity from being a small, persecuted
sect in the Roman Empire to becoming the dominant
religion of western Europe, penetrating into the lives of
Europeans, fissuring into multiple churches, and spreading across the globe. Attention is given to doctrine, ritual,
worship, architecture, images, and music. In its first eight
hundred years, Christianity grew from a small persecuted sect in the Roman Empire to the dominant religion
in western Europe. The next millennium witnessed its
deep penetration into the lives of Europeans, its fissuring
into multiple churches, and their spread across the globe.
This course will explore Christianity as it was defined
and redefined over its first 17 centuries. It will explore
the ways that Christians, over time, understood the life of
Christ and his teachings the ways in which his life was to
serve as a model, the relationship between his preaching
and formal doctrine. It will explore the rituals Christians
articulated over time, the architecture they designed as
sites of worship, images, music, and performances.
Tue•Thu 8:00–9:15 am
1221 MOSSE HUMANITIES BUILDING
credits: 4
Instructor: Lee Wandel
level: Intermediate • breadth: Humanities Social Science HISTORY 225
Global Islams: History of Multiple
Muslim Modernities
Mon•Wed•Fri 12:00–12:55 pm
L155 EDUCATION BUILDING
credits: 3–4
E ASIAN/LCA/RELIG ST 235
Genres of Asian Religious Writing
Writing intensive course based on the conventions in
which Asian writers have expressed religious ideas.
Readings introduce major Asian religious traditions and
expressive genres.
Mon•Wed 1:20–2:10 pm
6101 SEWELL SOCIAL SCIENCES
credits: 3
Instructor: Mark Meulenbeld
level: Intermediate • breadth: Humanities LCA 236
Indonesia: Writing Stories
The Republic of Indonesia, which gained its independence in 1949, is now an emerging global player as the
fourth most populous nation and the largest Muslim
majority nation in the world. Indonesia offers a rich
spectrum of cultural and religious diversity. This course
explores the cultural diversity through readings of short
stories, films, and articles while incorporating writing
and speaking tasks to improve communication skills. An
introduction to the history of Indonesia briefly examines
the colonial and early independence periods, the course
then focuses on cultural expressions found in stories and
films of the post-Suharto era (post-1998), also known as
the Reform Era. Indonesian cultures have traditionally
been seen as most clearly defined by ethno-linguistic
loyalties, but in contemporary times the powerful forces
are cutting across these alliances, reshaping Indonesian
cultures based on education and access to new communication technology that creates a globalized nation that
reshapes the roles of women and the voices of religious
communities.
Tue•Thu 11:00 am–12:15 pm
level: Intermediate • breadth: Humanities 378 VAN HISE HALL
JEWISH 230
Representing Holocaust in Poland:
Ethical Issues
credits: 3
Instructor: Ellen Rafferty
level: Elementary
Tue•Thu 4:00–5:15 pm
494 VAN HISE HALL
credits: 3
Instructor: Halina Filipowicz
level: Elementary • breadth: Literature This list was produced by the
UW Lubar Institute for the Study of the Abrahamic Religions
lubar.wisc.edu
page 4 of 16
ENGL 241
Literature and Culture I: to the
Eighteenth Century
What is a person, a home, a nation, a world? What we
now call “English literature” begins with these questions,
imagining a cosmos filled with gods and heroes, liars
and thieves, angels and demons, dragons and dungeons,
whores and witches, drunken stupor and religious
ecstasy. Authors crafted answers to these questions using
technologies of writing from parchment to the printing
press, and genres old and new, from epic and romance to
drama and the sonnet.
Mon•Wed 9:55–10:45 am
19 INGRAHAM HALL
credits: 3
Instructor: Lisa Cooper
level: Intermediate • breadth: Literature ENGL 242
Literature and Culture II: from the
Eighteenth Century to the Present
This course considers a period of unparalleled tumult: a
time of vast world empires and startling new technologies, revolutions that radically redefined self and community, two cataclysmic world wars, the emergence of
ideas of human rights, and the first truly global feelings
of interconnectedness. How has literature captured and
contributed to these dramatic upheavals? Some writers
worldwide have struggled to invent new forms, new
words, and new genres to do justice to a world in crisis,
while others have reached back in time, seeking continuity with the past. We will explore enduring traditions
of poetry and drama and think about experiments in the
new, globally popular genre of the novel.
Since the mid-eighteenth century, “prose” has denoted
less a mode of writing, and more an acquired taste for
freedom from form. Think of a writing assignment without rules: how it entails both infinite freedom and the
lack of direction that such infinity entails. All the authors
we will read in this class, despite their different choices
of genre and style, and despite the diversity of their prejudices, come out of a sensibility we could think of broadly as prosaic. Because of this, we will discuss the readings
not as finished products but as meaningful outcomes of
processes of aesthetic deliberation. We will imagine the
authors asking: “What structure to adopt, what frame
to impose, what rules to flaunt, how much freedom to
forfeit to find the form to speak through the words? To
make the case for unconditional love in a novel, should
I suspend my plot line or tighten the grip of suspense? If
the heroine of my story is to have her cake and eat too,
should she be more of a doer than a talker, or should she
be mostly a thinker? Will my poem best express rage,
or shame, or insight through order or disorder? As a
postcolonial or immigrant writer, should my English be
unmarked or accented, dissonant or all the way “rotten?” From Romantic poetry, to the novel of manners, to
Gothic fiction—from the literature of colonialism to high
modernism to the postcolonial ­diaspora—we’ll examine
the works of writers drawn in by the impossible promise
of prose: the potential for certainty and uncertainty, the
mixture of decision and indecision. And we’ll reflect on
their effects on us as readers.
Tue•Thu 9:55–10:45 am
1520 MICROBIAL SCIENCES
credits: 3
Instructor: Nirvana Tanouhki
level: Intermediate • breadth: Literature ENGL 245
Growing Up Global: Youth,
Happiness, and the Postcolonial
Bildungsroman
How does one grow up to find happiness? The bildungsroman, or plot of “coming to age,” is a genre of the
Western novel that arose in the late eighteenth century
to answer precisely that question by using stories of
young protagonists’ development to examine what leads
to happiness. In this class, we will familiarize ourselves
with early influential models of the bildungsroman, then
look to non-Western narratives of youth as a possible
source of different cultural conceptions of the connection between youth and happy living.
First, we will analyze works of fiction considered
seminal of the Western bildungsroman, by authors from
the Anglo-American tradition (Germany, Britain, and the
United States), to grasp the meanings and expectations
that Western culture has attached to youth as a formative period of an individual’s life. With this in mind, we
will turn to narratives of youth from the postcolonial
world, mainly from Africa, by writers from Egypt, Nigeria, Sudan, Senegal, Zimbabwe, and South Africa. These
This list was produced by the
UW Lubar Institute for the Study of the Abrahamic Religions
lubar.wisc.edu
page 5 of 16
works we will tentatively call “postcolonial bildungsromane.” We will examine the artistic choices in postcolonial bildungsromane and reflect on whatever might strike
us, individually or jointly, as a significant similarity or
difference to the Western model. In short, we will be engaging in a cross-cultural exploration of the connection
between youth and happiness, and the variety of ways in
which literature negotiates aesthetically between often
conflicting values like freedom (of choice) and responsibility, or potentially contradictory ideals like adventurousness and practicality. Our cultural interpretation
and reinterpretations of youth will lead us to evaluate
conceptions of the happy life, good citizenship, and participatory membership in a democratic society.
Along the way, if less directly, we will periodically turn
to broader questions, like: What is the value of reading
into the stories told around us (and in this case, about
us)? What is the value in thinking of ourselves and our
culture in comparison to others or another?
Tue•Thu 1:00–2:15 pm
2637 MOSSE HUMANITIES BUILDING
credits: 3
Instructor: Nirvana Tanoukhi
level: Intermediate • breadth: Literature Examines how ideology and new policies influenced cultural life in the Third Reich. Topics include propaganda
and entertainment films, music, literature and theater,
visual arts and architecture, youth education, and
consumer culture specifically in its appeal to women.
Was Nazi Germany the incarnation of evil in the modern world? Did its culture consist only of propaganda?
Why did the Nazi leadership consider art and culture so
central to its political goals? Such perceptions arose after
World War II, colored by a Cold War tendency to see
similarities between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union,
as well as by the hasty, controversial program of denazification conducted under Allied occupation. In the past 25
years scholars have taken a serious look at Nazi culture
and revealed a much more complex set of factors at work
in all areas of cultural life.
Tue•Thu 4:00–5:15 pm
credits: 3
114 VAN HISE HALL
HISTORY 279
Literature in Translation:
Dante’s Divine Comedy
Afro-Atlantic History: 1808 to the
Present
Tue•Thu 1:00–2:15 pm
credits: 3
Instructor: Jelena Todorovic
level: Intermediate • breadth: Literature LCA 266
Introduction to the Middle East
An interdisciplinary introduction to the diverse cultures,
geography, history, modern states, politics, societies, and
economies of the Middle East. Since the Middle East is
predominantly Muslim, there will be a special emphasis
on Islam as a religion and Muslim peoples.
Tue•Thu 2:30–3:45 pm
5208 SEWELL SOCIAL SCIENCES
Nazi Culture
Instructor: Jost Hermand, Marc Silberman
level: Elementary • breadth: Humanities LITTRANS/MEDIEVAL/RELIG ST 253
19 INGRAHAM HALL
GERMAN 272
credits: 3
The purpose of this course is to increase the student’s
knowledge of the issues and problems that have most
impacted peoples of the African diaspora in the years
since the Haitian Revolution. As such, the focus will be
thematic rather than chronological. The primary emphasis will be on the history of political, social, intellectual
movements. Topics will include slave resistance, black
nationalism, socialism, and anti-colonialism. Other
topics to be covered include: the meaning of freedom, the
construction of black masculinities, diasporic religious
expressions, art and literature, and race and medicine.
Tue•Thu 9:30–10:45 am
2650 MOSSE HUMANITIES BUILDING
credits: 3–4
Instructor: James Sweet
level: Intermediate • breadth: Humanities Instructor: Uli Schamiloglu
level: Intermediate • breadth: Humanities Social Science This list was produced by the
UW Lubar Institute for the Study of the Abrahamic Religions
lubar.wisc.edu
page 6 of 16
HEBR ST/JEWISH 302
Introduction to Hebrew Literature
Continuation of HEBR ST/JEWISH 301.
Mon•Wed 4:00–5:15 pm
487 VAN HISE HALL
credits: 3
level: Advanced • breadth: Literature ANTHRO 310
Archaeologies of Religion
credits: 3
Women and Change in Africa and
Middle East
Religions of the World
A class graded on a credit/no credit basis which addresses various international, cross-cultural, and language
topics of interest to the residents of the International
Learning Community.
credits: 1
Instructor: Joseph Elder
level: Intermediate
JEWISH/LITTRANS 318
Modern Jewish Literature
Pre-modern Jewish society’s breakdown, immigration,
the challenges of integration and exclusion, and the establishment of new communities serve as a backdrop for
the analysis and comparison of Jewish literary texts written in Hebrew, Yiddish, German, Russian, and English.
Mon•Wed 1:00–2:15 pm
Instructor: Philip Hollander
level: Intermediate • breadth: Literature credits: 3
Instructor: David Ward
GEN&WS 320
INTL ST 310
594 VAN HISE HALL
Develops awareness and knowledge of cultural influences on business. Focuses on various attitudes toward
work, time, material possession, business, and the relationship of these attitudes to different social, religious,
philosophical, and educational backgrounds of business
people from cultures around the world.
1180 GRAINGER HALL
level: Intermediate • breadth: Social Science Thu 5:00–6:00 pm
Intercultural Communication in
Business
Tue•Thu 2:30–3:45 pm
Tue•Thu 1:00–2:15 pm
5128 SEWELL SOCIAL SCIENCES
GEN BUS/INTL BUS 320
credits: 3–4
The course looks at current topics relating to women in
Africa and the Middle East, ranging from political and
economic participation, to culture, family, and religion,
as well as sexuality and women’s bodies. The course
is focused around questions of authority and power
and situates each of the topics in a broader historical
context. Africa and the Middle East are changing rapidly, with both exciting consequences for women, but
also amidst some unprecedented challenges, ranging
from terrorism to Ebola. The course provides a context
for understanding how the challenges of the day have
affected women in particular, but also it provides some
all too rare glimpses into the ways in which women are
tackling these same challenges. Many of the readings are
by women from these regions and video segments also
give voice to some of the most interesting women of our
time from these regions. The course adopts a multidisciplinary approach, drawing on writings from sociology,
anthropology, history, geography, economics, political
science and other related fields.
The course is attentive to topical concerns affecting
women, from climate change to health challenges, as
well as women’s political representation, political Islam,
civil conflict, and new forms of entrepreneurship and
economic empowerment. It looks at ways in which women are changing not only the face of modern institutions
This list was produced by the
UW Lubar Institute for the Study of the Abrahamic Religions
lubar.wisc.edu
page 7 of 16
like legislatures, but also customary law and traditions,
including practices of inheritance, child marriage, and
female genital cutting.
Tue•Thu 1:00–2:15 pm
credits: 3
1313 STERLING HALL
Instructor: Aili Tripp
level: Intermediate • breadth: Social Science HIST SCI/HISTORY 324
Science in the Enlightenment
Development and triumph of Newton’s gravitational law;
the conceptual revolution in chemistry; earth history
and the move from religious to natural cosmologies.
Thu 9:55–10:45 am
credits: 3
122 INGRAHAM HALL
Instructor: Thomas Broman
level: Intermediate • breadth: Humanities HEBR ST/JEWISH/LITTRANS/RELIG ST 332
HISTORY 351
Seventeenth-Century Europe
This course is about Europe in the seventeenth century—
probably the most important century in the making of
the modern world. It was during the 1600s that Galileo
and Newton founded modern science; that Descartes began modern philosophy; that Hugo Grotius initiated international law; and that Thomas Hobbes and John Locke
started modern political theory. In the same century,
strong centralized European states entered into worldwide international competition for wealth and power, accelerating the pace of colonization in America and Asia.
To gain an edge against other powers in war, European
governments invested in research in military technology,
and the seventeenth century was consequently an age of
military revolution, enabling Europeans from then on
to defeat most non-European peoples relatively easily in
battle. The course will examine the main social, economic, intellectual, religious, cultural and political developments that occurred in the seventeenth century.
Mon•Wed•Fri 1:20–2:10 pm
Prophets of the Bible
1641 MOSSE HUMANITIES BUILDING
An introduction to the thought, literature, and history of
the prophets of ancient Israel (in English).
credits: 3–4
Instructor: Johann Sommerville
level: Intermediate • breadth: Humanities Tue•Thu 11:00 am-12:15 pm
1101 MOSSE HUMANITIES BUILDING
credits: 4
level: Intermediate • breadth: Literature FOLKLORE/LITTRANS/MEDIEVAL/RELIG ST 342
(IN TRANSLATION); SCAND ST 429
Mythology of Scandinavia
First: an introduction to the pagan religion of Scandinavia, with readings in some of the primary sources (eddaic
and skaldic poetry, Snorri Sturluson’s Prose Edda, etc.)
Second: broadens the definition of mythology to embrace
concepts applicable to more recent literature and literary
criticism.
Tue•Thu 2:30–3:45 pm
104 VAN HISE HALL
JEWISH 356
Zionism in Thought, Culture,
and Literature: From Inception to
the State
Representations of Zionism from biblical and medieval
times to the rise of Jewish nationalism. Discussion of
ideological models with special attention to the Arab
issue and to the significance of Zionism in America.
Mon•Wed•Fri 11:00–11:50 am
credits: 3
223 INGRAHAM HALL
Instructor: Rachel Brenner
level: Intermediate, Advanced • breadth: Humanities credits: 3–4
Instructor: Scott Mellor
level: Advanced • breadth: Literature This list was produced by the
UW Lubar Institute for the Study of the Abrahamic Religions
lubar.wisc.edu
page 8 of 16
HISTORY 361
The Emergence of Modern Britain:
England 1485–1660
This course will explore a decisive period in the ­making
of modern Britain, and of the western world today.
Though the social, economic and intellectual aspects of
the period will not be neglected, the main focus of the
course will be on political and constitutional change.
The course will begin with a broad introduction to
early-modern Britain. Then we will examine how the
turbulent period of the Wars of the Roses was ended, and
how the Tudor monarchy broke the independence of the
“over-mighty magnates” of late-medieval England.
The Tudors succeeded in introducing far greater unity
and centralization than had existed earlier, and this will
be the main theme of the first half of the course. Topics
discussed will include the Reformation, the so-called
“Tudor Revolution in Government,” the bitter factional
politics of the court of Henry VIII, the Marian Reaction
and the “mid-Tudor crisis,” and the re-establishment of
royal power in the reign of Elizabeth—when an unprecedented flowering of English culture took place, and when
English sea-power staved off conquest by Catholic Spain.
The succession of James, King of Scots to the ­English
throne in 1603, united the Scottish and English monarchies but the new Stuart dynasty was soon faced
with grave problems. The second half of the course will
examine the ways in which financial, constitutional and
religious issues combined to lead to civil war and to the
execution of the King and the introduction of a republic
in England in 1649. We will also see how the advent of a
military despotism and the proliferation of radical ideas
led the English to reintroduce monarchy in 1660.
Instructor: Johann Sommerville
level: Advanced • breadth: Social Science Introduction to Buddhism
The basic thought, practices and history of Buddhism,
including selflessness and relativity, practices of meditation, merit-making and compassion from both local and
translocal perspectives. Includes discussion of Buddhism
as a contemporary, North American religion.
Mon•Wed 12:05–12:55 pm
3650 MOSSE HUMANITIES BUILDING
credits: 3
Instructor: Anne Hansen
level: Intermediate • breadth: Humanities ANTHRO/JEWISH/RELIG ST 372
Jews of Central and Eastern Europe
Course will focus on main characteristics of Central and
Eastern European Jews (Ashkenazim) in their cultural-­
historical development.
Mon•Wed 2:30–3:45 pm
22 INGRAHAM HALL
credits: 3–4
level: Intermediate, Advanced • breadth: Social Science GEN&WS 372
Visualizing Bodies
Focuses on the intersections of the visual images of bodies, ethics, and politics from global and feminist perspectives. Students will learn critical approaches to visual
media in feminist disability studies to analyze the images
of bodies focusing on race, gender, disability, religion,
sexuality, and other markers of difference.
Tue•Thu 9:30–10:45 am
Mon•Wed•Fri 11:00–11:50 am
4028 VILAS HALL
E ASIAN/LCA/RELIG ST 364
credits: 3–4
1339 STERLING HALL
credits: 3
Instructor: Eunjung Kim
level: Intermediate • breadth: Humanities This list was produced by the
UW Lubar Institute for the Study of the Abrahamic Religions
lubar.wisc.edu
page 9 of 16
COM ARTS/RELIG ST 374
ART HIST 413
The Rhetoric of Religion
Rhetorical character of religious controversy and sectarian persuasion in Western religion.
Tue•Thu 9:30–10:45 am
4028 VILAS HALL
credits: 3
Instructor: Kenneth Lythgoe
level: Intermediate • breadth: Humanities RELIG ST 400
Christianity: Themes and Variations
An exploration of central themes in Christianity (such as
Christ, the Church, Prayer, Sin) as they vary yet remained
constant across a variety of contexts, historically and
globally. Includes discussion with local Christians from a
variety of perspectives.
Tue 1:20–3:15 pm
394 VAN HISE HALL
credits: 3
Instructor: Corrie Norman
level: Intermediate • breadth: Humanities HEBR ST/JEWISH 402
Topics in Modern Hebrew/Israeli
Literature and Culture II
Continuation of HEBR ST/JEWISH 401.
Instructor: Rachel Brenner
level: Advanced • breadth: Literature credits: 3
Tue•Thu 1:00–2:15 pm
L150 CONRAD A. ELVEHJEM BUILDING
Survey of Old Norse-Icelandic
Literature
credits: 3
ENGL 422
Eddic and skaldic poetry; homilies and saints’ lives,
kings’ sagas, sagas of the Icelanders; mythical-heroic
sagas and romances; rimur.
Instructor: Kirsten Wolf
level: Advanced • breadth: Literature The tenth century CE marked a period of drastic change
in the Islamic world, as the unified Islamic caliphate
splintered into three rival dynasties: the Sunni Iraqi
Abbasids, Spanish Umayyads, and the Shi’ite Fatimids in
Egypt. In their quest to dominate the Islamic world and
control the Mediterranean, each dynasty openly competed and responded to the others in architectural projects,
ceremonial practices and courtly arts. At the same time,
the monolithic model of courtly patronage of the arts
was replaced gradually by one in which the urban classes
increasingly shaped the art market, resulting in new
visual forms. This course considers this turning point
in the history of Islamic culture through the lens of art
and architectural patronage. By exploring the architectural and urban projects of the three dynasties, we will
examine competing visions of power, sources of legitimacy and the development of Cairo, Baghdad/Samarra,
and Cordoba as capital cities. We will also consider the
role of portable arts, addressing the role of exchange and
gift-giving in the Mediterranean context and the problems of attribution in this highly mobile environment.
Course themes include the role of sectarian identity
(Shi’ite vs. Sunni); the incorporation of Christian and
Jewish culture; the relation between the court and urban
populations; and the meaning of ornament and style in
Islamic art.
Instructor: Jennifer Pruitt
level: Intermediate • breadth: Humanities MEDIEVAL/SCAND ST 409
Tue•Thu 11:00 am–12:15 pm
Art and Architecture in the Age of
the Caliphs
credits: 3
Pleasure and Danger: Seneca
What does Seneca, a Roman politician have to do with
today’s selfies and blog posts? Why would a wealthy man
whose business decisions caused a revolution in Roman
Britain argue very persuasively that pleasure comes from
living a simple life? How did Seneca’s plays (which either
explored or celebrated cannibalism, incest, infanticide,
matricide, parricide, and other taboos) influence Shakespearean drama? Why did the early Church fathers
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think of Seneca as a Christian, associating him with
Saint Paul? Why would Emperor Nero order Seneca, his
teacher and prime minister, to kill himself? Why would
a renaissance priest think Seneca’s manual on rhetoric
(with exercises like: Law calls for a rapist to die or marry,
according to the wishes of the victim; a man raped two
women in the same night, one wishes him dead, the other wants to marry him; what should happen?) to be an
appropriate textbook for middle school boys?
Find the answers when you explore the pleasures and
dangers of Senecan literature. We will explore sexuality,
sensuality, morality, philosophy, and education, through
selected reading of Seneca, English renaissance writers,
and contemporary writers. Along the way, we also will
explore modern and contemporary genres that emerged
from Seneca’s own writing, such as the familiar letter,
the essay, the blog post, and the monologue.
Mon•Wed•Fri 1:20–2:10 pm
L185 EDUCATION BUILDING
credits: 3
Instructor: Ronald Harris
level: Intermediate • breadth: Literature ENGL/MEDIEVAL 423
Medieval Marvels and Monstrosities
We will explore what it is that we have feared, and why
it is that we so enjoy, and even desire, to confront evil.
From green men, to werewolves, to dragons, medieval
literature was filled with monstrous beings who challenged the division between human and non-human, and
between society and the mysterious world that existed
outside it. Like monsters, marvels occupied a space
beyond the boundaries of the normal human world. One
reincarnated being with excessive strength might be seen
as a ferocious heathen zombie, while another reincarnated being who lives in the trees might be worshipped
as a Christian saint. With readings drawn from a wide
variety of medieval genres and contexts, including Old
and Middle English as well as Scandinavian literature,
topics will include race, gender, animals, and the nature
of belief. No previous experience with medieval literature is required.
Tue•Thu 11:00 am-12:15 pm
104 RUSSELL LABORATORIES
credits: 3
ENGL/MEDIEVAL 427
Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales:
The Shock of the Old
Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales is one of the
best literary bridges we have between our medieval past
and our modern present. Once you actually get into it,
Chaucer’s poetry proves to be some of the funniest, raunchiest, most socially scathing and radically experimental
poetry ever written in English. You would be surprised.
You will be surprised.
Through this course you will build a working knowledge of selections of Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury
Tales, and develop an understanding of Middle English
culture and language through a careful reading and discussion that allows us to take our time with each work.
The textual, cultural and political issues important to
Chaucer will be revealed, as will his medieval wit, humor,
and literary avant-gardism, along with a few seriously
NSFW passages.
An introduction to the most famous and influential
medieval English poet through his best-known work and
its playful and profound responses to some of the most
pressing literary, social, political, and spiritual issues of
his time. Readings will be in the original Middle English;
no prior experience with the language is required.
Tue•Thu 9:30–10:45 am
1152 MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
credits: 3
Instructor: Martin Foys
level: Intermediate • breadth: Literature AMER IND/ANTHRO/FOLKLORE 431
American Indian Folklore
An introduction to the genres of American Indian
Folklore. Special attention is given to creation stories,
trickster tales, and the relationship between folklore and
historical memory.
Mon•Wed 2:30–3:45 pm
120 INGRAHAM HALL
credits: 3
Instructor: Theresa Schenck
level: Intermediate, Advanced
Instructor: Jordan Zweck
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ENGL/RELIG ST 434
FOLKLORE 451
Milton
The Supernatural in the
Modern World
Mon 6:00–8:30 pm
2637 MOSSE HUMANITIES BUILDING
credits: 3
Instructor: David Loewenstein
level: Intermediate • breadth: Literature Mon•Wed•Fri 9:55–10:45 am
HISTORY/RELIG ST 439
Islamic History from the Origin of
Islam to the Ottoman Empire
Political action and organization in medieval Islam (ca
600–1500), with focus on selected states.
Mon•Wed•Fri 1:20–2:10 pm
1111 MOSSE HUMANITIES BUILDING
credits: 3–4
Instructor: Michael Chamberlain
level: Intermediate • breadth: Humanities MEDIEVAL/RELIG ST 440
Francis of Assisi: Literature and
the Arts
Focus on accounts of St. Francis’s life as written by medieval authors (e.g., Bonaventure of Bagnoregio, Thomas
of Celano, the Franciscan Brother Leo) as well as works
written by Francis himself. Examination of the relevance of Francis’s teachings to contemporary reflections
regarding relationships with the Other, the environment,
and animals. Discussion of issues related to religion,
politics, bio-politics, and environmental studies.
Mon•Wed•Fri 12:05–12:55 pm
4308 SEWELL SOCIAL SCIENCES
Instructor: Ernesto Livorni
level: Intermediate • breadth: Literature Explores evidence of belief in the supernatural in the
modern world as it appears in the context of folk religion, folk medicine, legends, folk drama, ritual and
custom, and media accounts and presentations.
credits: 3
224 INGRAHAM HALL
credits: 3
Instructor: Ruth Olson
level: Intermediate, Advanced
HISTORY/LCA 458
History of Southeast Asia Since 1800
This course explores the modern history of Southeast
Asia, a region remarkable for upheaval that has shaped
and been shaped by the modern world order. Instead of
narratives about individual nations, the course analyzes
major changes across the whole Southeast Asia region
throughout the modern period including the conquest of
traditional kingdoms, colonial subjugation, the impact
of World War II, national revolutions, and the emergence
of new nations. To lend substance to these broad topics,
lectures will explore global themes with case studies of
individual countries, from 1800 through the present.
As the most intensely colonized region in the world,
Southeast Asia offers an ideal arena for exploring the
transformative impact of European empires upon indigenous societies worldwide. Through such study we can
see imperialism as a Promethean fire that shaped the
modern world, producing both independent nations and
an interdependent global economy.
With all the world’s major religions, an extraordinary
ethnic diversity, a past with both ancient empires and
colonial conquest, and a present of war and revolution,
democracy and dictatorship, Southeast Asia has inspired
a fascinating literature by famous scholars whose sum
is nothing less than an inquiry into the making of the
modern world.
Tue•Thu 2:30–3:45 pm
4028 VILAS HALL
credits: 3–4
Instructor: Alfred McCoy
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HISTORY 475
European Social History: 1914 to the
Present
In twentieth century Europe politics and society became
intertwined as never before. Not only did war and political conflict shape daily life throughout the century; but
social and economic issues, from mass unemployment
and commercialization to gender relations and urban
transformation, also called forth state action. The study
of social history in the past century therefore demands
close attention to the scope and nature of political power,
and to the ideologies that envisioned how power was
to be distributed, and how societies were to be remade.
What were the major ideologies of twentieth century
Europe? How did they imagine the societies over which
they laid claim? To what social conflicts and trends did
they respond? How did identities based on class, nation,
gender, race, religion, generation, and locale relate to
ideological reflection, society, and political practice?
Mon•Wed 2:30–3:45 pm
1217 MOSSE HUMANITIES BUILDING
Thu 1:20–3:15 pm
5255 MOSSE HUMANITIES BUILDING
credits: 3–4
Instructor: Rudy Koshar
level: Intermediate • breadth: Social Science credits: 3
Instructor: Kathryn Ciancia
level: Advanced
HISTORY/LEGAL ST 510
AFRICAN 500
Language and Society in Africa
Language use in African societies; multilingualism; language in politics, religion, socialization.
Tue 1:20–3:15 pm
394 VAN HISE HALL
mans, Russians, Poles, British, French, Jews, and Armenians, while at the same time questioning these national
and ethnic categories.
The course is divided into three parts. Part I focuses
on mass migrations from the mid-nineteenth century
to World War I. How did states promote or discourage
population movement and how did ordinary people
develop networks to deal with the challenges of migration? In Part II, we’ll look at the period between 1914 and
1948 when millions of people were forced from their
homelands into new environments. What did it mean to
be a refugee and how did narratives of diaspora emerge
in the United States and elsewhere? Part III takes us from
World War II to the present day. How did the Cold War,
decolonization, and today’s “borderless” world affect
people’s experiences and perceptions of global mobility?
The class encourages students to explore multiple perspectives and disciplines with a particular focus on how
migration intersected with international politics and
perceptions of gender, race, ethnicity, and social class.
credits: 3–4
Instructor: Katrina Thompson
level: Intermediate, Advanced • breadth: Humanities HISTORY 500/891
Migrants, Refugees, and
Border-Crossers in Modern Europe
This class explores the transnational histories of migration, diaspora, and refugees from the mid-nineteenth
century to the present day, with a particular focus on
movements to, from, and within Europe. We will discuss
theoretical approaches and a range of case studies about
diverse groups around the globe, including Italians, Ger-
Legal Pluralism
Historical and anthropological perspectives on non-state
“law,” or systems of rules generated by normative orders
that lay beyond the state; case studies include the mafia,
Tokyo tuna traders’ court, orthodox Jewish diamond
merchants, California gold miners’ courts, and Inuit song
dueling.
Tue•Thu 9:30–10:45 am
6116 SEWELL SOCIAL SCIENCES
credits: 3
Instructor: Mitra Sharafi
level: Advanced • breadth: Social Science HEBR ST/JEWISH 514
Biblical Texts, Poetry
Continuation of HEBR ST/JEWISH 513.
Tue•Thu 8:25–9:40 am
1051 VAN HISE HALL
credits: 3
level: Advanced • breadth: Literature This list was produced by the
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ART HIST 515/815
HIST SCI/HISTORY/MED HIST/MEDIEVAL/S&A PHM 562
Cross-Cultural Encounters in
Islamic Art
Byzantine Medicine and Pharmacy
Thu 4:15–6:15 pm
L166 CONRAD A. ELVEHJEM BUILDING
credits: 3
Instructor: Jennifer Pruitt
level: Intermediate, Advanced • breadth: Humanities Byzantine and Islamic medicine and drug lore from
Oribasius to the beginnings of the Italian Renaissance (c.
350 to c. 1400 A.D.).
Tue•Thu 2:30–3:45 pm
credits: 3
2002 RENNEBOHM HALL
Instructor: John Scarborough
level: Intermediate, Advanced • breadth: Humanities CURRIC/HISTORY/JEWISH 515
Holocaust: History, Memory, and
Education
HISTORY 600
This course explores the ways in which Holocaust history, memory, and education are mutually entangled,
politically charged, and morally complex. Using primarily American sites of memory, students will critically
analyze a variety of representations of the Shoah, in
literature, films, memoirs, monuments, museums, and
classrooms.
This course is intended to introduce students to the
central historical developments of law in the European
Middle Ages. Materials for the course will span from
the dissolution of the Roman Empire and the last gasps
of imperial codification in the fifth and sixth centuries
until the late appearance of the great medieval legal
traditions, i.e., the common law of England and the
Roman-canonical tradition of the European continent.
Our primary focus will be on law as an aspect of human
community. Hence, we will be concerned with rules of
laws (e.g. whether you could marry your first cousin in
thirteenth-century France, or the required number of
days you had to wait before attacking your enemy in his
home in ninth-century Britain), but also with the broader social implications of such laws. We will be concerned
primarily with what made these laws intelligible in their
own age. By implication, we might occasionally learn
something important about ourselves as well.
Mon•Wed•Fri 9:55–10:45 am
Fri 12:00–3:00 pm
223 INGRAHAM HALL; 215 TEACHER ED
credits: 3
Instructor: Rachel Brenner
level: Intermediate • breadth: Humanities Social Science CLASSICS/HISTORY/RELIG ST 517
Religions of the Ancient
Mediterranean
Ancient religions in their political, social and cultural
contexts; topics include ritual, literary and artistic
representations, religious persecutions, and/or modern
approaches to the study of ancient religions. Chronological and geographical focus will vary between Greece,
Rome, Judaea, and Egypt.
Tue•Thu 9:55–10:45 am
1106 MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
Instructor: Jeffrey Beneker
level: Intermediate • breadth: Humanities credits: 3
Law and Society in Medieval Europe
Mon 11:00 am-12:55 pm
5257 MOSSE HUMANITIES BUILDING
credits: 3
Instructor: Karl Shoemaker
level: Advanced • breadth: Humanities Social Science HISTORY 600
Religion and the Enlightenment
The intellectual movement termed “the Enlightenment”
has often been associated with secularism and an assault
on traditional religion. Responding to a century of religious warfare and confessional strife, European thinkers
in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries drew on new
concepts of authority, nature, knowledge, and the self to
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reassess religion and its place in society. While some put
forth secular alternatives, other Protestant, Catholic, and
Jewish thinkers adopted Enlightenment critiques and
insights to update and renew their religious traditions.
This course introduces students both to some key writings from the period and to recent scholarly work from
a vital and fascinating field of historical research. After
familiarizing ourselves with some classic accounts of
the Enlightenment, we will consider how current scholarship is opening up fresh perspectives and telling new
stories about the place of religion in the “age of reason.”
Among other things, we will read work on demonology
and exorcism, miracles, biblical scholarship, religious
toleration, and church-state relations.
Tue 8:50–10:45 am
5255 MOSSE HUMANITIES BUILDING
credits: 3
Instructor: Eric Carlsson
level: Advanced • breadth: Humanities Social Science Tue 9:00 am–12:00 pm
1080 GRAINGER HALL
Religion in Critical Perspective
Readings in the analysis of religion as a human phenomenon from various perspectives, such as: skeptical and
sympathetic views toward religion; theories of religion’s
origins and functions; and examinations of religious
awe.
Fri 9:00–11:00 am
credits: 3
Instructor: Ulrich Rosenhagen
level: Advanced
POLI SCI 631
Arab-Israeli Conflict
This class will provide an in-depth understanding of the
Arab-Israeli conflict and it evolution over time. Our goal
is to develop an appreciation of the complexities and
dynamism of this conflict through an examination of its
origins, the actors involved, and the key historical and
political factors that have shaped it.
T 1:20–3:15 pm
credits: 3–4
Instructor: Nadav Shelef
level: Advanced • breadth: Social Science LCA 640
Proseminar in Central Asian History
Introduction to the historiography of the Golden Horde
and the Tatar, Kazak, and Uzbek nations; impact on
Russia; Russian colonialism in Central Asia; innovative
approaches to social and economic history.
Wed 2:30–5:00 pm
574 VAN HISE HALL
ED POL/HISTORY 622
credits: 3
Instructor: Adam Nelson
level: Advanced • breadth: Humanities Social Science 6109 SEWELL SOCIAL SCIENCES
RELIG ST 600
4314 SEWELL SOCIAL SCIENCES
intellectual history of diverse educational experiments,
including experiments related to socialism, abolitionism,
anarchism, and religious fundamentalism.
credits: 3
Instructor: Uli Schamiloglu
level: Advanced • breadth: Humanities History of Radical and Experimental
Education in the United States and
E ASIAN 662
United Kingdom
History of Chinese Thought, Part 2
Examines the comparative history of radical and experimental education in the United States and United Kingdom since 1800. It focuses on the social, cultural, and
The second half of a two-course sequence promoting a
familiarity with the fundamentals of Chinese thought,
philosophical and religious. The focus is on the dynastic
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period, from Qin Han through Qing, emphasizing the
cross-fertilization between traditions and the role of
commentary.
Mon•Wed 4:00–5:15 pm
Thu 7:45–10:45 am
credits: 3
1351 VAN HISE HALL
Instructor: Mark Meulenbeld
level: Advanced
credits: 3
ENGL 806
Blake and Visuality
Classical Hebrew Linguistics:
Historical and Descriptive
The phonology, morphology, and syntax of biblical
Hebrew, viewed from historical and descriptive linguistic
perspectives.
Mon•Wed 11:00 am-12:15 pm
credits: 3
Instructor: Jeremy Hutton
LAW 740
Constitutional Law II
Rights of citizens against state and federal governments;
the nature of due process and the equal protection of the
law; the protection of freedom from invidious discrimination; the Civil Rights Acts; freedoms of expression,
association, and religion.
Mon•Wed 10:30–11:50 am or
Tue•Thu 2:40–4:00 pm
2211 LAW BUILDING
3260 LAW BUILDING
L177 EDUCATION BUILDING
Instructor: Amy Stambach
HEBR ST 723
1051 VAN HISE HALL
national rivalries. Problems of nation-building, popular
participation, and human resource development; educational planning and international cooperation.
credits: 2–4
Instructor: Asifa Quraishi-Landes, Ann Althouse
ED POL 750
African Education: Past, Present
and Future
Survey of indigenous and introduced forms of African
education, formal and informal, in comparative format.
The impact of Islam and Christianity on traditional educational styles. The struggle for modernity and cultural
autonomy within the context of imperialism and inter-
Perhaps the best way to describe this seminar is to say
that it will offer an introductory, graduate-level immersion in the poetry and visual media that Blake developed
to convey his fourfold understanding of the world and its
beings. That world includes the materiality of romantic
era print culture: Blake was a professional engraver who illustrated most of his poems and he experimented in tempera, watercolor and other color printing media and his
vision of possibility and revolution, which never really
settled into a single pattern. You will enter magical places that defy simple geographical description, and verse
forms that are by turns simple and surprising. Blake’s
poems, places, and the beings that create or inhabit them
have many dimensions. They all embody Blake’s view of
the failures (and future possibilities) created by institutional, religious and individual repressions.
We will approach this body of work by beginning
with Blake’s early, not yet quite prophetic, poems and
then move into his great works, which he called prophecies but which we might also read as wary of prophecy.
In Blake we encounter a poet whose puns are visual as
well as verbal, whose mythological creatures move and
declaim in extraordinary ways, and an artist-poet whose
visions, in the mind, and mostly on paper, constitute a
radical invitation to reading them. In every seminar session we will think collectively about how Blake’s visuality
belongs to the textual arguments he creates. All work for
this seminar will be doubly bound to texts and images.
Blake’s art and poetics are steeped in the world and
historical moment he inhabited: London, the promise,
then disappointment of the French Revolution, slavery,
hope for the new Americas, and the task of imagining
new worlds.
Tue 10:00 am–12:30 pm
6171 HELEN C. WHITE HALL
Instructor: Theresa Kelley
credits: 3
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ELPA 840
LAW 940
Public School Law
Legal aspects of public K-12 education. Legal structure;
employee rights; employee discipline; curriculum; students’ rights; student discipline, special education; torts;
contracts, religion. Impact of federal and state constitutions, statutes, and court decisions on education.
Wed 6:00–8:30 pm
Instructor: Julie Mead
credits: 3
Law and Contemporary Problems:
Introduction to Islamic Law
Tue 9:50–11:50 am
5229 LAW BUILDING
credits: 3
Instructor: Asifa Quraishi-Landes
POLI SCI 948
Religion and Politics
AFRICAN 901
Imagining Islam
This seminar asks how Islam is represented in literature
and other arts. How have people in Africa and the Middle
East depicted, discussed, and written systems of belief?
Why is there such a fervent interest in Islam now? What
is the relationship between “Islamic literature” on one
hand and, on the other, literature about the religion?
Finally, how do educational institutions such as this university become actively involved in representing Islam
and Muslims around the world? To respond to these
questions, we will investigate sources from Africa, the
Middle East, and the African diaspora. The focus will be
on the modern era but readings will include a sampling
of medieval Islamic discourse as well. Authors, directors,
and theorists to include Talal Asad, Mariama Bâ, Tahar
Ben Jelloun, Abdulrazak Gurnah, Abdel-Hakim Kassem,
Saba Mahmood, and Ousmane Sembène.
What is the relationship between religion and politics?
This course examines the meanings of, and interactions
between, religion and politics in comparative politics
and international relations. At the center of the course
are questions about the impact religion has on wide
range of politically relevant outcomes and the mechanisms through which religion shapes those outcomes.
The course provides an overview of the main theoretical,
conceptual, and empirical studies of religion and politics.
The course pays particular attention to the interaction
of religion and democracy, and the relationship between
religion and conflict.
Thu 1:20–3:15 pm
422 NORTH HALL
credits: 3
Instructor: Nadav Shelef
level: Advanced
Wed 3:30–5:30 pm
219 VAN HISE HALL
credits: 3
Instructor: Samuel England
This list was produced by the
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