Students

This interdisciplinary graduate seminar will examine the paradoxes in the public sphere when faith, citizenship, and poverty intersect with the myriad processes of globalization. What is the shape, purpose, and configuration of the public sphere in regional, national, and international contexts that issue forth from the points where these intersect? Faith-based grassroots movements address poverty and inequality and in the process are involved in the renewal of citizenship by democratic means. Examples include the role of Islamic parties in the Arab Spring, Pentecostalism in creating islands of social care in the favelas of Brazil, millions raised for humanitarian aid and development by Evangelical groups, and the resort to religious discourses of jubilee and usury in addressing the deleterious impact of financialized debt. Paradoxically, religious groups are also charged with exacerbating conditions that produce poverty and inequality. Here we think especially of women, authoritarian institutions, indigenous peoples and the fallout of contesting visions of public life whether secular, religious or plural.

Surveys several issues displaying different forms or policy responses in various geographical regions and cultures. Examples include: competition over energy resources, design of international organization, trends of human migration, privatization of security, and patterns of economic inequality. An interdisciplinary approach with attention to political, economic and social patterns. The goal is to introduce international policy issues that remain unsolved, while understanding how present-day relationships and policies are shaped by the past. Particularly useful for students looking for international topics for honors theses or other research projects. Instructor: Johnson

The course will consider two distinct perspectives on ethics: religious and psychological. Religions provide the oldest, immensely influential accounts of what it means to be moral; with its empirical approach and innovative methods, moral psychology is able to shed new light on how moral ideals shape people’s thoughts and behavior in the modern world. We explore and contrast the ideals of moral perfection described in Christianity, Buddhism and Hinduism, and complement this with the understanding of morality which is emerging from empirical research in moral psychology, covering both established knowledge and current controversies. No prior knowledge of religion or psychology is required.