The issue of anthropogenic alterations to the climate and biosphere raises ethical dilemmas that are related to climate breakdown, mass human migrations, species loss, and the quandaries posed by end-stage global capitalism. This course examines such dilemmas.
This course explores Buddhist contributions to global conversations on poverty, environment, racism, capitalism, and gender. The central questions examined will be: what should the world look like and how do Buddhists engage to make that vision a reality?
A survey of the history, spirituality, cultures, and practices of church bodies within the international Anglican Communion, including the U.S. Episcopal Church. This course underscores the intellectual heritage of Anglicanism and its distinctive ecumenical role as via media between Protestant and Catholic traditions. Historical topics include the nineteenth-century Oxford Movement, Anglicanism's problematic relation to colonialism, its influence in developing nations, and its involvement in contemporary controversies. Special attention is also given to this tradition's cultural expressions in music, architecture, literature, and education. Not open for credit to students who have completed NOND 201.
This class examines how death, dying, and grief are ritualized and understood in different cultures. Exploration will also be made of current challenges, personal and societal, related to death such as advance directives (living wills), grief, hospice care, mortuary services, and bodily disposal. Attention will be paid to eco-death and issues of social justice related to death, too. Students will engage in a semester-long community- based project.
Introduces and explores new religious movements, sectarian spin-offs, and alternative communities in the U.S. that have tested the parameters of acceptable "religion" at different moments in history. Particular attention is given to intersectional dynamics. The class questions the politics and practices of labeling, especially the language of "cults," and centers on specific historical case studies in order to illustrate and analyze major theoretical and methodological challenges in and for the study of religion(s). It considers what draws people to create and join new religious movements, the distinctive worlds such groups endeavor to build, and the controversies that have historically attended them.
Introduces and explores new religious movements, sectarian spin-offs, and alternative communities in the U.S. that have tested the parameters of acceptable "religion" at different moments in history. Particular attention is given to intersectional dynamics. The class questions the politics and practices of labeling, especially the language of "cults," and centers on specific historical case studies in order to illustrate and analyze major theoretical and methodological challenges in and for the study of religion(s). It considers what draws people to create and join new religious movements, the distinctive worlds such groups endeavor to build, and the controversies that have historically attended them.
This course addresses topics related to the field of religious studies not addressed in other courses and is offered depending on interest. This course may be repeated for credit when the topic differs.
This seminar explores the ways concepts of "race," "religion," and "scripture" have mutually constituted each other over the course of modern European and American history. The course pays particular attention to the central, and sometimes hidden, role "the Bible” has played in the racial formation of citizens and subjects. To that end, the course draws upon several different disciplines and fields, including but not limited to: critical race theory, intersectional feminism, postcolonial theory, liberation hermeneutics, American religious history, and critical biblical studies. The course's overarching goal is to critically understand how “race” shaped and shapes interpretations of biblical texts as scripture and how the scriptural framing of racial categories imbues social hierarchies with religious authority.
The course examines the dynamics of violence as it is engendered and enacted in human collectivities, be they religious, ethnic, or political. The course covers theoretical analyses of social violence and historical instantiations of the social processes by which victims are targeted and attacked. We focus on violent movements in religious traditions and the manner in which religious warrants, discourse, texts, and practices are marshaled in the sacralization of a campaign of atrocity against an enemy perceived as a profane threat to the perpetrating society. Attention is also given to practical means of impeding and interfering in the dynamics of sacralized violence.
Rhetoric
Study of the principles, precepts, and strategies of informative, persuasive, and ceremonial speaking. Emphasis is placed on assessing the rhetorical situation and researching, composing, practicing, and delivering a speech. Ethical, political, and social questions raised by speaking in public are considered. Students deliver speeches, practice effective listening, and serve as speech critics and interlocutors.
Study of the principles, precepts, and strategies of informative, persuasive, and ceremonial speaking. Emphasis is placed on assessing the rhetorical situation and researching, composing, practicing, and delivering a speech. Ethical, political, and social questions raised by speaking in public are considered. Students deliver speeches, practice effective listening, and serve as speech critics and interlocutors.
Study of the precepts, theories, strategies, and ethics of argument. Students critically analyze arguments found in speeches, public debates, and controversies, newspaper articles and editorials, television news programs, and scholarly texts. Students write argumentative essays, present argumentative speeches, and engage in class debate.
In this survey of the expectations for successful speaking across several disciplines, students will explore the techniques, strategies, and precepts peer and professional tutors may employ to help student speakers and listeners attain their goals. Participants will examine samples of student speaking and listening, discuss possible responses, and develop model interactions between and among tutors and students.
Study of the discursive and non-discursive aspects of protest in the period 1948-1973. Focus on the forms and functions of rhetorics and counter-rhetorics in U.S. controversies over communism, civil rights, free speech, war, students’ rights, women’s rights, farm workers’ rights, Native American rights, gay rights, the environment, and poverty.
Concentrated study in a single area, topic, controversy, movement, or figure in rhetoric. This course may be repeated for credit when the topic differs. Prerequisites will vary by topic.
Russian
An introduction to the fundamentals of the language and culture with emphasis on communicative proficiency, clarity of pronunciation and basic skills in reading, writing, and conversation. Use of language laboratory required. Four hours of class each week, plus an additional conversation meeting with a native speaker.
An introduction to the fundamentals of the language and culture with emphasis on communicative proficiency, clarity of pronunciation and basic skills in reading, writing, and conversation. Use of language laboratory required. Four hours of class each week, plus an additional conversation meeting with a native speaker.
Completion of grammar; intensive readings from authentic materials in Russian with emphasis on continued development of conversational and writing skills. Required weekly conversation meeting with a native speaker.
An introduction to Russian verse with emphasis on further development of vocabulary and grammatical skills. Close readings of the texts will be augmented by lectures and supplementary material concerning the creative context that gave birth to them. Attention will also be given to poetic translation in theory and practice and to varying approaches to literary scholarship. All readings are in Russian.
Southern Appalachian Studies
Integrating local, regional, and global perspectives, this course outlines the history of agriculture, introduces the development of food systems and policy, and reviews the environmental impact of food production. Among topics addressed are the history of agricultural expansion in the US, the development of agriculture and food policies, interaction among agricultural markets at home as well as abroad, and sustainable agriculture. Classroom activities emphasize the involvement of multiple constituencies in identifying and articulating agricultural issues. Field opportunities include garden activities and local trips aimed at relating broader issues to how livelihoods are pursued on the Cumberland Plateau.