MTS Colloquium

Instructor: Amy Erickson, Associate Professor of Hebrew Bible and Director of the MTS Program

"The master's tools will never dismantle the master's house. They may allow us temporarily to beat him at his own game, but they will never enable us to bring about genuine change" ―Audre Lorde

An untitled quilt by Rosie Lee Tompkins from 1996 that combines pieces of a dish towel, sections of the American flag and a religious tapestry. Credit: UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Eli Leon Bequest.

2022 Colloquium Theme: Religioning Elsewhere

Goals of this course

-To understand the limits and problems built into the disciplines of religious studies and theology so as to begin to reconstruct our work and ourselves, our methods and our epistemologies (ways of knowing) in ways that are more just and compassionate.

-To perceive, see, hear, and feel ‘religion’ (what some might call implicit religion or embedded religion) differently, in ways that are lively, curious, and engaging

-To adopt creative approaches to the study of things religious or spiritual in nature in ways that emphasize the crossing of boundaries, embodiment, the sensoria, relationality, and/or attachment to places (land, flora, fauna)

-To depict ‘religion’ differently through writing or through visual or aural expressions or through the development of rituals or practices

To these ends, we’ll be reading, viewing, and listening to a variety of writers, artists, and scholars, some of whom work in the field of religion and some of whom do not. The question before us will be, how might we more deeply engage and re-enliven the study, experience, and practice of what we have traditionally called religion, theology, spirituality, etc.

Over the course of the quarter, we’ll spend some time on the history of the problem baked into the discipline of religious studies and the related disciplines (theology, biblical studies). In other words, we’ll be thinking about the fields’ key assumptions and the ways in which the study of religion and the discipline of theology grew up within a matrix of colonization and empire. What this means is that even as attempts are made at redress, working within these disciplines requires a healthy degree of skepticism and concerted efforts to construct different approaches. Practicing the discipline (being disciplined by the discipline) in traditional ways leads to the re-inscription of assumptions, hierarchies, and habits that are intensely destructive. That said, our focus will be constructive or generative rather than strictly deconstructive or critical. By reading poetry, delving into good literature, looking at powerful works of art, and seeing our own world differently, we will engage the study of religion and theology in ways that largely ignore the traditional disciplinary boundaries that have defined the field. We’ll talk about how to encounter and analyze religion in the world in more open ways, how to think about and study what interests us (traditionally called methods and approaches or theories and methods), and how to express ourselves in ways that are compelling and accessible to a range of particular audiences and communities.

In our search for religion outside houses of worship, we might embrace the sentiment expressed in Rebecca Solnit’s A Field Guide to Getting Lost -- “How will you go about finding that thing the nature of which is totally unknown to you?” she asks, quoting a speaker in Plato’s dialogue, Meno . The answer, Solnit writes, is to practice getting lost; to submit to a kind of “voluptuous surrender.”

Books

Please purchase or borrow:

1. David Chidester. Religion: Material Dynamics . Oakland, CA: University of California Press, 2018.

2. One of the following novels by Toni Morrison: Sula , Song of Solomon , Beloved , or Paradise (you'll be doing a short presentation on your chosen novel mid-quarter).

3. Nadra Little, Toni Morrison's Spiritual Vision: Faith, Folktales, and Feminism in Her Life and Literature . Minneapolis: Fortress, 2021.

4. One memoir (choose from the list below).

Suh, Sharon A. Occupy This Body: A Buddhist Memoir . Nepean, Ontario : The Sumeru Press Inc., 2019; Coleman, Monica A. Bipolar Faith: A Black Woman's Journey in Depression and Faith . Minneapolis : Fortress Press, 2016; Pagels, Elaine H. Why Religion?: A Personal Story . New York : Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, 2020. ©2018; Harjo, Joy. Poet Warrior: A Memoir . New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company, 2021; or Harjo, Crazy Brave ; Hogan, Linda . The Woman Who Watches Over the World: A Native Memoir . New York: W.W. Norton, 2002.

Other readings will be available in PDF form or in embedded links.

Participation in Weekly Discussions. 30%

We will collaborate on your participation grade. To that end, please submit a participation self-evaluation at the end of the quarter.

Please note this Iliff Policy: Online attendance is based on participation in class activities. Interacting with the instructor, interacting with other students, attending required on-campus meetings and/or submitting course assignments all constitute attendance. Attendance for the online classes follows the same policy as residential and hybrid classes. An online class absence is identified as a missed assignment or inactivity in the course site in discussion posts and other assignments. It is up to the instructor to determine their specific grading and attendance standards, which is listed in their syllabus. Students should access their courses regularly to remain current regarding expected due dates and assignments.

Novel Presentation. 20%

Religious/Spiritual Autobiography. 20%

Final Paper. 30%

Posts to discussions that have ended will not be accepted. The point of the forums is for students to have conversations about what they're learning. If you don't show up for the conversation when it's happening, you miss out. Also, getting behind and trying to catch up as the course continues to move ahead increases stress. If you miss a forum, move on. If necessary, you may miss one forum without penalty.

Other assignments submitted late are marked down at the rate of a grade per day unless you worked out an extension with the instructor.

No incompletes. Unless there are extenuating circumstances, which "typically include a death of a loved one, an unforeseen medical emergency of the student or immediate family member, students with granted ADA accommodations, or other substantive changes" (that's from the Masters Student Handbook)

Iliff Policies 

Residential, Hybrid, and Online Class Attendance

Class attendance and class participation is an integral part of the degree programs. Absence from classes equivalent to 20% of course work (two weeks for a ten-week course) is grounds for suspension from a course with WF (Withdrawal Failing) recorded on the transcript. 

Students must be present within the first two class meetings for residential courses or be present within the Friday of the second week for online/hybrid classes.

If not, student will be dropped from class and the financial policy for dropping courses will be applied. Student, who wants to stay in the class, must petition for the instructor’s permission and the highest eligible grade to be received for the class is a B+.

A student may petition via the Academic Requirement Petition form (Links to an external site.), which must be signed by the instructor and submitted to the student's academic advisor. The Academic Vice-President/Dean will make the final decision after reviewing the petition. 

Online attendance is based on participation in class activities. Interacting with the instructor, interacting with other students, attending required on-campus meetings and/or submitting course assignments all constitute attendance. Attendance for the online classes follows the same policy as residential and hybrid classes. An online class absence is identified as a missed assignment or inactivity in the course site in discussion posts and other assignments. It is up to the instructor to determine their specific grading and attendance standards, which is listed in their syllabus. Students should access their courses regularly to remain current regarding expected due dates and assignments.

Hybrid courses require on-campus class attendance in addition to online attendance. On-campus hours and schedules are posted on the syllabus and within the course description. Students are responsible for making travel arrangements to ensure their presence for all of the hours required on-campus for hybrid courses. Since there are multiple hybrid courses offered at the same time, students are responsible for ensuring they do not schedule course conflicts. Students unable to attend hybrid sessions will need to submit a petition to the Dean and the instructor of the course. Petitions are rarely granted, except for rare emergencies, and in most cases, the student will need to drop the course, or receive a failing grade, when they miss the required on-campus class meetings.

You don't need more than a well organized, short paragraph (3-4 sentences) to say something substantial. 

Throughout the quarter, we will have several discussions which will compose a large part of our engagement with each other in this online learning space. For these discussions to be meaningful conversation spaces, we all need to take responsibility for consistent and substantial participation. Instead of grading discussions based on number of words posted or on frequency, we will assess discussions based on the degree to which you substantially engage in the conversation each week. Over the course of a conversation, substantial engagement means:

1. Extend the conversation - creatively and critically push the conversation forward, do not just regurgitate what has already been said. If 1 or 2 other students have already responded directly to instructor provided prompts for the week, do not simply write another response to the prompts unless it adds something new to the conversation. You need to extend the conversation by adding an additional or different insight from the course materials, by asking a new question that stems from one of the posts already offered, by offering a related and contextualized example of the issue being discussed from your own experience, or by creatively integrating your own perspective with what has already been posted. 
2. Ask contextualized questions - situate your questions within the discussion by referencing the course materials and other parts of the conversation thread that inform your inquiry. Give us a little background as to why this question matters to you and how it relates to the course.
3. Engage others in the course - thoughtful engagement with other students in the course and with the instructional team. 
4. Engage the course materials - thoughtful engagement with readings, lectures, student presentations, and any other materials related to the course.Referencing and citing course materials in your posts where appropriate is encouraged. 

Each post need not do all of these things, but your overall participation in each conversation should demonstrate all of these components. You might have several short posts and a handful of longer posts in a week or you might have only a few strategic substantial posts. Either way, your overall participation in each conversation will be evaluated for substantial engagement. The goal of this discussion design is to encourage and reward interchange, so post often and engage each other with meaningful questions that open to other questions.

“Religion is about a certain about. What religion is about, however, remains obscure for it is never quite there—nor is it exactly not there. Religion is about what is always slipping away. It is, therefore, impossible to grasp what religion is about—unless, perhaps, what we grasp is the impossibility of grasping.” --Mark C. Taylor, About Religion: Economies of Faith in Virtual Culture

Felipe Jesús Consalvos, “Here's America (Aquí está América),” c. 1920-1950, mixed media collage. Andrew Edlin Gallery

Office Hours : Wednesdays, 4-5 (MT). Exception = the Wed of Gathering Days (2/9): Join Zoom Meeting https://iliff-edu.zoom.us/j/99621821474?pwd=Q2kxZnN1cEVZT0xyYWtWUVFOQ2hNUT09