IST3068-1-FA15 - Sexualities & Relig/African Diaspora

Instructor: Prof. Jennifer S. Leath

Course Synopsis

What do sexualities, religion, and African diaspora have to do with one another?  This course explores this distinctive intersection and invites class participants to imagine constructive discursive futures with respect these three spaces.

The following dialogue provides some perspectives for our consideration of what is at stake in the work that this course proposes.  What values do you share with the participants of the panel discussion linked below?  What are some values that you do not share?  What is at stake in promotion of the values of the participants?  How are *you* a part of the conversation?

Course Overview

Contemplating the evolving expressions of Afro-Diasporic Christianity, Islam, and African indigenous spiritualities from the Transatlantic Slave Trade to the present – and exploring twentieth century emergences of Buddhism and alternative religious expressions among Afro-Diasporic individuals and communities, this course acquaints students with a broad landscape of Afro-Diasporic sexual ethics as it relates to personhood through the lenses of diverse religious traditions.  Methodologically, this class challenges students to identify, parse, deconstruct, and reconstruct ethical perspectives that calcify as a result of sexualized, gendered, class-oriented, racialized terror and pleasure.  Emphasizing the experiences and scholarship of Afro-Diasporic women, this course also invites students to uncover ways that religions and sexualities can be (re)imagined in terms of praxis to contravene iterations of racial, sexual, gender, class-based, and religious violences.  Students are prepared to engage in the constructive work of designing Afro-futurist discursive approaches to diverse social phenomena that develop in tandem with expressions of sexuality and religion in African Diaspora.

Course Objectives

1. To reflect on the intersections of race, gender, sexuality, and religion and the relationship of these to personhood.
2. To identify, articulate, and analyze ethical frameworks functioning in diverse disciplines – in micro- and macro-social form – and informing dominant narratives of the intersections of race, gender, sexuality, and religion.
3. To integrate social and moral histories of Afro-Diasporic women’s and men’s sexuality across chronological and disciplinary boundaries and borders.
4. To form an understanding of contemporary Afro-Diasporic women’s and men’s sexual ethics and the particular challenges that remain.
5. To imagine the intersections between race, gender, sexuality, and religion through new social interventions that disrupt violence and are grounded in human dignity.

You will be evaluated according to Iliff School of Theology standards. For more information see: iliff.edu  

Your grade will be determined as follows:

• Preparedness, Participation, Attendance: 10%
• Two Discussant Papers: 20% each
• Two Response Papers: 12% each
• Moral Mapping Project: 10%
• Final Presentation: 16%

Assignment Description

• Completion of reading assignments prior to the first class meeting of the week for which the readings are assigned – including reading the week’s discussant’s response paper.
• Active participation and punctual attendance for the class sessions.
• Leading Discussion. You are responsible for being the discussant for two (2) of the course weeks.  This entails writing a response paper that you will post on Canvas – and email directly to me (jleath@iliff.edu) (7 page, doubled-spaced, 12 point font).  Following the formal respondent, each discussant is asked to respond and provide the class with discussion questions and at least five (5) additional resources that connect the text to broader themes of the course.  Each paper should:
  • identify and explain one central ethical dilemma discussed in the week’s reading,
  • explain how this element involves race, gender, sexuality, and religion,
  • explain what makes this element compelling and/or problematic for a (normative) ethic of Afro-Diasporic sexuality and religion,
  • identify and creatively cite two related scholarly texts (i.e. books or articles), and
  • specify three critical questions you would like the class to consider (related to the course objectives).
  • These papers must be submitted no later than 9.00p on the Thursday before the class session for which your text has been assigned.  Failure to submit this paper ON TIME will result in a 2 grade per day penalty (e.g., from an A to a C if the paper is submitted on Friday).
• Discussion Responses. You are responsible for responding to the discussant for two (2) of the course weeks.  This entails writing a response to the discussion leader’s paper posted on Canvas  (2 page, doubled-spaced, 12 point font). You will be responsible for presenting this response during the class meeting.  These discussion responses should be posted on Canvas prior to the start of the class during which they will be presented.

• Moral Mapping Project. You are responsible for “mapping your moral universe.” This course invites you to participate in both the theoretical work and praxes of philosophical and practical/applied ethics.  Toward this end, you will be asked to complete a chart that does the following:  (Due 3 November 2015)
  • specifies your intersectional identities – with an emphasis on the course subject matter,
  • identifies and explains your perspective on the world around you – especially in relation to those identities (i.e., what is right/wrong/complicated in the world vis-à-vis the identity markers you have identified),
  • articulates (more) normative/ideal conditions vis-à-vis the identity markers you have identified, and
  • articulates what you are willing to do to impact change with respect to the “problems” you have identified.
• group presentations. Groups will be formed on 15 September 2015.  Each group will identify a text/work/project related to both sexualities and religions in the African Diaspora on which the group will focus its study and final presentation for the semester.  (This can be a text from the course, a work of art, a media project, a place of worship, an organization, or some other “object” of study.  However, the group’s focal text/work/project must be specified and a 1-page group progress report must be submitted by the 20 October 2015 at 9.00p.)  The selected text/work/project will provide a foundation for the presentation that should:
  • demonstrate thoughtful engagement with the text/work/project you have selected;
  • provide descriptive analysis of the sexual ethics reflected in the text/work/project you have selected;
  • provide a comparative analysis of one theme covered in the course and the treatment of that theme through the text/work/project you have selected;
  • imagine and convey one element of counterhegemonic sexual ethic directly or indirectly inspired by the text/work/project you have selected;
  • creatively engage the classroom.

Degree Learning Goals: Please take some time to look over the Professional Degree Learning Goals (MDiv, MASC, MAPSC) and the Academic Degree Learning Goals (MTS, MA).

Incompletes:  If incompletes are allowed in this course, see the Master's Student Handbook for Policies and Procedures.

Pass/Fail:  Masters students wishing to take the class pass/fail should discuss this with the instructor by the second class session.

Academic Integrity and Community Covenant:  All students are expected to abide by Iliff’s statement on Academic Integrity, as published in the Masters Student Handbook, or the Joint PhD Statement on Academic Honesty, as published in the Joint PhD Student Handbook, as appropriate.  All participants in this class are expected to be familiar with Iliff’s Community Covenant.

Accommodations:  Iliff engages in a collaborative effort with students with disabilities to reasonably accommodate student needs.   Students are encouraged to contact their assigned advisor to initiate the process of requesting accommodations.  The advising center can be contacted at advising@iliff.edu or by phone at 303-765-1146. 

Writing Lab:  Grammar and organization are important for all written assignments.  Additional help is available from the Iliff Writing Lab, which is available for students of any level who need help beginning an assignment, organizing thoughts, or reviewing a final draft. 

Inclusive Language:  It is expected that all course participants will use inclusive language in speaking and writing, and will use terms that do not create barriers to classroom community.