Courses:

Politics and Religion >> Content Detail



Syllabus



Syllabus



Course Overview


This course surveys recent social science literature on politics and religion. The first objective of the course is to familiarize students with the existing theoretical literature and empirical research. The second objective to evaluate recent research on the role of religious actors, institutions, and ideologies in policymaking, state-building, democratic politics, regime change, conflict, war, and other political processes.



Requirements


Because this course is primarily a reading seminar, class attendance and participation are crucial. Everyone is expected to complete the reading before class every week and to contribute actively to class discussions. "Cold calls" may sometimes be used, although comments contributed will only help, and not hurt, one's grade.

Participants will write five short response papers (750 - 1000 words) that critically discuss a given week's readings. You may also write more than five papers and drop the least successful one from your grade. To ensure unbiased grading, please put your name on a separate page at the end of the paper.

Each seminar participant is also expected to serve as discussion leader for a class session in a week for which they have not written a response paper.



Grading



ACTIVITIESPERCENTAGES
Response Papers50%
Class Participation40%
Leading Discussion10%



Calendar



WEEK #Topics
1Course Overview
2Social Scientific Approaches I
3Social Scientific Approaches II
4Modernization and Secularization
5Political Behavior and Democratic Politics
6Nationalism and State-Building I
7Nationalism and State-Building II
8Church-State Relations and Political Legitimacy
9Civil Society and Social Movements
10Clash of Civilizations?
11Terrorism
12Terrorism - Suicide Attacks

 








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