Divinities, Diviners and Divinations: Religions of the African Diaspora

Catalog description

This undergraduate course is designed to provide students with a broad introduction to major themes within African Diasporic Religions. This is an interdisciplinary course. We will be drawing upon various theoretical methods, i.e. historical, ethnographical, and autobiographical. Additionally, we will be examining visual media to understand the presence and value of African Diasporic Religions in the 20th/21st century. Special attention will be given to Vodou, Santeria, and Candomble in the Americas. Thematically, we will work through concepts of the diaspora; memory, myth and authenticity; ritual and material practices; borders, migration, gender and sexuality, religious commodities and exchange. As we traverse through these various religious traditions, it is through the readings, lectures, invited speakers, films and class discussions that we will develop a complex understanding of integrative religious worldviews that impacts every aspect of life: family structure, gender relations, education, healing, economics, politics, arts, and so on. It is with the hopes that we can apprehend how these traditions are indeed an American Religion.