2025-2026 Fall/Winter
RLG350H5S - Topics in Islam: TBA (Instructor: S. Virani)
TBA
RLG360H5S - Topics in South Asian Religions: Key Notions of South-Asian Religions (Instructor: C. Chojnacki)
This course presents the richness and complexity of concepts that appear to be common to Indian religions, but have undergone constant evolution and differentiation (e.g. dharma, karma). It then concentrates on an analysis of the three main paths leading to deliverance (deeds, asceticism, devotion) with specific aspects selected from the Indian religions, but with particular focus on Jainism.
RLG370H5F - Topics in Buddhism: Buddhist Art and Material Culture (Instructor: S. Richardson)
This course will investigate the history and development of Buddhist art and material culture with a special focus on the early and medieval periods. Understanding art as an important practice this course will examine how art shaped and reflected Buddhist communities across Asia.
RLG401H5F - Advanced Topics in Religion and the Literary, Visual, and Performing Arts: Gold, Stone, Crystal, Clay: The Stuff of Religion in Asia (Instructor: S. Richardson)
In this course we will learn about categories of materials and characteristics of objects while exploring issues surrounding materiality in the religious arts, focusing in the context of premodern and early modern South and East Asia. We will be seeking to understand how specific materials shaped possibilities and outcomes of artistic expressions in Asia, and enrich our understanding of how materiality shapes human experience. Reading contemporary theories in material culture studies, including new materialist perspectives on the vibrancy and potency of things, we will explore new object-oriented ontologies that challenge divisions between animate and inanimate objects, theorize their agencies, and fundamentally question the superiority of humans over all other forms of being.
RLG470H5S - Advanced Topics in Buddhism: Buddhist Life Writing: Biography and Autobiography (Instructor: S. Richardson)
This course seeks to understand the structures, meanings, and patterns of Buddhist life writing, and the enduring popularity of personal narrative stories in the context of Buddhism. The goal of this course is to read Buddhist biography and autobiography to shed light on some of the many meanings of living an exemplary Buddhist life, particularly as interpreted in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. We will read Buddhist biographies and autobiographies from India and Tibet and probe the narrative themes of these writings.