Fall Quarter 2019 Expanded Course Descriptions

Please click here to see the schedule (and discussion section instructor information) as a PDF

Course days, times, locations, and CRNs can all be found on the posted PDF schedule as well as the class search tool: http://classes.ucdavis.edu


Religious Studies 001B. Death and Afterlife (4 units)
Seth Sanders

Course Description: Introduction to comparative religion, focusing on the theme of death and the afterlife in different religious traditions.

Prerequisite: None.

GE credit (New): Arts & Humanities, Oral Literacy, Visual Literacy, World Cultures and Writing Experience.

Format: Lecture - 3 hours; Discussion - 1 hour.

Textbooks:

  • TBA

Religious Studies 001G. Myth, Ritual, and Symbolism (4 units)
Naomi Janowitz

Course Description: How do different religions define and understand what it means to be a good person? What do they define as taboo or permitted?  How do they construct their views of appropriate vs perverse modes of sexuality? What is the role of fetish objects? No prerequisites.

Prerequisite: None.

GE credit (New): Arts & Humanities, Oral Literacy, Visual Literacy, World Cultures and Writing Experience.

Format: Lecture - 3 hours; Discussion - 1 hour.

Textbooks:

  • Émile Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of Religious Life, translated by Carol Cosman  (Oxford University Press, 2008)
  • Euripides, Bacchae, translated by Paul Woodruff  (Hackett Publishing, 1998)

Religious Studies 010. Crime and Punishment in the Contemporary United States (2 units)
Allison Coudert

CRN 62885

Course Description: This class will explore the myths, misconceptions, and half-truths that pervade our view of the criminal justice system and riddle the so-called “war on crime.” Can we build our way out of crime by constructing more and more prisons? Do harsh sentencing and an emphasis on deterrence in such programs as “Three Strikes and You’re Out” actually reduce crime? Why are more people of color imprisoned for drug offenses when white Americans are more likely than black Americans or Hispanics to have used most kinds of illegal drugs, including cocaine, marijuana and LSD? Why are 2/3 of those serving life sentences African-Americans and Hispanics? And why is white-collar crime much less likely to be prosecuted than blue-collar crime? How is it possible that the US has the world’s highest rate of incarceration but the industrial world’s highest levels of deadly violence? In 2013 14,827 people were murdered in the US. This is 5 times the homicide rate in France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Denmark, 10 times that of Australia and 11 times that of Japan. Are guns the problem? These are just some of the contentious and very complex issues that have polarized and continue to polarize Americans over the issue of crime and punishment.

Prerequisite: None.

GE credit (New): Arts & Humanities and Writing Experience.

Format: Lecture - 2 hours.

Textbooks:

  • All readings will be provided online.

Religious Studies 010A. Contemporary Ethical Issues - Discussion (2 units)

Course Description: Discussion of the readings assigned for RST 010 and completion of a research paper. May be repeated for credit.

Prerequisite: Concurrent enrollment in RST 010.

GE credit (New): Arts & Humanities and Writing Experience.

Format: Discussion - 1 hour; Writing.

Textbooks:

  • None.

Religious Studies 030. Religions of South Asia (4 units)
Jamal Jones

Course Description: Introduction to South Asian religions, including Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Jainism and Sikhism. Traces historical developments from Vedic texts and their ascetic reformulation by sages such as Yajnavalkya, Siddhartha Gautama, and Mahavira into our global present.

Prerequisite: None.

GE credit (New): Arts & Humanities, Visual Literacy, World Cultures and Writing Experience.

Format: Lecture - 3 hours; Discussion - 1 hour.

Textbooks:

  • TBA

Religious Studies 040. New Testament (4 units)
Wendy Terry

 

Course Description: This course is an introduction to the study of earliest Christianity, and of the documents that came to be understood as a "New Testament" in the early centuries of Christian history. In order to understand these documents, we will be looking at many different aspects of the contexts in which they were written. Students will come to an understanding of how Christian thought emerged from: the political situation of Judaism in Roman Palestine; the intellectual and cultural situation of Judaism in the wider Hellenistic and Roman world; Greek and Roman religions and philosophies; Greek and Roman literary genres. Students will also learn the basic methods of modern New Testament studies, in order to understand why the academic study of the New Testament takes the shape that it does, and why New Testament scholars ask the questions that they ask.

Prerequisite: None.

GE credit (New): Arts & Humanities, World Cultures and Writing Experience.

Format: Lecture - 3 hours; Discussion - 1 hour.

Textbook:

  • Luke Timothy Johnson, The Writings of the New Testament [3rd Edition]  (Fortress Press, 2010)

Religious Studies 132. Topics in Ancient Mediterranean Religion (4 units)
Seth Sanders

CRN 63806

Course Description: Thematic study of specific sociological, literary or theological theme across the religious traditions of the ancient Mediterranean/Near East: Greek and Roman religions, Judaism, Christianity, Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism, etc. Topics may include creation, sacrifice, priesthoods, prophecies, holy books, the afterlife. May be repeated for credit up to two times when topic differs.

Prerequisite: Consent of instructor (ssanders@ucdavis.edu).

GE credit (New): Arts & Humanities, World Cultures and Writing Experience.

Format: Lecture/Discussion - 3 hours; Term Paper.

Textbooks:

  • TBA

Religious Studies 150. Religious Ethics (4 units) 
Wendy Terry

CRN 63791

Course Description: Study of the religious bases of ethics through examination of ethical problems that arise in different religious cultures around the world and in nations where multiple religious cultures face similar issues.

Prerequisite: Religious Studies 010 recommended.

GE credit (New): Arts & Humanities, World Cultures and Writing Experience.

Format: Lecture/Discussion - 3 hours; Term Paper.

Textbooks:

  • TBA

Religious Studies 154. The Hindu Temple (4 units)        [Cross-listed with AHI 154]
Layne Little

CRN 62894

Course Description: Comparative history of architecture and symbolism of the Hindu Temple in India, Southeast Asia and the United States. Attention to the temple as expression of religious knowledge, political authority, and cultural heritage through the lens of colonialism and postcolonialism.

Prerequisite: None.

GE credit (New): Arts & Humanities or Social Sciences; Visual Literacy, World Cultures and Writing Experience.

Format: Lecture - 3 hours; Term Paper.

Textbooks:

  • TBA
Documents