Description
This class is designed to introduce students to the role religion plays in creating and maintaining culture through such popular venues as motion pictures, television, sports and fashion, as well as the impact religious values have on popular cultural expressions. As a system upon which cosmos construction and maintenance is dependent, religion in the form of religious actions and values are expressed in everyday behavior. This manifestation of religion is the subject of this investigation into how and why it is such an integral part of popular expression, and why it is often overlooked. Time will be spent exploring the nature of contemporary society for clues explaining this phenomenon. Much of the instruction will depend on the investigation of examples of religion in contemporary popular culture, though historical and theoretical grounding will be provided in the readings and class discussions. Emphasis will be placed on specific examples explored in class, though you will be encouraged to draw from materials that you encounter outside the classroom, including music, motion pictures, print media, and television episodes.
In addition, because this course is listed as both RELST and WES200, you are reminded that the Wesleyan Seminars are an immersion into liberal arts education. Within the seminars, students will learn how to identify complex problems and issues, consult expert sources, question assumptions, consider disparate points of view, develop complex personal positions, and present conclusions. The three seminars are progressively more sophisticated in their approaches and expectations.
Seminars are not merely places where knowledge is imparted, but where it is exchanged and created. To successfully complete a seminar, you need to engage actively with the course material, me, and your classmates. As a community of learners, we will work together to explore and consider our topic from a number of different perspectives. Each person’s participation is crucial.
Goals
By the end of the semester, you should be:
⇒ familiar with a variety of methods used in the study of religion and culture;
⇒ able to recognize the way in which culture expresses traditional religious symbols and ideas;
⇒ able to recognize how religion has adjusted to accommodate cultural changes in late twentieth-century American society; and
⇒ able to recognize the pervasiveness of religion as a mechanism for culture-building and culture-maintenance.
Because this class is listed as both RELST & WES200, you should also achieve “AAC&U [Association of American Colleges & University] milestone level 3 standards”:
◊ “Critically consider an issue or problem”;
◊ “Consult sources and consider expert opinions”;
◊ “Question assumptions and attend to relevant contexts when presenting a position”;
◊ “Develop a specific position while acknowledging different sides of an issue”; and
◊ “Articulate conclusions effectively before an audience.”
NOTE: WES Seminar II courses may be used to count towards a major; however, if you do so you will have to complete another Seminar II to complete your general studies requirements.
Texts & Readings
We will be reading the following texts. You may purchase them wherever you wish, but you are solely responsible for purchasing the correct titles (and edition).
⇒ Bloomsbury Reader in the Study of Religion and Popular Culture, edited by Lisle W. Dalton, Eric Michael Mazur, and Richard J. Callahan, Jr. [Reader]
⇒ Routledge Companion to Religion & Popular Culture, edited by John C. Lyden and Eric Michael Mazur. [Companion]
Additional materials may be assigned as the course progresses.
I COMMUNICATE MOST OFTEN VIA ELECTRONIC MAIL. YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR CHECKING FOR ANY RECENT IMPORTANT INFORMATION TRANSMITTED ELECTRONICALLY.
IN ADDITION, YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR COMPLETING ALL OF THE READINGS. I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR FAILURE TO OBTAIN READINGS OR READING ASSIGNMENTS THAT ARE DISTRIBUTED IN CLASS.
Evaluation
Class Participation (10% + 20% + 10% = 40%)
Your grade in this category will be evaluated in three ways:
⇒ Attendance (10%): You are expected to attend all scheduled classes. Your grade will be calculated by dividing the number of classes attended by the total number of classes. There are no exceptions; there are no excuses.
⇒ Discussion participation (20%): You are expected to participate fully in regular discussions, and engage the materials in class. Regular and thoughtful participation in class, as well as enthusiastic participation in the assignments, will be rewarded in this category. Mindless blather will not.
⇒ Reading presentation (10%): At least once during the term you will be called upon to initiate discussion of the reading due for that day’s class. You will be expected to summarize the reading and answer a few initial questions related to the significance, meaning, or application of the ideas presented in that reading.
Social Media Project (20% + 20% + 10% + 20% = 60%)
You will be building an analysis of a pop. cultural product using the tools and instruction provided in class.
⇒ Part I (20%) – Website description: By the date identified in the “Schedule of Readings & Assignments,” you will identify a social media personality (with more than 50,000 followers) and submit a written description of that personality and the nature of the programming (topics covered, specific and general interests of the personality). [NOTE: Remember that materials created by this personality may be carried on more than one social media platform.]
Your submitted description of the social media personality should be between 3 and 5 pages long (or about 750-1250 words, double-spaced, in 12-point font, with 1-inch margins). It should be submitted to me via email (emazur@vwu.edu).
PROMPT: How would you describe this social media personality to your grandparents? What does the personality offer to the viewer? What does the personality expect in return?
⇒ Part II (20%) – Theory description: By the date identified in the “Schedule of Readings & Assignments,” you will select one of the theories from the Bloomsbury Reader in the Study of Religion and Popular Culture and write a brief description of that theory. Include possible circumstances in which that theory could be used.
Your submitted theory description should be between 3 and 5 pages long (or about 750-1250 words, double-spaced, in 12-point font, with 1-inch margins). It should be submitted to me via email (emazur@vwu.edu).
PROMPT: How would you explain your chosen theory to a friend who is not taking this class? What example (or examples) from the Routledge Companion to Religion & Popular Culture might you use to illustrate that theory?
⇒ Part III (20%) – Integration: By midnight of the last day of J-Term, you will submit a complete final paper providing an analysis of your description of the social media personality (Part I) using your chosen theory (Part II).
The final paper is expected to be 5 and 10 pages long (approximately 1250-2500 words, double spaced, 1″ margins, 12-point font), and should integrate Parts I and II of the Social Media Project. It should be submitted to me via email (emazur@vwu.edu).
PROMPT: Using standard academic procedures, rhetoric, and format, how would you analyze your chosen social media personality? In what ways does that theory provide insight into possible connections between your chosen social media personality and religion in contemporary American popular culture?
The final report needs to demonstrate student engagement with the Wesleyan Seminar objectives (listed above).
