RELS1 Syllabus: Introduction to Religious Studies: Section 9082: Whylly S

                

HP Lovecraft's Dagon                                                                   The fish god Dagon in Mesopotamian sculpture

RELS 1: Introduction to Religious Study/Study of Religion

Sections: 8705

Summer 2017

Canvas Course Site Address:  https://canvas.santarosa.edu/courses/16063

Contact Information

Instructor: Sarah Whylly  Classroom: On the Interwebs @ the Canvas hangout spot Email: swhylly@santarosa.edu Phone: 707.307.3034 (text only) Office: Canvas messaging system, email, phone or Conference tool (in Canvas) Office Hours: Mondays 8-9 pm & Wednesdays 8-9 pm; Also by appointment

 

Course Description

This course introduces the study of religion as a critical, academic discipline.  It will explore the meaning, origins and function of religion, and illustrate these by drawing on myths, rituals, symbols, and beliefs from cultures all over the globe and through human history.  The course will survey the evolution and content of various theories and methods in the study of religion, as well as career opportunities in the field.

 

Student Learning Outcomes:

 

1. Identify and explain various methods and theories used in explicating the meaning, origins, functions, and elements of religions.
2. Describe, compare and contrast corresponding elements of different kinds of religions from different parts of the world and different periods of history.
3. Demonstrate appreciation for the diversity of religious expression.

 

Objectives:

 

Upon completion of this course, students will be able to:

 

1.  Distinguish among differing kinds of approaches to the study of religion
2.  Identify the components of religious expression
3.  Evaluate religious claims and explanations
4.  Analyze the usefulness of definitions of religion
5.  Recognize large-scale patterns in religious belief and practice
6.  Organize various religions into taxonomies
7.  Support or challenge descriptions of religion with evidence drawn from a wide diversity of traditions

8.  Explain religious studies as a secular as well as a sacred enterprise
9.  Describe the human diversity reflected in religious phenomena, including expressions and contributions by people ancient and modern, Western and non-Western, literate and oral, and the place and perspectives of women

 

Course Component Terminology:

**This course is going to be run in a gamified format with elements of a multiplayer role-playing game. I will explain to all of you what this means as we progress but essentially we will be treating the work and activities of the class as part of a giant role-playing game. If you don’t know what this is, please don’t let that scare you, I am very patient and I guarantee we will have a lot of fun together. This is a course that allows you a great deal of imaginative freedom.**

 

Course Site: This is a Canvas course conducted online. Make sure you understand how to access the site for this course. We will go over some of the details of Canvas in class meetings and there will be tutorials posted to help you along. I will post any announcements for class on Canvas, and it should be checked at least 3-5 times a week.

 

XP – Experience points or, in other classes, points.

**Points for the course will be translated into XP or experience points.**

 

Guilds – Groups; I will be organizing you all into guilds.  You will need a name for your guild so this will be your first collective decision to make!

 

RPG – Role-playing game

 

Points Structure of the Course:

 

The student will, by doing the assigned work for the course, accumulate points which will determine the final grade.

 

Your grade will be based on XP you earn divided by the total number of XP possible from required assignments for the course.

 

As this is a three unit, UC transferrable course, the student is expected to do 6-9 hours of homework every week (2 hours outside class for every one hour inside class is the legal definition of a unit in a lecture class).

 

Learning Pathways:

There will be several avenues of learning in the course all of which can be found in the Modules area of our course site. 

Attendance and Participation Activities: You are expected to attend class regularly (be active on our course site) and attendance is monitored via login and activity on the Canvas site. Participation and presence for class discussion, lectures, and guild work is a significant portion of your grade for this class. You are expected to participate in this class. This includes being prepared to speak about the reading, asking me to clarify what you do not understand, playing games, interacting in guilds, competing for points, and responding to comments made by other students in lectures and during discussion. You are also expected to treat all of your classmates with respect during class discussions. You will find these in the Modules area of our Course site.

Reading: Most of the comprehension of the learning you will do in this course will come from careful reading of assigned texts and class discussion.  You will encounter a variety of writing styles in this class: philosophical essays, religious, and historical documents. You will also be analyzing works of literature and synthesizing materials written about culture with cultural products themselves. In the case of readings about mythology, you should learn to look for the author’s thesis, arguments, and key terms. If you encounter a term you do not recognize you should attempt to look it up and then ask about it in class. You should come to class with ideas about what point the author is trying to convey and how this point relates to other materials we have covered in the course.  You will find these assigned and linked in the Modules area of our Course site.

***A reading schedule will be available each week in the module for the week and all students are expected to have read the material listed. Multiple readings may be assigned and certain assignments pertain to specific readings so you may plan your work schedule accordingly.*** 

Short Writing Assignments: These will be geared toward helping you gain deeper understanding of the readings and why they are assigned. You will find that most of them have a practical applications aspect to them that is meant to help you understand how to put what you have learned to use. You will find the submission areas for these in the Modules area of our Course site.

Project-based Assignments: These are structured as guild activities and each may contain multiple components. All components will be clearly labelled and made available in the Module for the week they are assigned. Each project allows for students to work independently to complete a particular portion of the assignment and then bring their work to their guild-mates to construct the completed project. Two of the projects – the Mid-term and Final – will require at least one working (online) meeting with all guild-mates present so it will be wise to plan that as early as possible to ensure that all members can be present online at that time. You may conduct this meeting in the Conferences area (you can generate a room for your guild to work in). Instructions for how to do this will be provided in the project assignment description in the Modules they are assigned in.

Lectures/Online Meetings: These will be recorded and archived sessions in which I will be presenting and discussing material we are studying. You may attend these live (the more fun option) or you may watch the recorded live chat if you are unable to attend the live session. If you watch the recorded live chat there will be an additional lecture quiz assigned to you in the module.

 

Classwork and Homework Activities (This is how you earn XP):

 

Guild Work:

This is group work. You will be playing the role of a particular historical thinker who studied religion that I assign to you in the first week of class.  Your task will be to play the role of that person as best you can. Learn as much as you can about your particular thinker, their time period, and their personal lives. I will provide you some links and help materials so you will be able to do that research.  

Guild Tavern Discussions: These will be discussion forums where you will come together to answer a question or discuss a topic that you are assigned. You will be provided with a prompt and there will be a discussion forum available in the module. 

• 25-50 XP each 3-4 times per semester

Guild Activities: These will have a variety of formats and will come in the form of an assigned quest or adventure to do research and learn something new but will be described in detail with access provided to the tools needed to complete them in the module.

• 25-50 XP each 3-4 times per semester

Solo Adventures: 

Scroll Crafting (SSRPs or Super Short Response papers): I will ask you to submit a brief response to one of the readings in a full 2 pages, double-spaced, in 12 pt. font with 1 inch margins. Please do not include a header, Canvas will identify you when you upload these and it will be in the correct class. In this assignment, you should note a passage (paraphrased when more than 3 sentences) or quote (when 3 or less sentences) in one of the week’s readings, and say something about why you’d want to talk about in class. Why do you think it is significant, or why do you find it puzzling, or why do you want to praise it or curse it? You will need to include the title of the reading at the top and a page, chapter, verse, or section number as a reference from the reading so we can refer to it. If it is a webpage that doesn’t include any of these then please include the link. 

• 45 XP 1 time per week

Journal-keeping (Blogs): You will need to keep a blog for this class. This is a creative exercise. The posts for your blog can be about anything related to what we are learning in class. The post needs to be at least 3 full paragraphs and discuss what you are learning about the character you have been assigned. Each post should detail a little about the new things you have learned about them and their study of religion. In addition you may include pictures, links, videos, music, etc. that is relevant to the post. You may use any online blogging service that you like as long as you give me access to the blog. You may make it private otherwise. You will be provided instructions for how to create a blog through Google Blogger if you do not wish to use a service of your choosing.

• 30 XP 1 time per week

 

Adventure/Quest Exploration: Coming soon

• 50 XP 1x per semester

Raid Mode:

 Boss Battles – (Midterm & Final Projects): Twice during the semester you will be given a project that will require you to work with your guild-mates on a multi-step project that will involve both independent and guild work. These are the only 2 projects involving guild work for which you will need to schedule a synchronous meeting with your guild-mates so please plan accordingly and work together to find a time to meet in the Conference area in Canvas together.

• 150 XP in total with half of the points coming from independent work and half of the points coming from guild work done as a group 2 times during the semester

Grading:

SSRPs: 45 XP each 1x weekly

Blog Posts: 30 XP each 1 x weekly

Guild Activities (discussions/writing assignments): 25-50 XP each 3-4 times per semester

Dungeon Crawls (reading/lecture quizzes): 25-75 XP each bi-weekly (every other week)

Adventure/Quest Exploration: 50 XP 1x per semester

Guild Boss Battles (Midterm & Final): 150 XP each, 2x per semester

 

Total XP Needed Out of a 1000 XP Ranking:

Level	XP	Letter Grade
Master Dragon Slayer	1001 - 1100	A
Apprentice Dragon Slayer	901 - 1000	B
Dragon Stable Cleaner	756-900	C
Squirrel Tamer	650 - 755	D
Town Cryer	0 - 650	F

Required Class Materials:

All of your assigned readings will come from material available online although many of these are available in material print as well. The materials, in e-format, can be read on any device: Kindle, IPad, laptop, desktop; even most smartphones. I recommend purchasing the textbook through Amazon as it is very cheap and Amazon provides explicit instructions as to how to download the text. The following are required for purchase for this course:

• Scribd.com Membership ($8.99 per month) -- https://www.scribd.com/g/5yuqn Links to an external site. This will allow you to sign up for the service that will grant you access to our bookshelf for the course. Most assigned texts can be found here and links to the assigned reading to here will be provided in the modules. This link will get you 2 months free to start and that should be all you need to complete the course. Don’t forget to cancel at the end of the course!  The textbook we will be using for the course can be found on this site as a pdf although it is not listed in our collection. If you would like a hard copy of the textbook I recommend purchasing the Kindle version (all devices and computers can download the Kindle app; directions can be found in the Week 0 module) or renting it through Amazon:  https://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Study-Religion-Hillary-Rodrigues/dp/041540889X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1496721142&sr=8-1&keywords=Rodrigues+Introduction+to+the+Study+of+Religion Links to an external site.

 

• There will be other materials required for reading during the course, however, these will available as ebooks through the SRJC Library and posted, by me, on our Course Site. Please ensure that you are familiar with how to access and read ebooks through the SRJC Library website. This can be done either on or off-campus.

 

The Principles of Academic Freedom and the Code of Our Classroom

 

Teaching in the humanities is a very tricky business. I, or a student, may call something a “myth” that someone in the class believes is factually true. Some people’s beliefs may be offended or even directly refuted during this class. 

Below are some principles that are intended to govern the discussion and our interactions. These are important given we are in a diverse, pluralistic and secular institution (and society, according to the Constitution) and given that probably more people have been tortured and killed over religious beliefs than any other reason in the history of the world.

 

1. Academic Freedom - No opinion is taboo. No one in my class will ever be silenced on the basis of the content of an opinion they express. Grades will never be based on the content of one's opinion. Academic freedom is a core value; education (as opposed to indoctrination) cannot really happen without it. This applies equally to instructor and student.
2. Respect for Diversity While one may express any opinion in terms of its content, that freedom does not absolutely apply to the WAY something is said. I will not protect anyone from an offensive opinion. Indeed, one cannot simultaneously protect freedom of speech and freedom from offence. However, I will insist that opinions are expressed with respect for persons. You may argue against someone’s beliefs in class, but you may not ridicule them or put them down as a person or judge them based on their membership in a particular group or classification, real or imagined.
3. Academic rigor -  The basis of the class is that we engage in critical analysis of the religious ideas we study. It is not an “appreciation” class or a devotional study or spiritual exercise. Because of the analytical nature of the class, cherished beliefs might feel threatened regardless of the respectful intentions of the speaker. While no one will be silenced, or graded down because they express a particular opinion, everyone will be held accountable to give real evidence and valid arguments for their opinions. By argument I mean a series of reasons given to support a particular conclusion (belief). An argument is invalid if the reasons don’t actually support the conclusion. I’ll say more about this in class. By critical I mean the position that a claim, a belief, to be worthy of being accepted, must be made of good reasons and is subject to be judged as true/false, better/worse on the basis of the quality of the reasons given.
4. Academic Integrity for Instructors - It is my responsibility to distinguish personal conviction from professionally accepted views in the discipline and present data and information fairly and objectively. The student is urged to keep in mind from the get-go that “Professionally accepted views in the discipline” are not the same as “what I learned in Sunday school.” In fact, those two things are usually very different.
5. Academic Integrity for Students - It is your responsibility to do your own,

honest, research, study and writing, to back up what you claim with evidence and always cite- AND VERIFY when possible-- your sources. Cheating of any kind will not be tolerated. Copying another student’s work or committing plagiarism will result in automatic zero for the assignment (first offense). Repeat offenders are subject to automatic F for the course or even expulsion.

 

Thank you to my colleague Eric Thompson for his hard work in developing these guidelines.

 

The final requirement for this course….have fun! This course should inspire learning, make you think critically, spark creativity in whatever your career path happens to be, and provide enjoyment!

 

Students with Disabilities:

Students with Disabilities: Students with disabilities needing academic accommodations are encouraged to register with and provide documentation to the Student Disability Resources Department (SDRD). Please bring verification to class from the SDRD indicating your need and approval for academic accommodations. This should be done within the first week of class.

Please speak with me if you have any questions.

You can visit the Santa Rosa Disabilities Resources Department at the following link:

https://drd.santarosa.edu/ 

*The nature of religion is that it often concerns topics such as sex, violence (including rape), birth and/or death, amongst other things. We cannot avoid discussing them as they are a part of the history and philosophy of studying religion.  If you believe that any of these topics may be difficult for you, please make me aware of this ahead of time so that we can work together to make it as stress-free and instructive as possible but this will not mean that we can avoid these topics.