THE
FACULTY SENATE
Senate Document Number 5909S
Date of Senate Approval 03/19/09
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Statement
of Faculty Senate Action:
APC Document 45: Establish a new major in
Religious Studies;
Change the minor
requirements for Religious Studies
Add new courses: RELS 200, 215, 280, 302, 303, 312, 313,
330, 354, 381, 386, 387, 388, 420 and 490
1. Delete: On
page 248, the entire catalog entry under Religious
Studies (RELS)
Add:
On page 248, in place of
deleted entry:
Associate Professor Payne (Chair); Assistant
Professor Zubko
Participating Faculty:
The Department of Religious Studies seeks to engage students in the
study of religion as an academic discipline within the broader tradition of the
liberal arts. As a field of humanistic inquiry, the study of religion at UNC
Asheville investigates both the development and contemporary significance of
the human religious experience from interdisciplinary perspectives that
incorporate a variety of methodological approaches.
Major in
Religious Studies
I.
Required courses in the major – 33 hours, including: RELS
200, 280, 312, 313, 490; 3 hours from courses listed under Religions of the
West; 3 hours from courses listed under Religions of Asia; 3 hours from courses
listed under Interdisciplinary Approaches to Religion; and 9 hours of electives
chosen from other RELS courses or courses in the above categories. No more than
6 hours of approved electives may come from a single department, and at least
18 of the required 33 hours must be at the 300-400 level. Approved electives
may be applied toward category distribution requirements as indicated below.
The program chair may approve additional courses when the subject matter is
appropriate to Religious Studies.
II.
Required courses outside the major– None.
III.
Other departmental requirements – Completion of RELS 490
with a C or better demonstrates major, oral, and computer competencies.
Religions of the West
CLAS 101 Latin I (3)
CLAS 103 Greek I (3)
CLAS 105 Hebrew I (3)
CLAS 250 Mythology (3)
CLAS 365 Introduction
to the Hebrew Bible (3)
HIST 343 History
of Christianity (3)
LIT 360 Modern Jewish
Writers (3)
LIT 365 Introduction to
the Hebrew Bible (3)
PHIL 255 Medieval
Philosophy (3)
POLS 329 Religion
and Politics in the
RELS 215 Judaism and
Christianity in the Ancient World (3)
RELS 354 Greek and Roman
Religion (3)
RELS 387 Judaism
(3)
RELS 388 Introduction to
Islam (3)
RELS 420 Religion and
Southern Culture (3)
Religions of
PHIL 313 Oriental
Philosophy (3)
RELS 381 Religions
of
RELS 386 Buddhism
(3)
Interdisciplinary Approaches to Religion
ANTH 100 Introduction to
Cultural Anthropology (3)
PHIL 200 Introduction
to Ethical Theory (3)
RELS 302 Sociology of
Religion (3)
RELS 303 Philosophy of
Religion (3)
RELS 330 Women and Religion
(3)
Declaration of Major in Religious Studies
Declaring
a major in Religious Studies requires the student to complete a Declaration of Major
form that must be signed by the department chair. Before declaring a major,
students must satisfy the LANG 120 requirement.
Minor in Religious Studies
18 hours distributed as
follows: RELS 200; 302 or 303; 381, at least 3 hours from courses listed under
Religions of the West; and 6 hours of electives chosen from among other RELS
courses or the list of approved courses. No more than 6 hours of approved
electives may come from a single department, and at least 9 hours must be at
the 300-400 level. The department chair may approve additional courses when the
subject matter is appropriate to Religious Studies.
Courses in Religious Studies (RELS)
200 Introduction to the Study of Religion (3)
A thematic introduction to
the academic study of religion: concepts of the sacred, myths and rituals, ways
of being religious, and ideas of the afterlife. Fall.
215 Judaism and
Christianity in the Ancient World (3)
A comparative examination
of the development of Judaism and Christianity in the ancient world, with
primary emphasis on the period between the establishment of Second Temple
Judaism and the rise of Islam. See department chair.
280 Asian
Religious Traditions (3)
A comparative examination of the development of the
religious traditions that originated in south and east Asia, including
Hinduism, Buddhism, Daoism, and Confucianism. See department chair.
302 Sociology of
Religion (SOC 302) (3)
Draws on the intellectual tradition within the discipline
of understanding religion as a social and cultural phenomenon. Looks into the
complex nature of religion and explores the social conditions and processes
which account for diverse religious phenomena including religiosity, religious
organizations, conflict and change, religious pluralism, and the relationships
between religion and other social institutions. Spring.
303 Philosophy of
Religion (PHIL 303) (3)
Topics include questions about the existence of God,
the problem of evil, revelation and faith, religious experience, and
immortality. Spring.
312 Religion in
A survey
of the role of religion in American history and culture. Topics include Native
religions and the European missions; Puritanism; religion in the founding era; evangelicalism
and revivalism; Catholic immigration; slave religions and religious abolitionism;
religion and the Civil War. Fall.
313 Religion
in
Topics include postbellum revivalism; science and fundamentalism; Jewish immigration;
new African American religions; Catholicism; and contemporary diversities.
Spring.
330 Women
and Religion (3)
This comparative course
focuses on how women create and negotiate religious identities and space for
themselves within the world’s religious traditions. Topics include creation
myths, bodies and sexuality, narrative and performance traditions, rituals,
leadership and agency, and feminist critiques and methodologies. See department
chair.
354 Greek and
Roman Religion (CLAS 354) (3)
Introduces students to the religions of the Greek and
Roman worlds. Religious practices and beliefs will be considered in a wide
range of literary, artistic and archaeological sources. Even years Fall.
381 Religions of
A study of the history, beliefs and practices of the
major indigenous religions of south Asia (Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism, Buddhism)
as well as their development in relation to imported traditions such as Islam
and Christianity. See department chair.
386 Buddhism (3)
A study of the life of the Buddha and his teachings
as they influenced and transformed the cultures of South and Southeast Asia,
China, Japan and the modern West. Topics
include meditation, the participation of women, “socially engaged Buddhism” and
Buddhist views on ecology, war, and human rights. See department chair.
387 Judaism (3)
A study of the historical and cultural development of
Judaism from its biblical origins to its modern expressions. Among the
contemporary issues to be examined are Zionism and the rise and history of the
State of Israel, varieties of contemporary American Judaism, and religious and
philosophical reflections on the Holocaust. See department chair.
388 Introduction
to Islam (HIST 388) (3)
Explores Islam as a faith and way of life. In
addition to studying the Quran and Prophetic traditions, it will closely
examine the dynamics of Islamic law and its role in everyday life in addition
to Muslim ritual and devotional practices. See department chair.
420 Religion and
Southern Culture (3)
This course has two primary objectives: (1) to
investigate the development of the principal religious groups in the South, and
(2) to explore, using a number of conceptual perspectives and methodological
approaches, the meaning and function of religion in its many manifestations –
denominational, folk, domestic, civil – as a cultural phenomenon in Southern
life. Spring.
490 Senior
Research Seminar (3)
Student research under the supervision of approved
faculty resulting in the successful completion and defense of a thesis or
comparable research project. This course fulfills the requirements for the
major, oral and computer competencies. An IP grade may be awarded at the
discretion of the instructor. Fall.
499 Undergraduate Research in Religious Studies
(1-6)
Independent research under the supervision of a faculty
mentor. An IP grade may be awarded at the discretion of the instructor. May be
repeated for a total of 6 hours credit. See department chair.
171-3, 271-3,
371-3, 471-3 Special Topics in
Religious Studies (3)
Courses not otherwise included in the catalog, but for which
there will be special needs. May be repeated for credit as subject matter
changes. See department chair.
179, 379, 479 Liberal Studies Colloquia (LS 179,
379, 479)
Colloquia offered to
fulfill ILS requirements. See Liberal Studies for course descriptions.
May not be used to satisfy major or minor requirements.
Impact:
The existing minor program in Religious Studies will
migrate from the Philosophy Department, where it has been housed since 1999, to
become a separate department offering both a major and a minor by the fall
semester of 2009. The primary impact will be to the Philosophy Department,
which will relinquish its supervision of the minor program. Those responsible
for the implementation of these new programs include the faculty in Religious
Studies as well as the faculty in other departments offering courses crosslisted as RELS courses and/or approved electives.
Although this proposal seeks to add fifteen “new”
courses to the catalog, the list is not as daunting as it appears since many of
these courses are already being offered through other departments, and not all
would be offered on a annual basis.
Thus, these courses would not require the addition of new faculty. These courses can be grouped into four
categories:
(1) Crosslisted courses:
RELS 302, 303, 384, and 388 are not new courses but represent courses that are
regularly taught in other departments that will be crosslisted
as RELS courses because of their appropriate subject matter.
(2) Transferred courses: RELS 386 (Judaism) and 387
(Buddhism) are courses currently included among the offerings of the Department
of History, but would be more appropriately housed in the Department of
Religious Studies. Thus, this proposal
seeks to effectively transfer these courses to Religious Studies and drop the
“History of” designation that both now have.
The Judaism course (the current HIST 386) has been regularly offered by
faculty outside of the Department of History and this practice would likely be
continued for the immediate future. The
Buddhism course would be regularly offered by the new faculty member in Asian
religions.
(3) Gateway and capstone courses: RELS 200 and 490
will provide, respectively, the required “gateway” and “capstone” courses for
Religious Studies majors (RELS 200 will also be the gateway course for
Religious Studies minors); both will be offered at least once a year by the
members of the Religious Studies faculty.
RELS 490 will allow students to meet the various competencies necessary
for graduation.
(4) New courses: RELS 280, 330, and 381 will be
regularly offered by Kate Zubko; RELS 280 will be
offered at least once a year since it is a required course for the major. RELS
215, 312, 313, and 420 will be regularly offered by Rodger Payne; RELS 312 and
313 will be offered every year in the fall and spring semesters, respectively,
since these courses are required for the major. Courses that are not required
for the major will probably be offered every other year.
Rationale:
This proposal implements the new major in Religious
Studies that was approved by the Faculty Senate on March 2, 2006 (Senate
document 2960S). It builds upon the
strengths of the existing minor and other related courses within the university
in order to establish a major program as efficiently as possible; and although
additional courses will be created as additional faculty are appointed, the
basic structure as proposed here will remain the same. This structure ensures that (1) students
receive a basic introduction to the major religions of the world through the
distribution requirements of the religions of the West and religions of Asia;
and that (2) students receive extensive training in the theories and methods of
the modern academic study of religion as an essential part of the liberal arts
through the required courses and the distribution requirement for the
interdisciplinary approaches to the study of religion.