Places to Send Students in Search of Religion Blog Topics
Posted: January 22, 2012 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: blogging, teaching 1 Comment »I gave a couple of talks around Emory last week about my experience teaching with social media last semester. In the wake of those I’ll be posting some resources for folks looking to use blogging or Twitter in their classes. Here is a list of good sites I recommended to students for looking for articles/posts to write their posts about. While I didn’t require them to use these, almost every one of them did and they had great results.
Religion Dispatches: http://www.religiondispatches.org
Religion in American History: http://usreligion.blogspot.com
CNN Belief Blog: http://religion.blogs.cnn.com
NY Times Religion: http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/r/religion_and_belief/index.html?
Religion News Service: http://religionnews.com/index.php?/rnsblog
Reuter’s Faith World: http://blogs.reuters.com/faithworld/
Washington Post OnFaith: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/on-faith
Huffington Post Religion: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/religion/
USA Today Faith & Reason: http://content.usatoday.com/communities/Religion/index
Google News- Religion: http://news.google.com/news/section?pz=1&jfkl=true&cf=all&ned=us&hl=en&csid=41b9657e37e26fc7&ict=ln
The Revealer: http://therevealer.org/
Killing the Buddha: http://killingthebuddha.com/
Warren Throckmorton: http://wthrockmorton.com/
REL100 Syllabus: Blogging, Tweeting, and Deconstructing Religion
Posted: August 23, 2011 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: academia, blogging, Christianity, Hinduism, REL100, syllabus, teaching, Twitter Leave a comment »I finally finished the syllabus for REL100. Good thing, too. The first day of class is tomorrow morning. It’s all filled up–40 students. Here goes nothin’!
REL 100: Introduction to Religion
Christian and Hindu Traditions
Michael J. Altman
Office Hours: Thursday 9am-noon, Callaway S220 (or by appt.)
I. Course Description
This course introduces the academic study of religion through a comparative approach to Hindu and Christian religious cultures. The central question of our course is “What is religion?” We will attempt to answer this question by drawing on a range of examples from Hindu and Christian religious cultures. These case studies will come from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in both India and America and range from Hindu pilgrimage to Catholic devotionalism to yoga to evangelicalism. These case studies will be organized around three themes: the body, ritual and devotion, and space and motion. In each case and through each theme we will pay special attention to the ways “religion” is constructed, authorized, and maintained. Turning to the ways religion was constructed in the past will shed light on the ways it is understood today. By the end of the course we will have an understanding of the rich variety of religious cultures found within Christianity and Hinduism while also gaining theoretical tools for analyzing various constructions of “religion” in public discourse and culture.
II. Course Outcomes
We will develop expertise in interpreting the plurality of religions (especially Christianity and Hinduism) in their historical settings.
We will critically assess the influence religions (again, especially Christianity and Hinduism) exert in shaping experience and society.
We will investigate the diverse of ways of “being in the world” in Christian and Hindu traditions.
Drafting a Syllabus: REL100 Intro. to Religion- Christian and Hindu Traditions
Posted: August 15, 2011 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: blogging, digital humanities, REL100, syllabus, teaching, Twitter 2 Comments »I’ve been preparing for my maiden voyage in the world of teaching this coming semester. I’ve been given the privileged of teaching my own class: Religion 100 Introduction to Religion. At Emory we teach this course comparatively so every class picks two traditions to focus on. Being an Americanist who studies Hinduism in American culture, I of course chose Christianity and Hinduism. I’m really excited about the course. I’m going to try and use Twitter inside and outside of class and we’re also going to set up a public blog for the class. Is this too much? I don’t know. We’ll see. So, without further ado, below is my first draft of the syllabus. I’d welcome any comments, provocations, or advice. I’ve already turned to Facebook for a lot of ideas and help with it as it stands now. So let me know what you think! (The spacing in the schedule section is a little off from copying and pasting out of Word but I’m too lazy to fix it right now.)
Religion 100: Introduction to Religion
Christian and Hindu Traditions
MWF 10:40-11:30 White Hall 112
Michael J. Altman
@MichaelJAltman
Office Hours: Tues. 2pm-4pm, Wed. 3pm-5pm at the Starbucks in the Oxford Rd. Bldg. and by appt.
I. Course Description
This course introduces the academic study of religion through a comparative approach to Hindu and Christian religious cultures. The central question of our course is “What is religion?” We will attempt to answer this question by drawing on a range of examples from Hindu and Christian religious cultures. These case studies will come from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in both India and America and range from Hindu pilgrimage to American Catholic devotionalism to yoga to evangelical Christian revivalism. These case studies will be organized around three themes: the body, ritual and devotion, and space and motion. In each case and through each theme we will pay special attention to the ways “religion” is constructed, authorized, and maintained. Turning to the ways religion was constructed in the past will shed light on the ways it is understood today. By the end of the course we will have an understanding of the rich variety of religious cultures found within Christianity and Hinduism while also gaining theoretical tools for analyzing various constructions of “religion.”
