Courses

On-Campus Extended Studies course in Religious Studies.

Winter Term information

184A: Religion in Anime and Japanese Popular Culture

Course Time: TBD
Fees: None
Prerequisites: None

How does the animated film Spirited Away reflect teachings of Japanese Buddhism and Shinto? Or what about the tv series Neon Genesis Evangelion? What can anime reveal about religion in Japan? This extended studies course explores the complex relationship between religion and pop culture through anime¿ a globally popular and unique style of animated storytelling from Japan. While watching a wide range of popular series and films such as Princess Mononoke, Attack on Titan, and Jujutsu kaisen, we will examine how anime represents, reimagines, and engages with religious traditions in Japan. Along the way, students will gain a deeper understanding of the diversity of religious practices and perspectives in Japan, learning to critically analyze the ways in which animated entertainment draws on, adapts, and transforms religious themes. For their final project, students will develop and pitch their own original concept for a new anime that incorporates religious elements, applying the insights gained throughout the course in a creative and meaningful way.

184B: Play||Game(s)||Religion(s)

Course Time: TBD
Fees: None
Prerequisites: None

'All play means something,' or so wrote theorist Johan Huizinga in 1938. Playfully speaking, our serious work in this course explores the cultural meaning(-making)s of game(s) and religion(s) as intersecting embodiments of deeply human, serious play-forms. Transdisciplinary connections between Religious Studies and Game(r) Studies unfold along multiple vectors, and we'll be toying with a four-part paradigm of puzzles: gaming in religion; religion in gaming; religion as gaming; and, finally, gaming as religion? Rather than just thinking about games, we'll be playing them closely engaging a curated selection of (social, tabletop, role-playing, physical, and digital) games to explore the ways people relate to game(s) and religion(s). Along the way, we'll experiment with both analytical and embodied approaches, moving between critical reflection and immersive experience. More seriously, what discourses and relations of power shape these interactions? How might we rethink our own relationships to game(s) and religion(s) with a sharper awareness of the ideological and contextual forces at play? Come and play!