Hide Advanced Options
Courses - Spring 2025
RELS
Religious Studies
Open Seats as of
12/06/2024 at 09:30 PM
RELS319E
Special Topics in Religious Studies; Islam and the Body
Credits: 1 - 3
Grad Meth: Reg, P-F, Aud
Cross-listed with HIST319D. Credit only granted for HIST319D or RELS319E.

The body is central to enacting facets of Islamic culture a cross history: worshippers ritually wash, mystical mendicants dance, love poets starve themselves, and pilgrims walk well-trodden routes. This course will thus explore why and how bodies matter: how are bodily norms created and enforced? How have people tried to transcend their individual, mortal, embodied selves, and why? How does religion help people make sense of their bodily experiences? How does it deal with bodily differences?