THEO2661: Religious Diversity in Europe: Identities and Practices

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• To introduce students to the study of religious diversity in Europe from an anthropological perspective.
• To develop an understanding of different religious identities and forms of religious life in contemporary Europe.
• To foster an appreciation of the complex relationship between religious and ethnic identities in contemporary Europe.
• To carry out an ethnographically grounded comparative analysis of different forms of religious life in contemporary Europe.
• To develop an understanding of the relationship of ethnographic and comparative analyses in the social sciences.
• To develop the ability to detect the bias and academic conventions that implicitly inform such analyses.

• This module will address religious diversity in contemporary Europe by paying attention to recent events and ongoing debates surrounding this subject. For example, since the 1990s, the collapse of the Soviet Union has opened room for religious identities in post-socialist societies. Similarly, the increasing public presence of Islam by the hand of Muslim migrants and their children has challenged hegemonic ideas of secularism and citizenship. Meanwhile, the consolidation of supra-national institutions has produced a revival of ethno-religious identities that aim to recover sovereignty while targeting diverse forms of religious life. This module will discuss these issues by way of recent works by political scientists, sociologists, and anthropologists.

Subject-specific Knowledge:

• Basic knowledge and understanding of religious identities and forms of religious life in contemporary Europe.

Subject-specific Skills:

• The ability to critically analyse ethnographic studies of religious identities and forms of religious life in contemporary Europe in relation to critical theory in the study of religion, including the sociology and the anthropology of religion.
• The ability to detect ethnocentric writing and to understand the value of reflexivity in the social scientific study of religion.

Key Skills:

• The ability to analyse and synthetise information through reading.
• The ability to structure and present information in both written and oral forms.

• Lectures: to convey information and exemplify an approach to the subject-matter, enabling students to develop a clear understanding of the subject and to improve their skills in listening and evaluating information.
• Seminars: to enhance subject-specific knowledge and understanding both through preparation and through interaction between students and staff, promoting awareness of different viewpoints and approaches.
• Formative book review: develops subject-specific knowledge and understanding, along with the acquisition of information through reading and critical evaluation of the content.
• Summative book review: develops subject-specific knowledge and understanding, along with the acquisition of information through reading and critical evaluation of the content.
• Final written examination: to assess subject-specific knowledge and understanding, along with the acquisition of skills in structuring and presenting information in written form under time constraints.

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