New Courses Corner
Vodou Gods and Atlantic Perils: African Religions in the New World (REST 305)
In this course, which premiered fall 2023, students will be engaged in an interdisciplinary study of reconstituted religious traditions in the Americas and the Caribbean sharing West and Central African origins. Students will explore a wide range of these traditions along with theoretical frameworks scholars utilize to account for their decisive appearance in the perilous Atlantic world via the Euro-American slave trade and other centuries-long transnational realities. Some religions and geographies covered include Candomblé (Brazil), Santería (Cuba), Obeah (Jamaica), Kumina (Jamaica), and Vodou (Haiti and North America).
Religion, Nature, and Ethics (REST 343)
How are global religious communities responding to contemporary environmental crises? How can approaches from religious studies help to analyze and understand ongoing conflicts surrounding environmental issues?
In REST 343, a new class in spring 2024 focusing on the religious dimensions of contemporary environmental problems, students will begin to answer these questions.
The course explores several global case studies that reveal the complex entanglements between religious systems and environmental issues. Because ecological, social, and economic systems are intimately interconnected, the course also explores how these global forces and debates influence local issues in Knoxville and East Tennessee.
Using a community-engaged approach, students in REST 343 will work with local individuals and groups to learn about some of the environmental challenges facing Knoxville and the Appalachian region. Students will then draw upon their community engagement and class experiences to develop a public-facing project that helps inform the broader UT community about these issues and demonstrates the value of religious studies perspectives in helping to understand them.
Students will be happy to hear that this in-person course also may be counted as an elective course for the sustainability major and sustainability minor offered by the Department of Geography & Sustainability, as well as applying toward academic requirements in the religious studies department.
