RE202

Active

Humanities

Block Seminar

Traditional

Letter Grades, S/CR/NC, Audit

EPG, CLHP

Religion has been central to the project of modern colonialism. Everywhere European conquerors went, they justified colonial rule in the name of Christianity, sponsored missionary projects of conversion, and regulated the traditions and practices of the colonized. Indeed, some scholars have argued that modern conceptions of religion (and its cognate, world religions) emerged out of colonial conquests. This course explores theconstitutive relationship between colonialism and religion. Two broad questions will inform our inquiry: Howdid the colonial encounter shape modern knowledge of religion? How did colonial technologies of rule (law, education, the census, surveillance, welfare) effect transformations in the religious beliefs, traditions, and practices of both the colonizer and the colonized? Our readings will include materials from various modernempires in the Americas, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. We will explore how religion was constitutive of modern colonialism; how religion relates to other sites of social power including race, gender, and nation, and how religion has informed resistance to colonialism. Themes for the course may include religious conversion and freedom of religion, religious institutions and reforms, textuality and interpretation, ritual and materialcultures, and legal reforms and regulation.