Course Offerings

Consult LORIS Browse Classes for this year's course list. A description of courses can be found in the Religion and Culture area of the undergraduate academic calendar.

Special Topics Descriptions

RE249C Digital Lifecycles
Fall 2026, TR 1300-1420

The lifecycle - transformations from birth to death and beyond - has long interested anthropologists. This course asks how algorithms, transnational media and evolving digital technology change our rites of passage. How has the internet reconfigured childbirth; how have videogames changed childhood? How have fandoms, apps and forums impacted parenting and growing old? Do dating apps reinforce or subvert traditional notions of mating? How have movies changed how we marry and bury? Has media and the internet permanently transformed visions of life, death and beyond? Will AI even change the way we die?

RE249E Reading Dystopia
Winter 2027, TR 0830-0950

Focusing on apocalypse and dystopian imaginaries in pop-culture, the course explores the intersections between religion, belief systems, conflict, and social control. When pop-culture is taken as a laboratory, what lessons might there be for better navigating the violence by which contemporary times appear marked?