Religion and Popular Culture in America (Fall '26 & Spring '27)

Religion is not just located in churches and temples, it can also be found online, in sports stadiums, at movie theaters, and in many other unexpected places. In this class, we will analyze the diverse sites in which religion animates popular culture by looking at fashion, music videos, sports, TikToks, advertisements, celebrities, video games, Disney, memes, children’s toys, comics, and more. By exploring a variety of examples from different times, places, and religious traditions, we will study how religion intersects with popular culture and what makes it appealing, seductive, and controversial. We will also examine why religious symbols and imagery are so common in popular culture, how religious groups use popular culture, and why popular culture fandoms often resemble religion. Assignments include short papers analyzing examples of religion and popular culture and a final creative project where students will have the opportunity to create their own piece of popular culture.

Introduction to American Religions (Fall '26)

To make sense of contemporary American culture and society, we need to understand the crucial role that religion has played in forming and shaping the nation. From the first Native American inhabitants to the early Protestant colonists, from enslaved Africans to Catholic, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu, and Muslim immigrants, we will learn about the influence of religion on various communities throughout American history. By focusing on life in early America, we will consider how Americans have developed, negotiated, and interpreted their religious traditions in new settings and circumstances. Throughout the course, we will pay special attention to how religious debates dovetailed with the pressing social issues of the day, and how religion has alternately served as a vehicle for liberation and venue of oppression.

Religion and Sport (Spring '27)

From the first Olympic Games held in honor of Zeus to contemporary debates over public prayers on the football field to athletes who rely on meditation to perform under pressure, the relationship between religion and sports is long-standing and varied. Moreover, scholars have traced the ways in which sports function as religion in terms of the ritual structure of sporting events, the myths surrounding certain teams or players, and the community formed among fans of the same team. This course explores these many ways in which sports converge with religion.  We will consider how sports and religion—from across global contexts—intersect with gender, race, sexuality, disability, commercialism, and the media by exploring case studies that students will select based on their interests. And we will extend our analyses in the classroom into the real world by taking field trips to sporting events.

Sacred Flesh: Bodies, Religion, and Power in America (Fall '26)

Praying, fasting, singing, kneeling, raising hands—all of these are bodily movements that are widely recognized to be “religious.” But we often don’t think of other bodily practices and experiences such as dressing and tattooing our bodies, or bodily sensations and feelings such as ecstasy and joy, as equally essential to religious life. In this course, we will consider how the human body has been a primary site of religious meaning and contestation in the United States in the past and present. We will investigate how religious traditions have shaped ideas about what bodies are for and which bodies matter by looking at how bodies intersect with state power, legal rulings, medical authority, and assumptions about race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and disability. In doing so, we will consider how and why some bodies have become symbols of purity, while other bodies are deemed dangerous. We will pay particular attention to moments in American history when bodies have become contested terrain in religious debates over issues such as enslavement, missionary projects, religious freedom, and reproductive rights.

The History of the Devil (Spring '27)

In this course, we will study the origins of the devil and its depiction in art, popular culture, historical documents, and literature in societies of the Americas since colonialism to the contemporary moment. Considering the devil as both a figure of systemic domination and resistance, we will ask: who gets described as “the Devil” or “devilish”? How has the figure of the devil been used to justify colonization and imperialism? In what ways have marginalized communities challenged and reimagined the devil? We will seek to answer these questions by closely examining manifestations of the devil in various social and historical time periods, starting with witches, demons, and heathens in the “New World” and ending with Satan and the rise of QAnon. 

Religion and Place: American Sacred Space

What is sacred space? Who does it belong to? How do we move through it? Who gets to decide? These are just some of the questions we will think about in this course as we examine a variety of American sacred spaces, such as national parks, suburbs, highways, temples, outer space, theme parks, and shopping malls. We will consider how religion shapes the American landscape and, in turn, how the landscape shapes American religion. To do so, we will learn about how religious communities, the law, and local and federal government produce, maintain, and legitimize some sacred spaces over others. In addition, we will think about how contestations over sacred spaces have shaped the United States in the past and present. In the first part of this course, we will focus on landscapes and homelands, in the second part of the course, we will address movements and migrations, and in the third part of the course we will look at structures and statues. This course will have three field trips. Assignments will include short writing assignments, such as reflections on the field trips and “place biography” research papers.

Religion and the Nation

In this course, we will explore how religious traditions, symbols, and narratives shape national identity and American politics. We will examine how and why Americans conceive of the nation in sacred terms and how religious images of the nation as chosen, as a beacon of democracy, and as a moral leader on the world stage have developed and changed over time. We will also examine conflicts over church-state boundaries and explore how marginalized religious communities have offered alternative visions of the nation. 

Christianity and Capitalism 

This course explores the complex relationship between Christianity and consumer culture in the United States by examining how religious beliefs, practices, and institutions both shape and are shaped by market forces. We will explore how religious goods, media, and institutions are marketed, how churches often function as commodities, and how consumption itself can resemble religious practice. Through a range of historical and contemporary case studies, we will investigate how the study of religion can help us understand consumer culture, and how consumerism can help us understand religion. Topics include the Puritan economic foundations of the United States, evangelical media empires, and the rise of Christian retail.

Material Religion

This course explores the material dimensions of religion—how sacred meaning is expressed, experienced, and negotiated through physical objects, spaces, and sensory practices. From relics to clothing, from architecture to food, we will examine how religious communities use “stuff” to make the divine tangible. Drawing on anthropology, religious studies, art history, and museum theory, we will analyze how people and material things interact with and shape one another. We will also learn a range of methods for studying religion materially and practice applying these methods.

Introduction to Religious Studies

Religion is everywhere and yet it can be difficult to define, and even harder to study. In this course we will examine key themes, concepts, approaches, and issues in the study of religion. We will consider: What is religion? What are the critical issues in the study of religion? What is the relationship between religion and secularism, spirituality, atheism, cults, magic, and science? And how do we study religion? We will look at how various scholars in the field have answered these questions and think with these scholars to try and answer these questions for ourselves. No prior knowledge of religion is necessary to take this course and all are welcome!