Teaching Associate: John Abercrombie

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1 1 Joanne Punzo Waghorne, Professor of Religion (PhD Divinity School, University of Chicago, History of Religions/South Asian Studies) Interests: Religion and globalization, religion and urbanization, new guru-based religious movements in India and Singapore, new Hindu temples in India and the diaspora. Office 521 Hall of Languages Office hours: Mondays 11:00-12:30 Teaching Associate: John Abercrombie BA, Whitman College, Religion with a minor in Philosophy. MA, Western Kentucky University in Religious Studies. Current research interests deal with contemporary Daoist temple life, revitalization and modernization efforts of mainland Daoism, and the effects of tourism and international groups upon Daoism today. jdabercr@syr.edu, 514 Hall of Languages Office hours: Mon. 2:15 3:15 pm; Thurs 11:00 am - 12:00 pm

2 Description: Religion is on the rise and at the same time changing rapidly in our globalizing world. From New York to Singapore, newspapers that once headlined The Death of God now report on a new religious fervor among well-educated people. New religious movements appear; new leaders emerge within established traditions and call for change. Some worldwide fundamentalist movements espouse violence but many engage in important social service work as part of an emerging global civil society. New immigrants from Asia, Europe and America bring an unexpected religious pluralism to formerly Judeo-Christian populations in Europe and America. Now a resurgence of intolerance combines with ethnic and religious diversity everywhere including Asia. Technology, especially the worldwide web, replaces print as the primary form of religious communication. The old modern lines between religion and politics are challenged everywhere. How can we understand this new world? Books (Available in the book store): Anthony Giddens, Runaway World: How Globalization is Reshaping Our Lives. 2nd ed. New York: Routledge, 2003 ISBN Also available on Kindle Linda Woodhead, Christopher Partridge, Hiroko Kawanami, eds, Religions in the Modern World: Traditions and Transformations 3 rd ed. Routledge, ISBN-13: ISBN- 10: X Also available on Kindle to purchase or to rent 2 Mark Juergensmeyer, Terror in the Mind of God: The Global Rise of Religious Violence, 3rd ed., University of California Press, ISBN-13: Requirements: 1. Attendance is required at all class sessions (see below for details) 2. The reading for each week must be completed by Wednesdays at class time. We cannot hope to have informed discussions unless each of the class members is prepared to contribute by speaking or by actively listening. We will give unannounced exercises to persuade you to keep up. These will count toward your final grade. 3. I will prepare six topics for short paper/projects (between 2-3 pages 12 point Times Roman (600 minimum--900 words maximum) and ask you to complete four out of the six. Papers will have different formats but will always cover the reading from the previous weeks. I will distribute the paper topic one week prior to the date that paper will be due---giving you a week to do the paper. Papers must be submitted on Blackboard. I do not use Turn-it-in. Take care not to procrastinate too long! NOTE THAT PAPER #1 is required of everyone without exception. 4. I am also asking each of you to work in groups on a common project called Contemporary Religious Movements in New York State. I will prepare a list but you may also have suggestions. Your group will present your findings to the class in the form of a PowerPoint presentation, or another similar format. Your final paper will be done individually but based on this project. There is no final exam in this course. Course Policies: Please Read Carefully now! Attendance is required at all class sessions. We will keep records. I will allow only 2 unexcused absences. Attendance begins counting on Sept 6 after add deadline student who add after Aug 18 are responsible for all work missed. Because this is a M-W class, those on sports teams should not be affected. However, if you take any class days for sports events (with proper documentation) or for religious holidays, then I can allow only ONE unexcused absence in addition to your commitments.

3 Each unexcused absence over the allotted absences will lower your final grade by 3 points (for points see below). This requirement is important in this class because tests and papers are only part of the material in a course. Your presence assures us that you have at least heard and participated in the discussions, which will be essential for your understanding. An excused absence means that you have ed both the TA and myself and received approval for absences in advance due to special circumstances. Please, if you speak to me in class--confirm any conversation with an . In the case of an illness, you must talk with us afterwards. The policy of Health services is to provide a note only when the student has been advised to miss classes. Please carefully note the University Policy on Religious Holidays: Syracuse University s religious observances policy, found at htm, recognizes the diversity of faiths represented in the campus community and protects the rights of students, faculty, and staff to observe religious holy days according to their tradition. Under the policy, students should have an opportunity to make up any examination, study, or work requirements that may be missed due to a religious observance provided they notify their instructors no later than the end of the second week of classes for regular session classes and by the submission deadline. Student deadlines are posted in MySlice under Student Services/Enrollment/My Religious Observances/ Major religious holidays (none seem to fall on a M or W this semester): Muharram (Al Hijrah - New Year) * Islamic 9/21/17 Thursday Navaratri / Dassehra Hindu 9/21/17-9/29/17 Thursday - Friday Rosh Hashanah * Jewish 9/21/17-9/22/17 Thursday - Friday 3 Yom Kippur * Jewish 9/30/17 Saturday Sukkoth * Jewish 10/5/17 Thursday Sh mini Atzeret * Jewish 10/12/17 Thursday Simchat Torah * Jewish 10/13/17 Friday Diwali Hindu 10/19/17 Thursday Disability Accommodations: If you believe that you need accommodations for a disability, please contact the Office of Disability Services (ODS) located at 804 University Avenue, third floor or go to the ODS website at disabilityservices.syr.edu and click current students tab to register on-line. You may also call to speak to someone regarding specific access needs. ODS is responsible for coordinating disability-related accommodations and will issue Accommodation Letters to students as appropriate. Since accommodations may require early planning and are not provided retroactively, please contact ODS as soon as possible. Common Courtesy: (I should not have to mention these points but sad experience makes this necessary.) The class begins at 12:45. Please be on time; walking in late shows little respect for your fellow students or for me. If you have a tight connection between classes let us know and we can seat you accordingly. All cell phones are to be turned entirely off including text messaging and all IPods shut down NO computers are allowed in class yes there still are pencils, pens, and paper you are all paying too much for your classes to be only half present. Repeated lack of courtesy will also result in losing points from your final grade under the participation points. Academic Integrity: There are writing assignments in the class with no formal tests outside of the short in-class exercises. I expect the work presented to be totally your own with all sources, which

4 4 you have used, fully acknowledged. I will provide full instructions as to citation and form. Both the TA and I are willing to help you if you have any doubts. If we find any evidence of academic dishonesty of any kind, I will report the incident to the Academic Integrity Office. The sanctions will include lowered points on the paper including minus points (i.e. -5 or -10), or failure for the entire course depending on the severity. Please read for more up to date information especially: What Students Need to Know... Syracuse University s new Academic Integrity Policy, effective January 1, 2017, is designed to make integrity and honesty central to the University experience. The policy creates four sets of expectations attached to this syllabus Paper Deadlines: There are no extensions on papers. If you miss the deadline you can always wait for the next but take care here that you do not wait until the end. Evaluation The following is a basic guide that I will use to determine the grade that you earned in the class: In each category, it will be possible to earn the following points: In Class "Exercises" (likely 3-5) Four Paper/projects (10 each) Final presentation Final individual paper Participation: active listening, speaking, and courtesy in class 15 points 40 points 10 points 20 points 15 points 100 Schedule: Subject to change with reasonable notice Week One (August 28, 30): Thinking About the Rapidly Changing World The course will ask each of you to look at the world around you, to learn to describe the religious practices and ideas that you see and hear. In this sense, each of you will be involved as a keen observer of yourselves and of others. This does not mean that I will be asking for purely subjective opinions. Rather, I assume that everyone has experience with contemporary religions in some way through family, friends, and neighbors at home or in your dorms. You may not participate in any of these movements but no one can avoid seeing the new religiosity that surrounds us in modern America and indeed in the world. During this first week, we will try to consider how to characterize the increasingly globalizing world. The conversation will begin with some photos and the introductory chapters in Woodhouse plus an essay Runaway World by Anthony Giddens, an influential social theorist from the UK. He first gave this as a talk on the BBC. Reading: Read in this order Woodhead: Introduction and then Chapter 1 How to study religion by Kim Knott; Giddens, Runaway World, preface to the second edition and the introduction. Week Two (Sept 4, 6): Runaway World continued. Be prepared to discuss and debate the Giddens essay and to begin to offer your own sense of today's world and the possible interrelations of "religion" with the issues Giddens suggests (especially "globalization," "tradition," and "family") Reading: Giddens, Runaway World complete book

5 Paper/Project 1 on Giddens: Due on Blackboard: Monday Sept 11, 2017 by 10:00 am Required of everyone with no extensions-do not ask (Failure to do this means that you will lose 10 from your grade. i.e. you will not be allowed to do only three more papers) Week Three (Sept 11, 13): What is Globalization for religions? At the same time that the economies of the world experience unprecedented levels of interconnectedness, most societies seem to be undergoing de-secularization with religious values, ideas, practices, and people increasingly reentering public life. Many scholars and policy makers also assume the gradual development of a Global Culture " with emerging cosmopolitan values, which are not necessarily connected to any one religious tradition or possibly not to any religion at all. Yet these worldwide values such as human rights and gender equality are transforming the world s older religious traditions, not always peacefully (Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Judaism, Hinduism, and indigenous American and African traditions) at the same time that movements within major traditions (in terms of numbers and distribution) transform local as well as global society. Reading: (Read in this order) Woodhead, Chapter 15 Religion, globalization, and migration by Manuel A. Vásquez; Chapter 20 Secularism and Secularization by Grace Davie, Linda Woodhead, and Rebecca Catto; On BLACKBOARD: Anthony Appiah, selections from Cosmopolitanism Week Four (Sept 18, 20): Rethinking the popular distinction between Religion and Spirituality. The study of contemporary religion is complicated by many different uses of the term religion. We need to pay close attention to the increased use of the term spiritual as an alternate to religion and often understood as quite distinct. What do those who use these terms mean and does this changing terminology signal a worldwide change in the practice and profession of religiosity? Reading: Please read in this order: Woodhead, Chapter 11 "Spirituality" by Giselle Vincett and Linda Woodhead; and selections on BLACKBOARD (TBA) Paper/project 2: Due on Blackboard Monday Sept 25 by 10:00am 5 Week Five (Sept 25, 27): Technological revolution within religious communication including new styles of print medium and use of the Internet. In the last two decades, even mainstream churches, mosques, and Hindu temples have websites. Religious education often includes cartoons and comic books. Websites offer everything from religious posters to goddess dolls. Recently religious groups form as new communities solely on the Internet. Readings: On Blackboard Week Six (Oct 2, 4): Worldwide rise of evangelical Christianity Even during the days of the colonial empires, conversion to Christianity in Africa and Latin American was not as extensive as now. This rapid conversion of so many, however, is not to so-called mainstream churches but to new evangelical movements, which is also true within the United States. Evangelicals are often conflated with fundamentalist, which is not always true. Reading: Woodhead, Chapter 7 Christianity by Linda Woodhead; then the posted readings on Blackboard. Paper/project 3: Due on Blackboard Monday Oct 9, 2017

6 6 Week Seven (Oct 9, 11): Understanding religion and violence. Although not always the case, conservative trends toward fundamentalism within many older religious systems shaped new often-violent global movements and altered religious authority at the local level. Understanding both the rise of fundamentalism and its association with violent protest can be difficult but clearly all-major religious systems have developed forms of violence and terrorism. Reading: Mark Juergensmeyer, Terror in the Mind of God: The Global Rise of Religious Violence Paper/project 4: Due on Blackboard Monday Oct 16, 2017 Week Eight (Oct 16, 18): Spiritual Tourism in China (lead by John Abercrombie) Taoism, once considered superstition by the government in China (and in Singapore) now has new adherents, some of them Chinese but also Westerners in the US and Europe. John Abercrombie recently returned from Beijing studying Chinese but also considers contemporary Taoist temples in the city in one case here Westerners are coming as spiritual tourists to the temple but conflicting with the practices of Taoism by the resident Chinese people and monks. Reading: (in the order) Woodhead, Chapter 5 Chinese religions by Stephan Feuchtwang; on Blackboard: Transnational Sacralizations: When Daoist Monks meet Global Spiritual Tourists by David A. Palmer. Paper/project 5 due on Blackboard Monday Oct 23 Declaration of topic for final project due on Wednesday Oct 25. Week Nine (Oct 23, 25): Creating new religious spaces within global commodity culture: Religion often occurs outside of any traditions or religious movements. The process of sacralizing new spaces adds a religious dimension to consumer life that even the participants may not name as religious including architecture, use of urban land, and creation of new "sacred" spaces within shopping centers. Reading on Blackboard Week Ten (Oct 30, Nov 1): New Religious Movement in the United States Many new religions form within a global context with new values and new perspectives sometimes in contention but more often in confluence with sciences sharing issues of health, well-being and personal fulfillment that adherents claim to be missing in the mainstream traditions. Reading: Woodhead, chapters 13, 14, 15 Paper Project 6: Due Monday Nov 6, 2017 Week Eleven (Nov 6, 8): WORK ON PROJECTS: NO formal class but John Abercrombie and I will be available in our classroom, which will be open for you to begin to organize your groups and projects- -you are expected to come-in or report that you are meeting elsewhere.

7 7 Week Twelve (Nov 13, 14): New Religious Movements in Asia I will report on my own work in Singapore and Chennai in India no reading We may need Nov 14 for project reports. Project reports: Contemporary Religious Movements in New York State Week twelve (Nov 14) for the brave (extra points for the 2 groups that report early) Week Thirteen (Nov 27, 28) Week Fourteen (Dec 4, 6) This is 5 class sessions of (80 minutes) with 2-3 presentations per class minutes each with time for questions FINAL PAPER DUE ON BLACKBOARD: I WILL GIVE YOU UNTIL 10 PM on the day the final exam is scheduled for this class-- 12/11/2017 Monday. University Academic Integrity Policy: What Students Need to Know... Syracuse University s new Academic Integrity Policy, effective January 1, 2017, is designed to make integrity and honesty central to the University experience. The policy creates four sets of expectations. CREDIT YOUR SOURCES Always acknowledge other people s ideas, information, language, images, or other creative efforts when incorporating them into work you submit, whether that work is written, oral or visual. Copied sentences from a website into the 1st draft of a paper without citing the source. Padded their own writing with passages from other published work. Used photos taken by others in a presentation without citing the photographer. Paraphrased another s ideas without noting the original author. COMMUNICATE HONESTLY Deal openly and honestly with faculty, instructors, staff and fellow students. Claimed falsely that they were ill or had a death in the family to take a make-up exam. Lied about the amount of time they had spent on a community service project for a course. Signed another student into a course via attendance sheet or clicker when that student was absent. Changed research results to skew the interpretation of their findings. DO YOUR OWN WORK All work submitted for a course must be your own unless an instructor gives explicit permission for collaboration or editing. Collaborated with others on a take-home assignment that was supposed to be completed individually. Submitted the same paper or artwork in two courses without written approval from both instructors. Shared the contents of a quiz, not provided by the instructor, with another student taking the same quiz. Had a cell phone or other prohibited material within easy reach during a closed-book exam. SUPPORT ACADEMIC INTEGRITY Promote academic integrity at SU. Avoid actions that encourage or cover up violations by others. Purchased completed assignments from an essay mill. Made a completed exam available to others when they should have known it would be used for fraudulent purposes. Helped another student cover up a violation. Lied during an academic integrity investigation. These examples are not exhaustive. Any action that improperly influences the evaluation of a student s academic work, gives one student unfair academic advantage over another, or encourages the violation of academic integrity by others constitutes a violation of this policy.