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Boston University
Graduate Program in Religion 

School

Boston University Graduate Program in Religion

CASRN 532

Literacy and Islam in Africa

BTI Category

Semester

Islamic Studies

FA26

Examines the Islamization of Africa and literary traditions. Students learn about African texts written in the Arabic script (Ajami) and the spread of Islam and its Africanization throughout the continent. Texts written by enslaved Africans in the Americas are examined.

Professor

Class Day & Time

Ngom, Fallou

TR

2:00-3:15pm

Grading Option

Letter, P/F, Audit

Credits

4

Online?

N

Professor Approval Req'd?

N

Prerequisites?

N

Notes

N

School

Boston University Graduate Program in Religion

CASRN 612/CASRN 312

Buddhism in America

BTI Category

Semester

Buddhist Studies

FA26

The transplantation and transformation of Buddhism in the United States. Time period ranges from the eighteenth century to the present, but the emphasis is on contemporary developments, including the new Asian immigration, Jewish Buddhism, feminization, and engaged Buddhism.

Professor

Class Day & Time

Harrington, Laura

TR

2:00-3:15pm

Grading Option

Letter, P/F, Audit

Credits

4

Online?

N

Professor Approval Req'd?

N

Prerequisites?

N

Notes

N

School

Boston University Graduate Program in Religion

CASRN 638/CASRN 338

Philosophy and Mysticism, Jewish and Islamic Perspectives

BTI Category

Semester

Systematic Theology & Philosophy

FA26

An interactive seminar � a thematic introduction to mysticism and philosophy, with a focus on the dynamics of religious experience. Readings will be drawn from medieval Jewish and Islamic philosophy; Sufi mysticism and philosophy; Kabbalah, Sufi poetry, Hebrew poetry from the Golden Age of Muslim Spain.

Professor

Class Day & Time

Lobel, Diana

TR

12:30-1:45pm

Grading Option

Letter, P/F, Audit

Credits

4

Online?

N

Professor Approval Req'd?

N

Prerequisites?

N

Notes

N

School

Boston University Graduate Program in Religion

CASRN 684/CASRN 384

The Holocaust

BTI Category

Semester

Judaic Studies

FA26

Rise of German (and European) antisemitism; rise of Nazism; 1935 Nuremberg Laws; the initial Jewish reaction; racial theory; organizing mass murder including ghettos, concentration camps, killing squads, and gas chambers; bystanders and collaborators (countries, organizations, and individuals); Jewish resistance; post-Holocaust religious responses; moral and ethical issues.

Professor

Class Day & Time

Katz, Steven

TR

3:30-4:45pm

Grading Option

Letter, P/F, Audit

Credits

4

Online?

N

Professor Approval Req'd?

N

Prerequisites?

N

Notes

N

School

Boston University Graduate Program in Religion

CASRN 768/CASRN 468

Symbol, Myth, and Rite

BTI Category

Semester

Sociology/Ethnography/Research Methods

FA26

Examines ways of understanding ritual and its resurgence; working through some of the most important approaches to ritual in the social sciences and religious studies; beginning with how ritual relates humanity to the sacred, to the problem of meaning and its role in creating and potentially transforming boundaries.

Professor

Class Day & Time

Seligman, Adam

TR

11:00am-12:15pm

Grading Option

Letter, P/F, Audit

Credits

4

Online?

N

Professor Approval Req'd?

N

Prerequisites?

N

Notes

N

School

Boston University Graduate Program in Religion

CASRN 561

Religion and International Relations

BTI Category

Semester

Interreligious Learning

FA26

Explores the role of religion in contemporary international relations in the context of questions about the common core of modernity. Reviews scholarly and policy literature, and case studies, in order to elucidate religion's intellectual and operational diversity in international relations.

Professor

Class Day & Time

Menchik, Jeremy

T

12:30-3:15pm

Grading Option

Letter, P/F, Audit

Credits

4

Online?

N

Professor Approval Req'd?

N

Prerequisites?

N

Notes

N

School

Boston University Graduate Program in Religion

CASRN 628/CASRN 328

Modern Judaism

BTI Category

Semester

Judaic Studies

FA26

Encounters between Judaism and modernity from the Renaissance and Reformation; the Spanish expulsion and creation of Jewish centers in the New World; emancipation and its consequences; assimilation, Reform Judaism, Zionism, the American Jewish community, non-European communities, Jewish global migration, and modern antisemitism.

Professor

Class Day & Time

Katz, Steven

TR

12:30-1:45pm

Grading Option

Letter, P/F, Audit

Credits

4

Online?

N

Professor Approval Req'd?

N

Prerequisites?

N

Notes

N

School

Boston University Graduate Program in Religion

CASRN 683/CASRN 383

African Diaspora Religions

BTI Category

Semester

Interreligious Learning

FA26

This course introduces students to religions of the African Diaspora, with a specific focus on the Caribbean and the Americas. Religious traditions such as Africanized Christianity, Cuban Santer�a, Haitian Vodou, Brazilian Candombl�, and African American Spiritualism will be explored.

Professor

Class Day & Time

Guillory, Margarita

MWF

12:20-1:10pm

Grading Option

Letter, P/F, Audit

Credits

4

Online?

N

Professor Approval Req'd?

N

Prerequisites?

N

Notes

N

School

Boston University Graduate Program in Religion

CASRN 697/CASRN 397

Topics in Philosophy and Religion

BTI Category

Semester

Systematic Theology & Philosophy

FA26

Topic for Fall 2026:�Heidegger�s Lectures on the Phenomenology of Religion. We will slow-read Heidegger�s Winter 1920-21 lectures and related philosophical and theological literature. Among the authors Heidegger engages is the Apostle Paul, who�remains�a major figure in late 20th� and early 21st-century political theology. We will read Heidegger to understand why Paul has�remained�vital.

Professor

Class Day & Time

Zank, Michael

W

6:30-9:15pm

Grading Option

Letter, P/F, Audit

Credits

4

Online?

N

Professor Approval Req'd?

N

Prerequisites?

N

Notes

N

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