top of page
BTI Consortium | Last Updated April 21, 2026 - 6:00PM
SOCIOLOGY
School
Boston College Theology Department
THEO9670
Methods in Theology
BTI Category
Sociology/Ethnography/Research Methods
Semester
FA26
In the late 1960s, Karl Rahner asserted that theology's new partners in dialogue were the human and social sciences. Increasingly in answering new and perennial questions, contemporary theology has partnered with archaeology, sociology, cultural studies, psychology, world religions, and forms of critical theory. This course considers various methods in doing theology as well as some of theology's significant dialogue partners.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Ryliskyte, Ligita
W
01:00PM-03:50PM
Grading Option
Letter, P/F, Audit
Credits
3
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Online?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
School
Boston University School of Theology
STHTR 800
Ethnographic Research
BTI Category
Sociology/Ethnography/Research Methods
Semester
FA26
This seminar aims to train students in the understanding and application of ethnographic research methods. The research methods covered in this course are qualitative in nature, focusing on projects which require practitioners to go into the field and to analyze social spaces constructed, inhabited, and maintained by particular sets of social actors. The data in focus is less readily accessible via surveys, demographic analysis, and experimental designs. Course participants will, first of all, gain a broad understanding of the traditions related to ethnography, fieldwork, and qualitative research in the field of sociology. Secondly, participants will engage key debates in sociology related to the theories and methods of ethnographic work, ultimately developing research designs that most effectively fit personal projects in progress. Thirdly, participants will expand their techniques of data collection via guided field assignments and class interactions. Fourthly, participants will develop practices of research presentation that communicate findings in a compelling and insightful manner, with the aim of making findings accessible to a broader academic audience.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Young, Luther
T
3:30-6:15 pm
Grading Option
Letter
Credits
3
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Online?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
School
Boston University School of Theology
STHTR 850
Social Science Approaches to Religion and Spirituality
BTI Category
Sociology/Ethnography/Research Methods
Semester
FA26
The social sciences offer a robust set of paradigms, methods, and insights useful for understanding religious and spiritual lives. Whether our goal is to deepen appreciation, articulate critique, or pursue transformation of religious institutions; to become better religious leaders; or to further our spiritual growth and healing, social science approaches can help us identify and interpret the broader contexts of religion and spirituality and better reflect on our relevant experiences. They also provide methods for studying religion and spirituality that are increasingly employed in multidisciplinary fields such as practical theology, social ethics, and pastoral psychology. This course provides an overview of social science approaches and methods with a special focus on sociology. Students will learn how to digest, interpret, and employ social science research in the service of their professional goals, and will begin to develop methodological skills for use in their own scholarship.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Manglos-Weber, Nicolete
R
12:30-3:15 pm
Grading Option
Letter
Credits
3
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Online?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 2390A
Colloquium in American Religious History
BTI Category
Sociology/Ethnography/Research Methods
Semester
FA26
Presentation and discussion of the research of doctoral candidates in American religious history. Available, with instructors' permission, to Harvard doctoral students in other fields of religious studies or American studies. Note: First half of an academic year bi-weekly course. Credit will not be earned unless both the fall and spring semester of the course is completed. Course may be taken on a Sat/unsat basis only. This course is limited to doctoral students with interests in North American religions. Jointly offered in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences as Religion 3505A.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Brekus
T
06:00pm-07:59pm
Grading Option
P/F
Credits
4
Professor Approval Req'd?
Y
Online?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
This course is limited to doctoral students with interests in North American religions. Jointly offered in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences as Religion 3505A.
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 3117
Animals, Trees, and the Unseen
BTI Category
Sociology/Ethnography/Research Methods
Semester
FA26
This course considers how we can write histories of religious animals and the Unseen. Students will be introduced to academic literature that has criticized scholarly and popular conceptions of humans having a special status, and assumptions that the religious sentience of non-human animals and the materiality of spirits cannot be studied academically. Students will then be introduced to a variety of sources containing rich information on religious animals and the supernatural from Islamic societies of the globe. In doing so, the course pays particular attention to how human and non-human animals were understood to be religious beings whose bodies and activities were always tethered to the Unseen. Students will be encouraged to explore how the divide between human and non-human animals might not have been evident in societies of the past and the present. Students will moreover be encouraged to engage how these sources may prompt us to remember, or rather realize, that all aspects of material life, including animals' bodies, physical resources and technologies, were inextricably linked to the imagined non-material realms of the Unseen. On the whole, this seminar class takes steps towards recounting histories of religious animals and the Unseen. Jointly offered in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences as Religion 1014TS.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Sevea
M
09:00am-11:45am
Grading Option
Letter
Credits
4
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Online?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
School
Boston University Graduate Program in Religion
CASRN 768/CASRN 468
Symbol, Myth, and Rite
BTI Category
Sociology/Ethnography/Research Methods
Semester
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
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Online?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
School
Boston University School of Theology
STHTR 820
Introduction to Black Church Studies
BTI Category
Sociology/Ethnography/Research Methods
Semester
FA26
This course will examine trajectories of intellectual thought that have been missing, silenced, or marginalized in standard narratives of black church studies. Using critical race theory, we will explore counter-narratives that challenge prevailing ways of thinking about black church origins, theological and philosophical foundations, liberating discourses, and its representation in the public sphere. At the conclusion of the course, students will be equipped to reflect on the history, necessity, and trajectory of black church studies through the counter-narratives.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Young, Luther
R
3:30-6:15 pm
Grading Option
Letter
Credits
3
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Online?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 2360
Alternative Spiritualities in the United States
BTI Category
Sociology/Ethnography/Research Methods
Semester
FA26
This course surveys spiritual practices and movements that have been labeled as metaphysical, esoteric, pagan, occult, harmonial, and New Age. We will begin with a historical survey of esoteric spirituality from colonial-era astrology and alchemy to New Age and neopagan traditions, then consider some leading constructive thinkers within alternative spiritual traditions, such as Starhawk and Joanna Macy. The course will also feature field trips to a variety of spiritual organizations and communities. Jointly offered in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences as Religion 1562.
Professor
Class Day & Time
McKanan
T
03:00pm-05:45pm
Grading Option
HDS Student Option (LG/SUS/AUD)
Credits
4
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Online?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 2566
Disobedience: The Defiance of Genre in Contemporary English Language Poetry
BTI Category
Sociology/Ethnography/Research Methods
Semester
FA26
Although herself a poet, and describing poetry as the site of contemporary writing's most intense creativity, Eileen Myles argues that "a lot of things that people like are beginning to need to happen in the same pieces of writing and those things may be gossip, theory, sexual description, or simply an implication that it's there or just happened (art)." We will explore this principled disobedience -- an aesthetic, philosophical, and perhaps also a theological act -- through the reading of important pieces by contemporary writers whose work is often classified more by the demands of the publishing industry than anything intrinsic to the texts themselves. Particular attention will be given to the work of Claudia Rankine, Maggie Nelson, Bhanu Kapil, and Kate Zambreno. The last weeks of the course will be spent on student projects leading to a substantial research paper. Enrollment will be limited to twelve students. I will ask for a written statement of your interest in the course by the beginning of the fall term in order to decide enrollment. Jointly offered in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences as Religion 2492.
Professor
Class Day & Time
Hollywood
M
03:45pm-05:45pm
Grading Option
Letter, P/F
Credits
4
Professor Approval Req'd?
Y
Online?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
Enrollment will be limited to twelve students. I will ask for a written statement of your interest in the course by the beginning of the fall term in order to decide enrollment
School
Harvard Divinity School
HDS 3160
Religious Dimensions in Human Experience: Apocalypse, Sports, Music, Home, Sacrifice, Medicine
BTI Category
Sociology/Ethnography/Research Methods
Semester
FA26
What is Religion? Why does it show up everywhere? Using archaeology, religious studies and social thought, this course will study the major themes in the history of religions including 'encountering the holy', sports' and ritual', 'crossing borders', 'sacrifice as creation', 'pilgrimage and sacred place', 'suffering and quest for wisdom', 'music and social change', 'violence and cosmic law'. Readings from Native American, African American, Latinx/+, Jewish, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu traditions. Focus on the tension between individual encounters with the holy and the social construction of religion. Readings from Gloria Anzaldua, Toni Morrison, Judith Sherman, Arthur Kleinman, Popul Vuj, Mircea Eliade, Michael D. Jackson. Jointly offered in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences as Anthropology 1475 and Religion 16.
Professor
Class Day & Time
TR
10:30am-11:45am
Grading Option
HDS Student Option (LG/SUS/AUD)
Credits
4
Professor Approval Req'd?
N
Online?
N
Prerequisites?
N
Notes
N
bottom of page