“What is Religion?”

Jeffrey J. Kripal
J. Newton Rayzor Professor of Religion and Religious Thought

Department of Religion

What is religion? How should the world’s religions relate to one another in the modern world? How do myth, ritual, nature, science, sexuality, politics, violence, the miraculous, death and the after-life function? Should we be living our lives according to a particular religious script? Living entirely without religion? Or re-writing those scripts, coding the human being toward different futures and possibilities? Are you living a religion? Or is a religion living you?

Art courtesy of Lynn Randolph

“What is Home?”

Claire Branigan
Lecturer, Department of Modern and Classical Literatures and Cultures

Stephen Sherman
Research Scientist, Kinder Institute for Urban Research

Oftentimes taken for granted as a location or possession, “home” is an incredibly complex and messy idea: a space of comfort, struggle, wealth, debt, exclusion, inclusion, rest, responsibilities, work, play, birth, death.

This course — which promises students a potluck dinner with home dishes — investigates what it means to be at home, away from home, or without a home. It will be of interest to all students, particularly those curious about social movements, urban economics, genocide studies, U.S. urban history, gender studies, urban planning and more.