Death, Power, and Religion

We live with the dead. Not only in the bodily traces of our ancestral origins, but also in the ways that the dead shape the worlds of the living - generating ethical structures, built environments, ritual performances, political imperatives, and conceptions of justice. Thinking with the dead also allows us into imaginaries of the future, whether in terms of a world beyond this one or as witnesses for this-worldly ideals of justice and righteousness. In this seminar we will explore the bodied and the disembodied, the powerful and the disempowered, and the disorienting potential of beginning from what is often regarded as the end. Readings will include Avery Gordon's Ghostly Matters, Michael Muhammad Knight's Muhammad's Body, Anand Vivek Taneja's Jinneaology, and LeRhonda Manigault Bryant's Talking to the Dead. Undergraduates register for 200-level for 5 units. Graduate students register for 300-level for 3-5 units.