Topics in Women and Religion
Class Number: 390-0-2| Professor: Katherine Dugan
This course offers an introduction to women's historical and contemporary roles in American religious life. Focusing on women's creative productions and experiences, we will examine how women have contributed to the formation and transformation of religious culture in this country. We will also explore the importance of gender roles, issues of sexuality, leadership, women's religious meanings and motivations, experiences and identities. Much of the readings will be drawn from primary source documents that students will consider and evaluate in view of the course's thematic questions and concerns. Among the questions we will address are: How have women's experiences been expressed both within and in opposition to American religious traditions? What factors are involved in women becoming religious leaders or entrepreneurs? How have women responded to traditions in which they do not have access to formal authority? In what ways might some religions make sacred women's traditional roles? How might others extend women's roles beyond existing social constraints? How have women's religious experiences and narratives shaped and in turn been shaped by American culture?