Not Like Us: Religion, Race, Pop Culture (FYS)
RELI 179F
Fall 2025
| Section:
01
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| Crosslisting:
AFAM 179F |
Starting with the work of Pulitzer Prize and Grammy award-winning, Super Bowl-performing artist Kendrick Lamar, this course examines how Black culture, and thus race, is often interpreted through religion. Afro-British theorist and cultural studies pioneer Stuart Hall famously published the article "What is this 'Black' in Black Popular Culture" in the 1990s. In that essay, Hall sought to examine the work of the signifier of race in relationship to the idea of culture. This course, following Hall, will enable students to examine the relationship between structures, practices and ideas of race, with structures, practices and ideas of religion in defining Black people in the modern world. Through Hall's lens of culture, the class will examine people, places and periods, from witches and demons to Blues and Spirituals, Martin Luther King Jr. to Malcolm X, the Black Arts Movement to Black Lives Matter, Beyoncé to Kendrick Lamar, Marlon Riggs to Michaela Coel, by considering questions of authenticity, claims of Africanity, and formations of religiosity all in the word Black. Course focuses on digital humanities in learning and assignments. Books for purchase are not required. |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
SBS RELI |
| Course Format: Discussion | Grading Mode: Student Option |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: (Social, Cultural and Critical Theory Certificate) |
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Past Enrollment Probability: Not Available |
| SECTION 01 | | Special Attributes: FYS |
Major Readings: Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore
Possible readings include authors Stuart Hall, W.E.B. DuBois, Judith Weisenfeld, M. Jacqui Alexander, Hortense Spillers, Sylvester Johnson and Theodore Vial. Multimedia from Beyoncé, Kendrick Lamar, Marlon Riggs, Michaela Coel and other artists.
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Examinations and Assignments:
Examinations and assignments
Short writing assignments from different genres, web content, final project
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Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
This course satisfied the "Method & Theory" or "additional course" requirement for the Religion major. |
| Instructor(s): Millner,Marlon Times: ..T.R.. 10:20AM-11:40AM; Location: TBA |
| Total Enrollment Limit: 15 | | SR major: X | JR major: X | | |
| Seats Available: 0 | GRAD: X | SR non-major: X | JR non-major: X | SO: X | FR: 15 |
| Drop/Add Enrollment Requests | | | | | |
| Total Submitted Requests: 0 | 1st Ranked: 0 | 2nd Ranked: 0 | 3rd Ranked: 0 | 4th Ranked: 0 | Unranked: 0 |
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