Why do bad things happen to good people? This course examines how the Bible confronts some of the most complex and confounding questions humans can ask regarding the relationship between actions and their inevitable outcomes. Through close readings of biblical texts and contemporaneous examples from the ancient Middle East and North Africa, students will be introduced to key theories and methods in biblical studies as tools for examining how the dynamic relationship between behaviors and their results shape the biblical understanding of justice, divine retribution, rewards, and moral order.

We will compare (1) punishment and reward in biblical narrative and law and their reverberations in both prophetic literature and more esoteric texts like the books of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes/Qohelet, and Job, to both (2) relevant contemporaneous examples from the ancient Middle East and North Africa, and (3) contemporary examples from popular culture (e.g., Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Wicked, KPop Demon Hunters, The Good Place, Hamilton, and Spirited Away) in order to ask how thinking about reward and punishment has changed over time and, especially, how modern thinking both adheres to and diverges from biblical and other ancient models.

This class has no prerequisites; no previous knowledge of the Bible or ancient history is presumed.

This course explores anthropological, religious, and psychiatric perspectives on mental health and mental illness, with careful attention to varied constructions of "madness", treatment, and healing across human cultures. We begin with comparative questions: are there universal standards of positive mental and emotional functioning? Are there overall commonalities in approaches to psychic and emotional disturbances? What is the role of spirituality? After considering the history of ‘madness’ in the West, we consider early anthropological and religious models of "madness" elsewhere. We next turn to ritualized therapeutic interventions in small-scale indigenous societies and consider a range of case studies from around the world. We conclude with a unit on culture and mental health in the United States and the ‘globalization” of American models of the psyche

An interdisciplinary and cross-cultural exploration of the book, with a focus on technologies of writing and the reproduction of writing. The course takes a thematic approach, as a way to explore, through specific examples, the diverse ways in which societies and communities, in different periods and environments, have developed and transmitted cultures of writing, recording, reproducing, disseminating and reading texts. Among the themes that we shall explore in the course are cultures of writing, the materiality and aesthetics of the book, texts and paratexts, beginnings and endings of books, ornamentation, illumination, illustration or the lack of illustration, strategies developed to facilitate reading, the reproduction, dissemination and reception of books, the classification, storage and retrieval of books, the collecting and curation of books, and the circulation, suppression and censorship of books. Drawn from various cultural, religious and linguistic contexts, our examples may include texts written in Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Arabic, Persian, Ethiopian, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and modern European languages.

This course explores the explicit and implicit relationships between the Bible and politics in two distinct but interconnected contexts: Africa and the US. We will study how biblical texts and their complicated history of interpretation have shaped global discourse, political ideologies, international laws, moral debates, and justice. Topics of inquiry will include the Bible as a tool for cultural hegemony, the institution and abolition of slavery, and contemporary debates about gender, sexuality, human rights, and abortion access.

Students will develop skills for engaging primary sources including biblical texts, sermons, political speeches, constitutional articles and legal decisions to understand how biblical ideas continue to influence governance, identity, and resistance globally.

All persons and perspectives are welcome in this class. Previous knowledge or personal experience with the Bible, or the politics and history of Africa and the US is neither presumed nor necessary.

With readings, documentary films, discussions, and lectures, this course will examine the complex spiritual beliefs and expressions of peoples of African descent in Brazil, Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica, and North America. The course surveys African diasporic religions such as Candomble, Santeria, Voodoo, Shango, and African American religions. Attention will be paid to how diasporic Africans practice religion for self-definition, community building, and sociocultural critique, and for reshaping the religious and cultural landscapes of the Americas.