Through collaborative-based learning projects, students and teachers will explore critical issues and develop sound criteria for doing interdisciplinary work in religious studies. Students will practice skills for modelling their potential dissertation project, and engage in learning the present contours of their field(s). Featured guest lectures and interactive forums with both alumni and current faculty from GTU departments will provide further tools for navigating the GTU doctoral program, and imagining future professional horizons. Requirements: student presentations and a final paper that is developed throughout the duration course; occasional attendance of departmental colloquia. This course is required for all students in the first year of the GTU PhD and ThD programs. [Auditors excluded]
RITUAL THEORY, RITUAL PRACTICE This doctoral seminar will explore the changing theoretical interpretations of ""ritual"" in contemporary scholarship in the humanities and social sciences, and the implications of this evolution for the interdisciplinary study of religion and liturgical practice. Students will engage in critical analysis of various theories of ritual, and research new developments in the emerging sub-fields of religious-ritual and liturgical-ritual studies. Evaluation will be based on participation in /leadership of seminar discussion, brief oral presentations, weekly written assignments, and a final paper/project. [Faculty Consent required; max enrollment 10]