REL 4650 Ghosts, Demons, and Ancestors in Asian Religions

Course Outcomes

1. Students will demonstrate familiarity with the historical trajectories, key categories, and the interrelated development of the South and Southeast Asian religions under consideration.
2. Students will discuss with accuracy and sophistication a range of historical and contemporary beliefs, practices, and rituals related to spirits, ghosts, demons, ancestors, and the deified dead in each of these religious traditions.
3. Students will recognize how textual and elite discussions concerning death and the spirits of the deceased may shape and be reshaped by non-elite communities and by innovating practices.
4. Students will articulate a research question related to course themes, develop an argument and leverage theoretical sources in response to that question, and craft a research paper that investigates it.