Religion and the Sensorium

This seminar explores the sensorium—the interplay of sensory experience, embodiment, and culture—in religious contexts across diverse traditions and historical periods. As we examine foundational texts from the fields of phenomenology, cultural anthropology, material studies and affect theory, we will explore how a variety of approaches to theorizing sense, perception and affect can be brought into conversation with issues emerging within the study of specific religion traditions. Major questions that will preoccupy us in this regard include: How do sensory experiences shape religious practices and identities? What roles do material objects and environments play in mediating sensory encounters in both daily and ritual settings? How do religious traditions prioritize, contest, or balance sensory modalities such as sight, sound, touch, or taste? How do affective intensities influence sensory engagement in rituals and devotion? How, ultimately, do we think we perceive?

While this seminar is open to interested students from all disciplines, our work in this course is also designed to serve as a “zone of inquiry” seminar for the Religion Department’s graduate programs. “Zones of inquiry” seek to introduce students to a particular cluster of key concepts and various theoretical elaborations of those concepts, in order to aid students in honing their ability to reflect critically on and further develop central concepts that they bring to the specific traditions and phenomena of their research. A main goal of this course will therefore be to deepen our conceptual and analytical acumen and expand our theoretical resources at the intersection of religious studies and theories of media and the body.