Religion Archives - Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences

In May 2018, �Ӱ�ԭ�� students will again be traveling to the ‘Holy Land’ and walking through these ancient sites, experiencing them not only as travelers but as young scholars.

The travel course poster touts 5000 years of religion and culture in 20 days. If that sounds like a marathon, it is!

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Open to undergraduate and graduate students, the course explores religion and culture in the ‘Holy Land’ from the ancient period to the present day. Practically, that means that our traveling classroom will include exploring 14 archeological sites (including a Dig for a Day), walking each of the stations of the Cross along the Via Dolorosa, experiencing the beauty of Al Aqsa, moving through the cool stone interiors of a medieval fort in Akko, meeting contemporary activists such the Women of the Wall.

Learning about the Bar Kokhba revolt in class was always interesting – it’s an exciting story about the near-successful overthrow for Roman imperial power by a small underdog community of Jews. … Learning about Bar Kokhba in the setting of modern-day Israel became interesting for other reasons on this trip. By being in the tunnels and crawling into one of the caves, we were able to participate in this history. Watching the desert landscape pass us by as we drove to the cave on the bus brought the into my own life in a way that enabled me to understand it as I never had before. – Sophie Crump, currently MA student in Religion and Public Life.

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This year’s course also brings together �Ӱ�ԭ�� students with international scholars and students through a partnership with and Tel Aviv University. Fortified by much falafel and ice cream, students experience the rhythms of life in the ‘Holy Land’ as a culturally and religiously diverse modern country: from each of the traditional four quarters of Jerusalem (Armenian, Christian, Muslim and Jewish), to lunch with the Druze, to an Orthodox home Shabbat in Jerusalem, floating in the Dead Sea, crossing into the West Bank and camel riding in the Judean desert, hearing the call to prayer from Mosques against the chiming of church bells and the loud beats of dance music in the streets.

We arrived at the site after four a.m. and climbed the fortress in order to be able to see the sunrise over the Dead Sea. I had already climbed the fortress before, however this time it seemed to take much longer and be much more difficult (definitely the most physically exhausting thing I had done in a very long time). I was later told that we had actually climbed up the “snake path” and not the ramp that the Romans had built to lay siege on the fortress. Trying to pace myself zig-zagging in the almost total darkness, I kept telling myself not to look up too frequently only to see how much further I had to climb, and tried to remind myself how the invading Romans must have done something very similar in heavy armour. Once I had finally made it up to the top, completely exhausted, I was excited to see the rest of the group there, waiting for the sun to rise. It was a really beautiful experience, and it was hilarious to take part in cheering on Helios/Apollo with the rest of the group as the sun steadily crept up over the horizon. – Natalie Pochtaruk, current Hums student.

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FASS is home to several travel courses with good reason; former FASS Dean John Osborn fostered these courses that will stand out as bright memories of their time at �Ӱ�ԭ��. For students in FASS, who have studied the texts, architecture, art, history, religion, literature, politics, and culture of what we call the “West”, the travel course experience brings their studies to life. It is one thing to study, for example, the diversity of Christianity from a textbook. It is another to see the infamous ladder that cannot be moved in the because of strict rules about each denomination’s rights in this venerated sacred space.

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Participants are characteristically diverse in their backgrounds and academic interests. The course has no prerequisites and attracts students from all programs at both the undergraduate and graduate levels as well as auditors who are interested in traveling with an academic focus and experts in the area.

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The one difficult part, which the readings brought up, is the fact that for Arabs, this holiday is in fact a day of mourning, for the country, land, and independence that was lost. Despite the almost Biblical return of the Jews to the land of Israel, the Palestinian displacement is just one example (albeit a very significant one) of the various religious claims within Israel. – Simon Zeldin (4th year student in 2014).

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I was happy to dance and have fun with Israeli students, but I was completely overcome by the sight of the running orthodox men. Some had their arms around each others’ shoulders and they skipped and sang even as they ran. I was overjoyed simply at their display of joy and the fact that they had an environment in which they could engage in such a euphoric celebration of the state. I saw all members of Israeli society celebrate that night. Arabic music and dancing in the streets, a secular party environment, and a riotous and orthodox run around the wall. I’d be lying if I said that I knew what to make of it, but I saw a lot of joy from various different factions in Israeli society and the joy gives me great hope. Though what I read presented the idea of rifts between members of Israeli society, I saw only happiness. The groups may not have been celebrating immediately together but they celebrated the same thing at the same time in the same place. And if you can agree on at least one thing, I would say you have at least a starting point for unity. The shared air of celebration was a sight that gave me great hope for positive relations between Israelis and Arabs and understanding between Jews in Israel who adhere to different types of Judaism. – Sarah Cook, 4th Year student in 2014, student MA in Religion and Public Life currently.

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Religious difference is part of the history of this land, and part of the appeal of the course for many students – they want to understand what they see in the news. While the focus of the course is not the conflict, participants inevitably come away with a richer, more personal and more nuanced understanding of the history this place and how that history drives contemporary debates.

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This year’s course is again being offered by Professor Deidre Butler, program, College of Humanities. In the hopes of building a long-term sustainable travel course bi-annual program through university partnerships, Professor Mary Hale (Religious Studies, St-Mary’s University, Halifax) will be joining the course with several of her undergraduate and MA students.

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Spaces are available for both students and auditors with online applications and a 150$ refundable deposit.
More info about the course (including fees and deadlines)
Course travel itinerary

Questions? Contact Deidre Butler.

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Reflecting on Twenty Years of The Bachelor of Humanities

cuthemeedtr5 — Mon, 03 Oct 2016 16:41:16 +0000

Reflecting on Twenty Years of The Bachelor of Humanities

September 16, 2021

College of the Humanities

Religion

On Friday the 30^th of September, the program welcomed alumni and their families back to �Ӱ�ԭ�� to celebrate the program’s 20^th anniversary. Faculty and former students caught up with each other at an informal pub-night and a gala dinner, and seven alumni turned the tables on their former professors by giving a series of TED-style talks on their current experience and expertise from the front of their old lecture-hall. A family picnic and an opportunity for current students to connect with alumni as mentors rounded out the weekend.

The Divine Comedy, s, XV, Dante writing, Gothic art, Miniature Painting

In the mid 1990s, a group of professors who were unhappy with the state of Canadian liberal arts education decided to found the College of the Humanities at �Ӱ�ԭ��. They followed the elite Great-Books model pioneered by American institutions such as the University of Chicago and St. John’s College, which emphasizes primary texts and small discussion groups.

After extensive discussion at all levels of the , the opened its doors in 1996, under the direction of Professor Peter Emberley, with a mandate to recruit some of the best students in Canada and to give them a deep and comprehensive liberal arts education. The elite model of the Bachelor of Humanities was soon followed by other limited-enrolment programs at �Ӱ�ԭ��, such as the Arthur Kroeger College of Public Affairs.

“I cannot imagine a more gratifying environment to teach in. The students are really brilliant. They do the reading. They attend the lectures. They speak up in discussion group. What more could you want?” remarks Professor Erik Stephenson, who teaches the Core-Humanities Seminar in Ancient and Medieval philosophy.

Bachelor of Humanities students such as religion, philosophy, literature, history, and political theory, through a series of Core–Humanities Seminars, each taught by two professors, including small discussion groups. But they supplement this core with required courses in Greek and Roman literature, the early history of the Abrahamic religions, the history of art, the history of music, British and European literature, and modern science.

Unlike most liberal arts programs, the Bachelor of Humanities has a significant Eastern component, and its students study the great Hindu texts such as the Bhagavad-Gita and Chinese texts such as the Tao Te Ching with as much excitement as they study Plato’s Republic or Dante’s Divine Comedy. In all of their courses the focus is on reading , and students graduate with first-hand knowledge of Homer, Plato, Augustine, Dante, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Voltaire, Mary Shelley, Nietzsche, Hannah Arendt, Heidegger, and many others.

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At first Humanities students were restricted to only four concentrations, in the liberal arts, philosophy, literature, and history, but very soon the faculty realized their students had a much wider range of interests than they had anticipated.A curriculum change allowed students to pair their Humanities core with the full range of combined honours subjects at �Ӱ�ԭ��. of the Humanities program were added — Humanities and Biology, Humanities with a Study-Year Abroad, Journalism and Humanities — allowing students to use the program as an academic home-base while pursuing even wider interests.

“Our students are incredibly diverse,” says Professor Kimberly Stratton. “They are interested in everything. They all read the same core texts, but then they get interested in diverse subjects like graphic-novel versions of the Bible, the neglected writings of Early Modern female philosophers, or creating music for the surviving lyrics of Medieval troubadours.”

In the meantime, the College of the Humanities itself expanded beyond the original Bachelor of Humanities program, adding a B.A. in , a B.A. and M.A. in , and a minor in , which have proven to be very popular choices for the ‘combined’ portion of Bachelor of Humanities students’ degrees. With the broad variety of subjects that Humanities students now combine with the core studies of their degree, from English to Biology, Philosophy to Art History, Human Rights to Nutrition, the Bachelor of Humanities is easily the most interdisciplinary program at �Ӱ�ԭ��.

Students still benefit from the small community offered by the program. Seventy keen minds join their ranks each year, becoming close friends with each other and with their professors. Students support each other in their studies, and remain in touch for years after they graduate. “Some of my best friends are former students,” says Professor Gregory MacIsaac. “Erik Stephenson, for example, was one of the smartest students I ever taught, and he is now a dear friend, in addition to being one of my colleagues. It is such a joy for me to teach HUMS 2000 with him, and really to continue a philosophical conversation that we started over fifteen years ago.”

Humanities graduates have proven to be . A large percentage of them have gone on to further study at prestigious graduate schools such as Harvard, Oxford, the University of Chicago, Boston University, Notre Dame, the London School of economics, Sciences Po (Paris), McGill, the University of Toronto, and many others. Many have entered prestigious professional programs in fields such as law, medicine, or journalism. Alumni work in interesting and challenging careers in fields such as the arts, business, education, international development, cultural planning, high-tech, or public policy, and many others. In all cases graduates report that the skills they learned in Humanities—thoughtful reflection, clarity of written and oral expression, a comfort with diverse viewpoints—have been the foundation of their success.

The Bachelor of Humanities program has much to celebrate. Twenty years of reading, writing and thinking has produced a growing body of interesting and accomplished alumni. The celebration weekend was a wonderful opportunity for them to meet old friends, pick up old conversations, and start new ones. With their support, and a continuing commitment to the principles of Great Books education, the program can look forward to another twenty years of success.

Here are a few examples of the successful alumni of the Bachelor of Humanities program…

Amanda Hadi

Amanda Hadi (B.Hum, 2010) is a Toronto-based editor, cultural communications person and social media technocrat who has made a career successfully bridging the gap between a 19th-century impresario and a 21st-century internet meme generator. She is currently a full-time Digital Engagement Producer for the Toronto International Film Festival, and spends her evenings running the editorial and digital media strategy of the renowned Canadian indie opera company Against the Grain Theatre. She has worked for the Canadian Opera Company, the City of Ottawa Public Art Program, several creative branding studios in Toronto, and, most recently, as the Social Media Officer for the Art Gallery of Ontario. She has been profiled in Flare Magazine, NOW Magazine, Metro News and 500px.

Amanda on the College:

The College of Humanities equipped me with a set of specific skills that made me an appealing candidate for future employers in the creative industry. After four years in the program, I became a strong, persuasive writer and communicator; an eloquent and engaging speaker; a savant in the fields of opera, film, literature, and art history. Above all, Humanities instilled in me a taste and tenacity for learning. I’ve been able to move from a traditional print editorial career into new digital and technologically advanced fields — including social media, livestreaming, epublishing, and web management — because of my Humanities-taught ability to pick up new methods, theories and languages.

Some of Amanda’s related work:

Saleema Nawaz

Saleema Nawaz graduated from the College of the Humanities in 2002.

Since then, she has published a short-story collection, , and a novel, , both of which have received critical acclaim: Mother Superior won the 2008 Writers’ Trust / McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize; Bone and Bread won the Paragraphe Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction (2013) and was a finalist on CBC’s Canada Reads competition (2016).

Saleema discussing her experience with The College of the Humanities:

I feel incredibly privileged to have attended the College. It was an amazing time to encounter these great works and to think and work alongside other students and professors who believe that words matter. That ideas matter. To tell you the truth, I haven’t stopped thinking about the subjects I studied in Humanities. The works we studied are ones with which you could easily remain in conversation for a lifetime.

Jen Carswell graduated from the College of the Humanities in 2006. She went on to receive a master’s degree in journalism from the prestigious Centre de Formation des Journalistes in Paris four years later. After graduating, Jen worked as a production assistant at France 24, the rolling news channel in the French capital, before moving to the economics desk to become the morning business producer. She occupied this role for a year and a half. In 2012, Jen moved to London, England, where, within a few months, she took up a role at the British Broadcasting Corporation as a broadcast journalist for World Television. She has worked as a senior producer for both news and business news over the last three and a half years.

Jen on her experience in the College of the Humanities:

Humanities was where I learned to think. It’s when I discovered what real critical thought was and began to apply it not only to my studies but the world around me. I continue to use the skills and judgment that I cultivated during my time at the college on nearly a daily basis. I don’t think I’d be the journalist I am today without that particular education; I am not sure I’d be the person that I am today either.

Francis Bakewell

Technically, Francis Bakewell didn’t actually graduate the program, as he was accepted into medical school early, after his 3rd year of Hums. He was in the class of 2010.

Francis is currently in the 5th year of residency in emergency medicine at the University of Ottawa/The Ottawa Hospital. He’s also an MHSc. candidate in Bioethics at the Joint Centre for Bioethics at the University of Toronto.

Francis on his experience in the College of the Humanities:

The College of the Humanities provides a broad and yet extraordinarily thorough education in the essential works of civilization. Its students engage not only with original sources, but with their peers, and their professors, in a conversation that has spanned millennia. At the same time, it offers the flexibility, and instills the confidence, to pursue a wide range of particular academic interests, whether in history, literature, philosophy, music, art, or the sciences. In so doing, Humanities students learn to think critically, actively, and passionately about both who we are as a species, and who they want to be as individuals It’s an exercise in empathy that serves me every day in the emergency room, where we’re routinely confronted with the highs and lows of human experience, often at its most visceral. Studying at the College laid the foundation for my understanding of human suffering and pain, but more importantly happiness and hope, and I can’t imagine where (or who) I’d be were it not for my time there.

Deepro Chowdhury graduated from the program in 2015 and is currently studying medicine at McMaster Medical School in Hamilton, Ontario. In the future he hopes to train as an oncologist.

Deepro Chowdhury

Deepro on the College:

I’m always thrilled to explain to people what I did my undergrad in (Humanities and Biology). Far from being sceptical, everyone I’ve talked to has been interested to hear that I come from a non-traditional (e.g., biochemistry, health sciences, etc.) academic background. The HUMS program gave me excellent preparation for the medical school admissions process as well as McMaster’s medical program especially. The curriculum is based on small-group, discussion based learning, which is more or less exactly what happens in HUMS discussion groups as well.” “There’s also a huge emphasis (at McMaster especially) on the social determinants of health, which often revolve around questions about human psychology, equal opportunities, stigmatization, etc. I’ve found these classes to be essentially a practical application of the “big questions” considered in the humanities program. Medicine is definitely moving away from the concept of the physician as scientist and the humanities program (I think) really goes a long way towards training students to be the kind of doctor that programs are hoping to produce.
As an addendum (since I’ve been told this is something that lots of prospective students worry bout), I’ve never had any concern about my relative lack of science training relative to my classmates. Doctors are not expected to be biochemists or electrophysiologists – the undergraduate science courses I took while studying the Humanities were more than sufficient to prepare me for the medical school curriculum.

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SANTHARA – A Challenge to Indian Secularism

cuthemeedtr5 — Fri, 30 Sep 2016 14:28:44 +0000

SANTHARA – A Challenge to Indian Secularism

September 16, 2021

College of the Humanities

Religion

Supported by the and the Edgar and Dorothy Davidson Fund in Religious Studies, attend a screening of SANTHARA, an award-winning documentary by , a Mumbai, India-based columnist, law professor, and film-maker. Hattangadi’s interest in the interface between secular law and religious ritual has resulted in a thought-provoking look at the sacred Jain end-of-life fasting ritual and its repercussions in Indian society. Lecture/discussion on October 14th by Prof. Hattangadi to follow the screening.

“SANTHARA”

(A Documentary Film by Shekhar Hattangadi)

SYNOPSIS:

What happens when a traditional religious practice violates the law? This is the central question which the documentary film Santhara addresses. It looks at the tensions that arise and the sparks that fly in such a situation.

Particularly in societies which remain largely faith-based despite their outer trappings of profane modernity, the interface of governance and religion is fraught with tensions caused by friction between religiously mandated rituals and practices and the essential legal and constitutional principles of a secular-democratic polity. In India, the incompatibility between law and religious orthodoxy has manifested in several forms, but most dramatically in the case of “religious suicides” — typically where a religious or sectarian tradition endorses the self-extinguishment of human life — as they occur in a legal system that treats suicide as a criminal offence.

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This documentary film explores the dimensions of the by focusing on the doctrinal-scriptural, ethical, medico-legal and sociological aspects of the controversial Jain practice of Santhara, in which a person gives up food and drink after taking a vow of abstinence, resulting in death by starvation. Based on interviews with, among others, the litigants and their representatives involved in a public-interest litigation in the Rajasthan High Court in 2015 calling for a ban on the practice, the film looks at how religion, law and constitutional secularism over Santhara. The Rajasthan HC judgment originally characterized it as a form of “suicide” and effectively criminalized and banned the practice, although the Supreme Court has stayed the ban for now.

All the same, the practice of Santhara remains a classic example of the law-religion conflict, and provides an ideal template for debating the question of reconciling individual freedom and personal liberty as well as a minority community’s religious rights on the one hand, and, on the other, the justification for state intervention in matters of religion. The film also depicts the last moments in the life of a Jain sadhvi (nun) who adopted this practice.

Exploring Israel 2016: Life Changing Travel Course Opportunity

cuthemeedtr5 — Mon, 25 Jan 2016 19:10:39 +0000

Exploring Israel 2016: Life Changing Travel Course Opportunity

September 16, 2021

College of the Humanities

Religion

Masada, The Gardens of Gethsemane, The Bahai Gardens, The Al Aqsa Mosque and The Western Wall

In May 2016, �Ӱ�ԭ�� students will again be traveling to Israel and walking through these ancient sites, experiencing them not only as travellers but as young scholars. poster touts 5000 years of religion and culture in 23 days. If that sounds like a marathon, it is!

Download Israel Travel information poster (PDF)

The course explores religion and culture in the land of Israel from the ancient period to the present day. Practically, that means that our traveling classroom will include exploring 11 archeological sites, walk each of the stations of the Cross along the Via Dolorosa, experience the beauty of Al Aqsa, move through the cool stone interiors of a medieval fort in Akko, and hear from contemporary activists such the Women of the Wall.

Living History

Learning about the in class was always interesting – it’s an exciting story about the near-successful overthrow for Roman imperial power by a small underdog community of Jews. … Learning about Bar Kokhba in the setting of modern-day Israel became interesting for other reasons on this trip. By being in the tunnels and crawling into one of the caves, we were able to participate in this history. Watching the desert landscape pass us by as we drove to the cave on the bus brought the Revolt into my own life in a way that enabled me to understand it as I never had before.

Sophie Crump – currently MA student in Religion and Public Life

This year’s course also brings together �Ӱ�ԭ�� students with international scholars and students through a partnership with Hebrew University and Tel Aviv University. Fortified by much falafel and ice cream, students experience the rhythms of life in Israel as a culturally and religiously diverse modern country: from lunch with the Druze, to a traditional home Shabbat in Jerusalem, floating in the Dead Sea, camel riding in the Judean dessert, hearing the call to prayer from Mosques against the chiming of church bells and the loud beats of dance music in the streets.

Climbing Masada

We arrived at the site after four a.m. and climbed the fortress in order to be able to see the sunrise over the Dead Sea. I had already climbed the fortress before, however this time it seemed to take much longer and be much more difficult (definitely the most physically exhausting thing I had done in a very long time). I was later told that we had actually climbed up the “snake path” and not the ramp that the Romans had built to lay siege on the fortress. Trying to pace myself zig-zagging in the almost total darkness, I kept telling myself not to look up too frequently only to see how much further I had to climb, and tried to remind myself how the invading Romans must have done something very similar in heavy armour. Once I had finally made it up to the top, completely exhausted, I was excited to see the rest of the group there, waiting for the sun to rise. It was a really beautiful experience, and it was hilarious to take part in cheering on Helios/Apollo with the rest of the group as the sun steadily crept up over the horizon.

Natalie Pochtaruk – current Humanities student

FASS is home to several travel courses with good reason; former FASS Dean John Osborne fostered these courses in the conviction that students will recall these courses as highlights of their time at �Ӱ�ԭ��. For students in FASS, who have studied the texts, architecture, art, history, religion, literature, politics, and culture of what we call the “West”, the Israel Travel course experience brings their studies to life. It is one thing to study, for example, the diversity of Christianity from a textbook. It is another to see the that cannot be moved in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher because of strict rules about each denomination’s rights in this venerated sacred space.

Participants are characteristically diverse in their backgrounds and academic interests. The course has no prerequisities and attracts students from all programs at both the undergraduate and graduate levels as well as auditors who are interested in traveling with an academic focus and experts in the area.

Thinking about Israeli Independence Day – Appreciating Different Perspectives

The one difficult part, which the readings brought up, is the fact that for Arabs, this holiday is in fact a day of mourning, for the country, land, and independence that was lost. Despite the almost Biblical return of the Jews to the land of Israel, the Palestinian displacement is just one example (albeit a very significant one) of the various religious claims within Israel.

Simon Zeldin – 4th year student in 2014

I was happy to dance and have fun with Israeli students, but I was completely overcome by the sight of the running orthodox men. Some had their arms around each others’ shoulders and they skipped and sang even as they ran. I was overjoyed simply at their display of joy and the fact that they had an environment in which they could engage in such a euphoric celebration of the state. I saw all members of Israeli society celebrate that night. Arabic music and dancing in the streets, a secular party environment, and a riotous and orthodox run around the wall. I’d be lying if I said that I knew what to make of it, but I saw a lot of joy from various different factions in Israeli society and the joy gives me great hope. Though what I read presented the idea of rifts between members of Israeli society, I saw only happiness. The groups may not have been celebrating immediately together but they celebrated the same thing at the same time in the same place. And if you can agree on at least one thing, I would say you have at least a starting point for unity. The shared air of celebration was a sight that gave me great hope for positive relations between Israelis and Arabs and understanding between Jews in Israel who adhere to different types of Judaism.

Sarah Cook – 4th Year student in 2014, student MA in Religion and Public Life currently

Religious difference, cooperation, conflict and coexistence is entangled in the history and modern reality of this land, and is frankly part of the appeal of the course for many students –they want to understand what they see in the news. While the the focus of the course is not the conflict, student participants inevitably come away with a richer, more personal and more nuanced understanding of the history of this place and how that history drives contemporary debates.

This year’s course is again being offered by Professor Deidre Butler, Religion program, College of Humanities. In the hopes of building a long term sustainable Israel travel course bi-annual program through university partnerships, Professor Mary Hale (Religious Studies, St-Mary’s University, Halifax) will be joining the course with several of her undergraduate and MA students.

More Information

Spaces are still available for both students and auditors with online applications and a deposit due Feb 1.

For more information, contact deidre.butler@gmail.com
The Zelikovitz Centre for Jewish Studies Newsletter

is fundraising to assist students with their travel costs. We have just closed a successful futurefunder campaign that raised over 2500$. With the Canadian dollar’s fluctuations, students need even more support and several students have had to cancel with regret as the Canadian dollar has dropped. To help our students participate, please and specify the donation is for the Israel Travel Course.

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