Course Schedule and Catalog

Department: Religion

Meeting: 4:00PM - 5:15PM TR (12-JAN-2026 - 24-APR-2026) 

Part of Term: Full Term

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Language of Instruction: Taught in English

Distribution Group: Distribution Group I

Method of Instruction: Face to Face

Credit Hours: 3

 

Section Max Enrollment: 15

Section Enrolled: 1

Total Cross-list Max Enrollment: 15

Total Cross-list Enrolled: 2

Waitlisted: 0 (Max 198) 

Current members of the waitlist have priority for available seats.

Enrollment data as of: 25-NOV-2025 6:11AM

 

 

Final Exam: Take-Home Exam

 

Description: This course explores how the concept of "Zion" has been imagined and reimagined across diverse cultural, historical, and artistic contexts. By examining Zion's multifaceted nature—from its origins in Jewish religious texts to its adoption and transformation in Black, Rastafarian, Protestant, and Palestinian contexts—we will engage with fundamental questions about homeland, belonging, sovereignty, utopia, and dystopia. Rather than approaching Zion solely as a geographical location or political project, this course investigates it as a powerful cultural symbol that has inspired artistic creation, political movements, and theological interpretation across centuries and continents. By pairing canonical texts with works that complicate and challenge dominant narratives, we will develop critical perspectives on how Zion functions simultaneously as a religious ideal, a promised land, a political project, a concrete place, as well as a site of contested sovereignty and displacement. Cross-list: JWST 203.