Explorations in Religious Identity (RE 300 WR)

This is the beginning of your main project of writing a substantial research paper investigating a narrative tradition or story from your choice of religious tradition, such as Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Judaism, or Islam. In this paper you will investigate the ways in which the telling, retelling, sharing, and/or contesting of stories (or a particular story) impact the construction and maintenance of religious identity, community, and/or worldviews.

For this stage, you only need to come up with three possible ideas and three possible sources for each idea. If you would like to consult with me on finding a topic, I would be delighted to meet with you via Teams.

Just a note, if you have eight annotated sources (you can use your five previous sources if they are appropriate and add three more) and five pages (add three pages to your two-page proposal) then you will be fine. 

This is only graded in order to get you to put words on the page! Although you should put some thought into this, do not try for perfection or to get an "A." 

This, my friends, is the beginning of your shitty first draft. I will be grading leniently. 

And, just as an FYI, I have similar expectations for the "rough draft" due next week. It needn't be a completed draft, it just needs to be 8-15 pages of prose using academic, peer-reviewed sources. It should be a longer shitty first draft. In fact, if it is too good or too polished I may have to mark you down and/or invoke Vishnu's wrath down upon your head.

One ten-minute (or equivalent) summary of a weekly subject and/or reading of your choice.  You only need to do it once during the semester. It is 10% of your grade.

This is a chance to take a particular concept, system, figure, practice, or idea and creatively present it to the class. Previous students have given demonstrations and explanations of yoga, have created pieces of art, created videos, and given explanatory lectures on particular subjects.

It may be created using a medium of your choice (powerpoint, prezi, song, interpretive dance, artwork, short play or film, lecture, music video, etc.) If what you choose to do is not written, you should write a brief summary of your project and upload it to Turnitin during the appropriate week.

If you have questions or need direction, please email me for inspiration or direction. You may also choose to do a group project with your assigned small group (with prior approval; please contact me).

Please include a bibliography, but it no longer needs annotations (get rid of the summaries). The bibliography does not count toward the 8-15 pages.

REMEMBER: SHITTY ROUGH DRAFT!!!

One ten-minute (or equivalent) summary of a weekly subject and/or reading of your choice.  You only need to do it once during the semester. It is 10% of your grade.

This is a chance to take a particular concept, system, figure, practice, or idea and creatively present it to the class. Previous students have given demonstrations and explanations of yoga, have created pieces of art, created videos, and given explanatory lectures on particular subjects.

It may be created using a medium of your choice (powerpoint, prezi, song, interpretive dance, artwork, short play or film, lecture, music video, etc.) If what you choose to do is not written, you should write a brief summary of your project and upload it to Turnitin during the appropriate week.

If you have questions or need direction, please email me for inspiration or direction. You may also choose to do a group project with your assigned small group (with prior approval; please contact me).

One ten-minute (or equivalent) summary of a weekly subject and/or reading of your choice.  You only need to do it once during the semester. It is 10% of your grade.

This is a chance to take a particular concept, system, figure, practice, or idea and creatively present it to the class. Previous students have given demonstrations and explanations of yoga, have created pieces of art, created videos, and given explanatory lectures on particular subjects.

It may be created using a medium of your choice (powerpoint, prezi, song, interpretive dance, artwork, short play or film, lecture, music video, etc.) If what you choose to do is not written, you should write a brief summary of your project and upload it to Turnitin during the appropriate week.

If you have questions or need direction, please email me for inspiration or direction. You may also choose to do a group project with your assigned small group (with prior approval; please contact me).

One ten-minute (or equivalent) summary of a weekly subject and/or reading of your choice.  You only need to do it once during the semester. It is 10% of your grade.

This is a chance to take a particular concept, system, figure, practice, or idea and creatively present it to the class. Previous students have given demonstrations and explanations of yoga, have created pieces of art, created videos, and given explanatory lectures on particular subjects.

It may be created using a medium of your choice (powerpoint, prezi, song, interpretive dance, artwork, short play or film, lecture, music video, etc.) If what you choose to do is not written, you should write a brief summary of your project and upload it to Turnitin during the appropriate week.

If you have questions or need direction, please email me for inspiration or direction. You may also choose to do a group project with your assigned small group (with prior approval; please contact me).

One ten-minute (or equivalent) summary of a weekly subject and/or reading of your choice.  You only need to do it once during the semester. It is 10% of your grade.

This is a chance to take a particular concept, system, figure, practice, or idea and creatively present it to the class. Previous students have given demonstrations and explanations of yoga, have created pieces of art, created videos, and given explanatory lectures on particular subjects.

It may be created using a medium of your choice (powerpoint, prezi, song, interpretive dance, artwork, short play or film, lecture, music video, etc.) If what you choose to do is not written, you should write a brief summary of your project and upload it to Turnitin during the appropriate week.

If you have questions or need direction, please email me for inspiration or direction. You may also choose to do a group project with your assigned small group (with prior approval; please contact me).

One ten-minute (or equivalent) summary of a weekly subject and/or reading of your choice.  You only need to do it once during the semester. It is 10% of your grade.

This is a chance to take a particular concept, system, figure, practice, or idea and creatively present it to the class. Previous students have given demonstrations and explanations of yoga, have created pieces of art, created videos, and given explanatory lectures on particular subjects.

It may be created using a medium of your choice (powerpoint, prezi, song, interpretive dance, artwork, short play or film, lecture, music video, etc.) If what you choose to do is not written, you should write a brief summary of your project and upload it to Turnitin during the appropriate week.

If you have questions or need direction, please email me for inspiration or direction. You may also choose to do a group project with your assigned small group (with prior approval; please contact me).

As you know, there is a long tradition of retelling the Rāmāyaṇa, episodes from the Rāmāyaṇa, or characters’ experiences in the Rāmāyaṇa in highly creative ways for a variety of reasons. Sometimes retellers explore troubling issues in the epic or use the epic to examine current societal issues or find lessons to apply in their own lives. Others subvert it to show the inequities in South Asian society(-ies) while others rewrite it as a literary or devotional exercise.

For this exercise, choose an episode from the Rāmāyaṇa and retell it. If you are feeling particularly ambitious, you may attempt to retell the entire Rāmāyaṇa. The format that I am challenging you to use is that of a haiku. A haiku is a three-line poem in which the first line is comprised of five syllables, the second seven syllables, and the third five syllables.

In addition to this three-line poem, please create a 2-page double spaced document explaining the scene that you have chosen to retell, why you choose it, and the significance of each word or element in the haiku. You should contextualize the poem by referring to previous class readings: please give at least five citations (in total) to three different readings.

If any of you would like a little more space for your retelling, you may also compose a longer poem, screenplay, or short story but do not let either exceed two double-spaced pages, and you must still include the supplemental two-page document described above.

One ten-minute (or equivalent) summary of a weekly subject and/or reading of your choice.  You only need to do it once during the semester. It is 10% of your grade.

This is a chance to take a particular concept, system, figure, practice, or idea and creatively present it to the class. Previous students have given demonstrations and explanations of yoga, have created pieces of art, created videos, and given explanatory lectures on particular subjects.

It may be created using a medium of your choice (powerpoint, prezi, song, interpretive dance, artwork, short play or film, lecture, music video, etc.) If what you choose to do is not written, you should write a brief summary of your project and upload it to Turnitin during the appropriate week.

If you have questions or need direction, please email me for inspiration or direction. You may also choose to do a group project with your assigned small group (with prior approval; please contact me).

One ten-minute (or equivalent) summary of a weekly subject and/or reading of your choice.  You only need to do it once during the semester. It is 10% of your grade.

This is a chance to take a particular concept, system, figure, practice, or idea and creatively present it to the class. Previous students have given demonstrations and explanations of yoga, have created pieces of art, created videos, and given explanatory lectures on particular subjects.

It may be created using a medium of your choice (powerpoint, prezi, song, interpretive dance, artwork, short play or film, lecture, music video, etc.) If what you choose to do is not written, you should write a brief summary of your project and upload it to Turnitin during the appropriate week.

If you have questions or need direction, please email me for inspiration or direction. You may also choose to do a group project with your assigned small group (with prior approval; please contact me).

One ten-minute (or equivalent) summary of a weekly subject and/or reading of your choice.  You only need to do it once during the semester. It is 10% of your grade.

This is a chance to take a particular concept, system, figure, practice, or idea and creatively present it to the class. Previous students have given demonstrations and explanations of yoga, have created pieces of art, created videos, and given explanatory lectures on particular subjects.

It may be created using a medium of your choice (powerpoint, prezi, song, interpretive dance, artwork, short play or film, lecture, music video, etc.) If what you choose to do is not written, you should write a brief summary of your project and upload it to Turnitin during the appropriate week.

If you have questions or need direction, please email me for inspiration or direction. You may also choose to do a group project with your assigned small group (with prior approval; please contact me).

One ten-minute (or equivalent) summary of a weekly subject and/or reading of your choice.  You only need to do it once during the semester. It is 10% of your grade.

This is a chance to take a particular concept, system, figure, practice, or idea and creatively present it to the class. Previous students have given demonstrations and explanations of yoga, have created pieces of art, created videos, and given explanatory lectures on particular subjects.

It may be created using a medium of your choice (powerpoint, prezi, song, interpretive dance, artwork, short play or film, lecture, music video, etc.) If what you choose to do is not written, you should write a brief summary of your project and upload it to Turnitin during the appropriate week.

If you have questions or need direction, please email me for inspiration or direction. You may also choose to do a group project with your assigned small group (with prior approval; please contact me).