RELGST 1243 - JEWS AND THE BODY

Minimum Credits: 3
Maximum Credits: 3
Long Description Jews are not only the "People of the Book," but also a people whose books are deeply concerned with the body. This course examines the body as a religious site to explore key questions about humanity, holiness, gender, sexuality, identity, otherness, community, tradition, and health. We will approach religion as a human phenomenon, studying Jewish bodily practices-rituals, commandments, and cultural behaviors-through critical historical and sociological lenses. These practices reflect Judaism's diversity across time and space. We will consider both historical and contemporary Jewish experiences of the body, covering such topics as food, sexuality, reproduction, queerness, health, and death. Questions we will discuss in this course include: How do Jewish practices shape ideas of the body, and conceptions of the body shape Jewish practice? How do Jewish bodily practices engage with scientific developments? How do Jewish cultures imagine bodies that are hungry, pleasured, gendered, transgendered, sexual, transgressive, differently-abled, well, sick, and mortal? All of these issues and more come into play when we shift our attention from the image of Jews as a textual community to the ways that Jews have understood and managed their embodied selves.
Academic Career: Undergraduate
Course Component: Seminar
Grade Component: LG/SNC Elective Basis

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