Department of Religious Studies

REL 525.001

Identity and Place

T | 1:30-3:20

PRH 210

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This seminar will focus on the importance of place in identity formation—specifically, how subjectivity emerges and evolves particularly in relation to migration and displacement. When, why, and by what means are regional and national affiliations claimed, curated, disavowed, or imposed? How and why are what kinds of borders made and unmade? What do these manufacturings have to do with time, a concept through which we imagine travel? And how might a careful examination of those phenomena affect studies of religion? We will draw primarily from migration theory, diaspora studies, and postcolonial studies, and we will give special emphasis to the Middle Passage and African diasporas (though there will be space for students to engage with contemporary examples relevant to their own research).

K. Merinda Simmons

• Office hours: 

  By appointment

• (205) 348-5271
• merinda.simmons@ua.edu