Nonviolence in Faith-Based Social Movements (IP-614)

Course Details:

Social movements are important arenas for social change.  Religion, faith and tactics of non-violence have played a significant role in many social movements.  By joining together, individuals and groups have worked to transform social values or norms, establish collective identities, change laws, and chart new ways of living, learning, and being. This class will aim to further our understanding of social movements and how faith helped shape the trajectories of the movements. We will focus on how that’s happened in the Americas while referring to similar movements from around the world.  Topics include racial identity, nationalism, Christianity, Islam, the civil rights movement, feminist approaches, and contemporary interfaith dialogue. Course material includes primary sources and analytical perspectives. We will examine how they develop, are sustained, have changed/evolved, and (sometimes) decline. We will begin by examining theories of social movements and look at the ways in which our understanding of social movements has changed over time. We will also examine mobilization to social movements and ask why some people come to participate while others do not, as well as the tactics, goals, and successes of various social movements. 

Course fulfills the following curricular requirements:
MAIRS - Islamic Studies: Beliefs and Practices
MAIRS - Ministerial Studies: Beliefs and Practices
MAIRS - Interreligious Studies Elective
MAC - Chaplaincy Elective
MAC - Islamic Chaplaincy Elective
MAP - Elective

Instructor(s):

• Cleotha Robertson

Course Downloads:

• Nonviolence and Faith-Based Social Movements.pdf