RELIGIOUS WORLDS OF NEW YORK

Professors:

John S. Hawley
219A Milbank
4-5292; jsh3@columbia.edu
Office hours: TW 11-12

Courtney Bender
613 Kent Hall
4-3716; cb337@columbia.edu
Office hours: Wed 4-6

Seminar goals:

1) Observing religion.
Much work in the Religion Departments at Barnard and Columbia is text-based.
We will read in this course too, but a major objective here is to learn to "read experience."
We hope to develop the capability to observe religion as lived.

2) New York religion.
We expect, through readings and projects already structured into this syllabus
and through sustained exposure to projects of studentsí own devising, to learn something of the complex
texture of religious life in New York City.

3) Urban/metropolitan religion.
The argument is sometimes made that religion in dense urban spaces is characteristically very different
from religion as it appears elsewhere.  New York provides numerous ways to explore that idea, especially
insofar as it encompasses a variety of ethnic and immigrant groups and individuals; encourages the
generation of new, complex, and hybrid forms of cultural life that are less possible in smaller populations;
and is in places unusually "virtual" and transnational in its sense of itself.
 
 

Seminar requirements:

Field observation: three projects of growing intensity, with accompanying write-ups

1.  Mapping the religious landscape:
You and a partner will canvass a discrete area of Morningside Heights for public displays of religion.
This project will introduce you to the variety of ways that religion is manifest throughout daily life
in the city, and (with any luck) expand your vision of religious life in New York.
Assignment: a visual map, and a short written analysis.

2. Initial religious investigations:
A one-time visit to a Hindu temple. You will write field notes and a short field report based on your visit.
You will also read others' reports and  generate reflections on the differences or similarities in field reports
based on the same events. This project will provide you with some excellent experience in "the field," and a
chance to think specifically about the ways that different styles and pre-existing assumptions influence the field research project.
Assignment: Field notes (no page limit), field report (3-5 pages) and written critique of the process (5-7 pages).
 

3. "In-depth" religious encounters:
You will select a religious community or site to visit individually on an ongoing basis throughout the term.
To best facilitate learning in this course, we ask that you choose to investigate a religious community in which you
have not previously participated in any extended way. Your visits to this site or community will form the backbone of
your seminar paper.
Assignment: Seminar paper (10-15 pages).

Class presentation
 
 
 

Texts:

The following texts are available for purchase at Labyrinth Books.
Other required readings will be distributed in class or made available to photocopy.

Karen Brown, Mama Lola, A Voudou Priestess in Brooklyn
Lis Harris, Holy Days, the World of a Hasidic Family
Robert Orsi, The Madonna of 115th Street
H. Wolcott, The Art of Field Work
Robert Orsi, ed., Gods of the City
Johanna Lessinger, From Ganges to the Hudson

All books are on reserve in the Barnard library.

In addition, the following books on ethnographic practice may be of interest. They are on reserve at Barnard.

Robert Emerson, Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes (California)
Lofland and Lofland, Analyzing Social Settings (Wadsworth)
G. McCracken, The Long Interview (Sage)
John van Maanen, Tales of the Field: On Writing Ethnography (Chicago)
Robert Emerson, ed., Contemporary Field Research (Waveland)

Other resources (web based):

Schedule:

6 September
Introductions
 
 

13 September
Encounters

Assignment:

Mapping project

"Crossing the City Line," Robert Orsi (introduction to Gods of the City)
Excerpts from One Nation Under God, Kosmin and Lachman
"Religion" in Encyclopedia of New York, Kenneth Jackson, ed.

20 September
Field Work: time, space, ethnographer

Assignment: 1-2 page independent project proposal

Readings:

Wolcott, The Art of Fieldwork ch. 5
William H. Whyte, "The Social Life of Streets" in City
Emerson, Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes chs. 1-3

22 and 24 September: class visits to temples on Bowne Street, Queens
 

27 September
Hinduism in New York

 Assignment:

Fieldnotes and field report from Queens

Lessinger, From Ganges to the Hudson

4 October
Hinduism continued

Assignment:

Critical reflection on field report and notes

Diana L. Eck, "Negotiating Hindu Identities in America"
Joanne Waghorne, "The Hindu Gods in a Split-Level World:  The Sri Siva-Visnu Temple in Suburban Washington, D.C.," in Gods of the City
Anand Mohan et al., "The Pilgrimage" and other snippets, in Asian Religions in America
R. Scott Hanson, "Sri Maha Vallabha Ganapati Devasthanam of Flushing, New York."

Compare the temple website at http://www.indianet.com/ganesh.

Raymond Brady Williams, Religions of Immigrants from India and Pakistan:  New Threads in an American Tapestry chapter 5  pp. 152-185.

Compare the website at http://www.swaminarayan-baps.org.

Gregg Hansbury, "Twice Exiled:  Devotion, Community, and Education in a Guyanese-American Mandir," paper for "Religious World of New York," 1999.
Michelle Caswell,  "Hindu Sacred Space on American Soil:  The Divya Dham Temple of Woodside, Queens," paper for "Religious Worlds of New York," Columbia University, 1996. http://www.barnard.edu/religion/pages/students.html

11 October
Fieldwork discussions

Readings:

Emerson, Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes, chapters 4 and 6 (recommended: ch. 5)
Samuel Freedman, "Return to the Rock"
Robert Orsi, "Have You Ever Prayed to St. Jude?"
Gary Alan Fine, "Ten Fictions of Ethnography"

Assignment:

Field notes, analytical notes and "theme"

R. Stephen Warner, "The Place of the Congregation in American Religious History" in American Congregations
Nancy Ammerman, "Bowling Together"
Scott Cormode, "Churches and Secular Voluntary Associations in the Turn of the Century City" in Sacred Companies
Rogaia Mustafa Abusharaf, "Structural Adaptations in an Immigrant Muslim Congregation in New York" in Gatherings in the Diaspora

25 October
Religion on the street

Readings:

Joseph Sciorra,  "We Go Where the Italians Live: Religious Processions as Ethnic and Territorial Markers in a Multi-Ethnic Brooklyn Neighborhood" in Orsi, ed. Gods of the City
Wayne Ashley, "The Stations of the Cross: Christ, Politics, and Processions on New York City's Lower East Side" in Gods of the City
Diane Winston, "Cathedral of the Open Air" in Gods of the City

1 November
Reading New York's Religious Worlds

Reading:

Robert Orsi, The Madonna of 115th Street

Assignment:

Field notes and analytical writing

Lis Harris, Holy Days: The World of a Hasidic Family

Reading:

Karen Brown, Mama Lola: A Voudou Priestess in Brooklyn

Assignment:

   Draft of project due 12 noon

28 November TUESDAY EVENING

Class presentations: Professor Hawley's residence, 7-9 p.m.

Class presentations

 Final draft of independent project due

Last updated: 6 September2000