RESA3201 – Bachelor Thesis: Religion and Politics in Global Perspective

Schedule, syllabus and examination date

Course content

Religion and politics are often thought of as two fields of human activity, which are best kept separate in modern, liberal societies. Yet at the same time – for better or worse, to a greater or lesser extent – religion and politics interact extensively in the modern world. This course aims to explore those interactions.

We will begin on a conceptual level: What is politics? What is the function of politics? What types of political systems exist?

After addressing these questions, we will explore why and how religion is becoming increasingly relevant for politics and how religions can contribute to public debates. Religious interest groups and institutions may support specific policies, voice their positions in public debates, and seek to influence political decision-making processes.

At the same time, we will see that national politics can have a significant impact on the religious landscape of their country. We will study the “politics of religion” by addressing different cases and comparing the effect of different state-religion relationships.

Learning outcome

Knowledge

  • Conceptual understanding of politics and its function as well as of different political systems.
  • Critical assessment of the rising relevance of religion in politics and its potential contribution to public debates and political decision-making.
  • An overview of state-religion relationship and the ways in which politics influence religions and seek to manage religious diversity.

Skills

  • Ability to think and discuss in a nuanced way changes and contestations in and between religious and political traditions, to understand where these processes come from and to discuss where they may be headed.
  • Ability to examine and assess policies on religion in different parts of the world, and to discuss their influence on religious practice.

General Competence

  • Ability to read, systematize and critically reflect academic contributions from a variety of different disciplines.
  • Ability to formulate independent research questions on the interrelationship between politics and religion.

Admission

Students who are admitted to study programmes at UiO must each semester register which courses and exams they wish to sign up for in Studentweb.

If you are not already enrolled as a student at UiO, please see our information about admission requirements and procedures.

Students must be admitted to the bachelorprogramme in Religion and Society. 

Prerequisites

Formal prerequisite knowledge

Recommended previous knowledge

Fullf?rt de to f?rste studie?rene av studieprogrammet.

Teaching

Lectures are given together with course RESA3101: 

The classes are seminars and active participation is expected. During the seminars, there will be given short lectures to introduce new themes/subthemes and short student presentations of relevant texts. Priority is given to discussion, application and reflection exercises in relation to primary themes.

The language of this course is English.

The student will be assigned to a tutor and will be given four tutorials during the semester.

Mandatory activities

  • A first version of the bachelor proposal (approx. 400 words) outlining the topic, research question and working plan for the bachelor thesis
  • Presentations of the first version of the bachelor proposal during the second bachelor thesis meeting
  • A revised version of the bachelor proposal (approx. 500 words)
  • Presentations of the revised version of the bachelor proposal during the third bachelor thesis meeting
  • For selected course meetings (approx. 5 meetings), submission and presentation of a summary (approx. 200 words) engaging with the reading for the seminar

 All the aforementioned items of the examination must be provided in English language.

Examination

Bachelor Thesis of 6000-8000 Words written in English language.

Submit assignments in Inspera

You submit your assignment in the digital examination system Inspera.