General provisions

The course is included in the Master's Programme in Religion in Peace and Conflict.

Entry requirements

A Bachelor's degree, equivalent to a Swedish Kandidatexamen, from an internationally recognised university. The main field of study must be within the Faculty of Theology, the Faculty of Arts, the Faculty of Languages, the Faculty of Law, the Faculty of Educational Sciences or the Faculty of Social Sciences. In addition, a documented independently written Bachelor's thesis (or Master's thesis) is required.

Learning outcomes

The course aims for the student to become better able to:

• reflect upon and analyse questions of religiously inflected mobilization, struggle and conflict, with attention to historical, sociocultural and biographical contexts;
• research such questions by seeking out relevant sources of information and assessing their validity;
• write about such questions, with attention to detail and incongruity, in essays as well as in short web-based reflections;
• speak about such questions in class presentations and discussions, with attention to the arts of public communication and persuasion.

Content

The course takes up episodes of today's turmoil, zeroing in on particular instances of religiously inflected mobilization, struggle and conflict. Using fresh articles distributed weekly as web links, we analyse social movements, ideological contention, nonviolent action and political violence in specific cultural contexts. The course culminates in a compulsory multi-day on-campus symposium of lectures, discussions and exercises.

Instruction

The course is a distance-learning course. The students must fulfil written assignment and on-line seminar within specified time. Contact between teachers and students takes place via a learning platform. There are a few days of compulsory attendance on campus in Uppsala. A computer with Internet connection is essential.

Assessment

The course is assessed on the basis of active participation in mandatory seminar discussions, written assignments (5.5 credits) and active participation at the campus week in Uppsala (2 credits). If there are special reasons for doing so, an examiner may make an exception from the method of assessment indicated and allow a student to be assessed by another method. An example of special reasons might be a certificate regarding special pedagogical support from the University's disability coordinator.

Other regulations

Please note that the stated teaching methods may be replaced by self-studies if there is a very low number of students.

Transitional provisions

Students retain the right to be examined on the course according to this syllabus for 3 semesters after their course instance has ended. Normally, instruction will be given according to the latest version of the course syllabus only.