Worlds Anew: Religion and Mutual Aid Syllabus

This seminar explores the role of religion in building worlds and economies beyond the violence of racial capitalism in our present. Amid new and ongoing crises, we know that mutual aid is always present. How can we amplify work that actualizes a world otherwise? Where do we see glimmers of this world taking shape? How can religion serve as a creative force in this work? This course takes inspiration from the movements for mutual aid flourishing in the United States and the deep traditions in which they are rooted. We embark on our semester’s journey with the understanding that the world we seek is one we must make together. That means that mutual aid is not only our topic of inquiry; it is also our method of study. As a practice, mutual aid calls us into different forms of being and being together. During the pandemic, for instance, many communities embraced efforts to build “pods” and other local infrastructures to support vulnerable community members and pursue visions of the common good. Inspired by these methods of cooperation, reciprocity, and solidarity built through care, we will use mutual aid practices to co-create our classroom learning community and to build collective knowledge with local activists. Our work together will be guided by several monographs that explore questions of mutual aid within and among the diversity of American religions. We will also engage with the zines, videos, and other forms of media that frontline activists are producing. These texts will buttress students’ own semester-long work on mutual aid research projects, for which they will complete weekly writing assignments that move through the steps of community-driven work: from co-conceptualizing a project, to co-building methodologies, to co-writing notes, to co-analyzing data, to co-producing final projects. Each week, we will devote in-class time to workshopping these assignments together in research “pods.” Experimental final projects are strongly encouraged!

Link to Resource