Religion and Culture: The Sikh Experience
This course explores the conceptual foundations of both religion and culture. Do religions emerge out of culture, or, do they influence and shape cultural conventions? The course will begin with an analysis of the universalism associated with the conceptual formations of both religion and culture. After developing a perspective on the conceptual formations, the course will largely elaborate upon the Sikh experience with both religion and culture before and after the advent of modernity in Punjab.
This course explores the conceptual foundations of both religion and culture. Do religions emerge out of cultures, or, do they influence and shape cultural conventions? The course will begin with an analysis of the universalism associated with the conceptual formations of both religion and culture. After developing a perspective on the conceptual formations, the course will largely elaborate upon the Sikh experience with both religion and culture before and after the advent of modernity in Punjab.
- Origin and development of religion and culture as conceptual formations
- Locating religion and culture outside their conceptual foundations in the West
- Mapping out the Hindu, Muslim, and Sikh origins of Punjabi cultural conventions
- Colonialism, politics, and the emergence of the nationalist identities
- Secular narratives and ethnic foundations of identity
- Displacement, diaspora, and the desire to discover the roots
- Engaging with the lived experiences of religion and culture
Lecturer: Prabhsharandeep Singh
Prabhsharandeep Singh is a Sikh scholar whose research involves areas such Sikh Studies, Study of Religions, Religious Experience, Religion and Literature, Religion and Violence, Postcolonial Theory, Intellectual History, and Continental Philosophy. He has Masters in English (Punjabi University), Masters in Study of Religions (SOAS, University of London), DPhil cand. (University of Oxford). He writes poetry in Punjabi and English. He has recently published a collection of Punjabi poetry titled Des Nikala that has poems on the themes such as exile, memory, trauma, time, and language.
Land Acknowledgment
We acknowledge and respect the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the Coast Salish Peoples, including the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and Sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations, on which the Vancouver Institute of Interdisciplinary Studies operates. We honour and recognize these nations as the true stewards of this land and are grateful to have the opportunity to work, study, and learn on this territory.