Osher Online Course - produced by the Osher National Resource Center
**To get to the course you will not be sent the Zoom link, but log into a portal (instructions will be provided to those enrolled)
**This course will be presented via Zoom and will not be recorded. Space is limited.**
**If you have a course package that you would like to use, please contact olli@sfsu.edu**
This course will be taught by the instuctor Kate Davis
America has provided fertile ground for new and alternative religions to sprout and grow. Some prosper and eventually become accepted as part of the normal religious landscape, some wither away and are forgotten, and some detonate, creating public scandal and in the worst cases, national tragedy. This course will examine New Religious Movements, popularly known as "cults", within the US context. We will examine these religious movements both from insider perspectives and outsider perceptions. We will analyze the history, practices, and beliefs of these organizations to better understand them and deconstruct misconceptions. This course covers the 18th and 19th centuries.
This course will be taught by the instructor Kathryn Phillips.
Kathryn Phillips is the Schauffler Chair and Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Defiance College. She received her PhD in Religious Studies from the University of California, Riverside. Her research is primarily focused on the use of Gender Studies in the historical approach to Christian Late Antiquity. She teaches a wide range of classes and loves teaching students about traditions they might be less familiar with. She is also a Fellow in the McMaster School for Advancing Humanity at Defiance College, leading annual student research surrounding refugees to Rome, Italy.
