Syllabus
Week 1: Introduction: Pilgrimage to Mecca Old and New;
Readings: 1. What is Pilgrimage (Greenia) 2. Hong Kong Muslims on Hajj (O’Connor)
Case Study: Hajj
Presentation Link
Week 2: Pilgrimage/Tourism
Readings: 1. Theories, from The Tourist Gaze (Urry) 2. Religion and Spirituality in Tourism, from The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Tourism (Stausberg)
Case Study: Grand Tour
Week 3: Communitas: The experience of the Pilgrim
Readings: 1. Liminality and Communitas (Turner) 2. Dream Trippers: Global Daoism and the Predicament of Modern Spirituality (Palmer & Siegler)
Case Study: Kumbha Mela
Week 4: Sacred Places
Readings: 1. The Pilgrimage to Jim Morrison’s Grave (Margry) 2. Do You Believe in Pilgrimage? (Coleman)
Case Study: Sedlec Ossuary
Week 5: Secular Pilgrimage
Readings:
Secular Pilgrimage a Contradiction in Terms (Margry)
Case Study: New York
Week 6: Sport Pilgrimage
Readings: 1. Handrails Steps and Curbs (O’Connor) 2. Pilgrimage to Fallen Gods of Olympia (Digance)
Case Study: Pre’s Rock
Week 7: Dark Tourism
Readings: 1. JFK and Dark Tourism (Foley & Lennon) 2. Making Absent Death Present (Stone)
Case Study: Chernobyl
Week 8: Virtual Pilgrimage
Readings: 1. Virtual Pilgrimage on the Internet (MacWilliams) 2. Hurricane Katrina (Bowan & Bannon)
Case Study: Google Maps
Week 9: Political Pilgrimage
Readings: 1. Pilgrimage and Power, from Guests of God (Bianchi) 2. Holocaust Tourism in Post-Holocaust Europe (Allar)
Case Study: Camino
Week 10: Researching Pilgrimage
Readings: 1. Interviewing, from The Routledge Handbook in Research Methods in the Study of Religion (Bremborg) 2. Researching Pilgrimage (Collins-Kreiner)
Case Study: The Thesis
Week 11: Liminal States
Readings: 1. Fan Pilgrimage (Brooker) 2. Sex Pilgrims: Subjunctive Nostalgia, from Tourist Attractions (Mitchell)
Case Study: Harry Potter
Week 12: Conclusion
Readings: 1. Holy Movement and Holy Place (Taylor)
Case Study: The Body
Annotation
This course introduces students to the fundamentals of pilgrimage beginning with an exploration of the Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca. The ancient origins of this pilgrimage, and its transformation into a commercial and logistical marvel of the modern world foreground what pilgrimage means in the 21st century. The course explores tourism, sacred places, dark tourism, sport pilgrimage and virtual pilgrimage. Students are encouraged to consider their own pilgrimages and travels and to register the meaning and importance of these. Modern pilgrimage is explored through contrasting academic approaches of religious studies, tourism, sport, geography, and media studies.
Questions of pilgrimage extend to notions of a sociological division between the sacred and profane. How feasible is it to divide secular tourism and sacred pilgrimage in the modern world? Of further concern is how pilgrimage equips us to connect to community, ritualise place and time, and meet the ultimate challenges of life and death.