Religion Department Reveals New Classes
By THE RELIGION DEPARTMENT
Since the fall term of 2022, the Religion Department of Phillips Exeter Academy has been actively engaged in a comprehensive curriculum review of what we teach and how we teach it. This curriculum review involved collaborative research to 1) investigate best practices in the study of religion, philosophy and ethics at the secondary school level; 2) reflect on past enrollment patterns as well as student desires and needs; and 3) identify what skills and aptitudes colleges are looking for in applicants. Religion faculty conducted a series of focus groups and interviews to hear from alumni, current students, faculty, administrators, college counselors, and leaders in religion, philosophy, and ethics education. The Religion Department members integrated these findings with departmental core values, goals, and objectives to identify changes that can maximize student learning experiences in religion courses.
We are excited to announce two significant upgrades:
1. Name Change: The department changed its name to “Religion, Ethics, and Philosophy” (R.E.P.) to respond to feedback that encouraged us to clarify the range of course offerings for students, parents, advisers, and College Counseling. This change was approved by the full faculty in January 2024.
2. New Courses: We have redesigned three upper/senior level classes into a series of “bridge” classes, designed to provide uppers and seniors special opportunity to think through their experiences. These courses will encourage critical thinking, analysis, reflection, identity formation, and goal setting for students as they end their time at Exeter. They emphasize experiential learning opportunities that invite students to apply, experiment with, integrate, and extend the learning they have done at Exeter to imagined and real-world contexts. These three courses can be taken in tandem or in any order as stand-alone classes.
Culture and Theory in Action, offered fall and spring terms, invites students to identify, examine, and test out their own theories about how society works. If you were interested in “Book Club,” this class is designed to interest you.
We all have theories to explain why things are the way they are, and this class gives students a chance to raise questions about and experiment with both scholarly and personal social theories. Students will apply and test out theories in active learning “labs” that explore cultural dynamics on Exeter’s campus as well as broader contexts such as online communities.
Politics of Possibilities: Imagination, Play, and Alternative Futures, offered fall and winter terms, gives students the chance to imagine possibilities for individual and collective futures beyond the that are often imagined for us by policymakers and popular culture. If you were interested in “Imagining Your Future,” this class is designed to interest you.
As things such as climate change and rapid changes in technology make imagining the future even more daunting, this class invites students to use theories and practices of play and imagination to gain a better sense of agency within these realties. They’ll use readings and hands-on activities to help them play, move, and explore possibilities and take steps toward personal and collective futures they hope for.
Happiness, Fanā, Eudaemonia, Nirvana, offered winter and spring terms, invites students to consider different conceptions of happiness and develop their own questions about and approaches to living a happy life. If you were interested in “Soul Searching,” this class is designed to interest you.
The course draws from psychology, ritual studies, and a wide variety of wisdom traditions gives students opportunities to develop an understanding and practices for experiencing happiness in their present lives and beyond Exeter.
REL 530: Culture and Theory in Action
All of us participate in creating culture, and all of us are affected by culture, for better or worse. Most of us have theories to explain why things are the way they are — and how things ought to be. Sociocultural theories seek to describe and interpret the social and cultural dynamics that shape lives in today’s world. Over the term, students will discover and interrogate both scholarly and personal theories about the structures within which their lives take shape through a series of active learning “labs,” which explore cultural dynamics on Exeter’s campus and in broader contexts (e.g., city, nation, online community). Each “lab” unites grounded investigation of cultural dynamics with readings drawn from landmark contemporary scholarship and each student’s own ideation, facilitating students’ practice of developing, articulating and testing theoretical outlooks. For instance, students might investigate a technology that is widely embraced in Exeter’s student culture in conversation with Shoshana Zuboff ’s The Age of Surveillance Capitalism. Or they might engage theorists such as Jasbir Puar to examine current world events (e.g., the crisis in Gaza, the South and Central American refugee crisis) in terms of how the language of human rights and disability is being harnessed to control and debilitate a marginalized population. The course culminates with a final project through which students identify and investigate a dynamic of their choice, with the goal of integrating and extending the knowledge gleaned from their time at Exeter. Open to 11th and 12th graders. Offered: fall and spring terms.
REL 535: Politics of Possibilities: Imagination, Play, and Alternative Futures
The future can feel so uncertain, even as it places clear expectations on us. What will my future hold? How should I prepare for life in college and beyond? What thought partners will help us “imagine and craft the world [we] cannot live without, just as [we] dismantle the ones [we] cannot live within?” How does the play of imagination create or foreclose possibilities for the future? How can we work together to be the change that we want to see? These questions can feel even more complicated when confronting realities such as artificial intelligence, climate change, persistent racism, and social changes coupled with evolving technologies. When we consider that our visions of the future often reflect those of policymakers and popular culture, these questions become even more pressing. This course offers students the opportunity to imagine personal and global futures of flourishing and liberation within the realities of today’s world. Drawing upon disciplines that rethink future possibilities such as literature, creativity studies and political science, students will craft their own visions for the future in conversation with scholars and writers such as Sara Ahmed, Octavia Butler and Ruha Benjamin. Throughout the term, students will engage in hands-on projects to ground their learning. For instance, heeding Emma Goldman’s call to dance in the revolution, students are invited to experiment with how play might open futures worth fighting for. The course culminates in a collaborative final project that invites students to envision their desired future by articulating practical steps that can be taken today to move us all toward “the world we cannot live without.” Open to 11th and 12th graders. Offered: fall and winter terms.
REL 540: Happiness, Fanā, Eudaemonia, Nirvana
Happiness has always been at the heart of human inquiry. What will make me happy How should I live? Who shall I become? From Aristotle’s interest in eudaemonia through Sufi notions of fanā to the contemporary psychology of Haidt’s Happiness Hypothesis, this course introduces students to different conceptions of happiness and paths to achieve it. Drawing from psychology, ritual studies and wisdom traditions, the course invites students to explore the role of happiness in living a good life, cultural and societal influences on their own sense of self, and the effects of daily life rhythms and habits on personal well-being. Weaving together meaningful readings, reflective writing and activities, students will gain skills enabling them to develop a resilient understanding of happiness, along with language and practices to promote it, in their own lives today and as they prepare for life beyond Exeter. Open to 11th and 12th graders. Offered: winter and spring terms.
