This semester our course will be devoted to a study of the religion of Spiritualism, with a particular focus on thematic issues of interest to scholars of this religion.

Requirements:

Seminar participation & notes: 10%
Seminar presentation #1 20%
Seminar Presentation #2 20%
Research Essay 50%
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January 20th: Historical Overview

Nelson, Geoffrey "The Origins of Modern Spiritualism," in Spiritualism and Society. New York: Schocken Books Inc., 1969, pp. 3-85.

Nelson, Geoffrey "Spiritualism in Britain," in Spiritualism and Society. New York: Schocken Books Inc., 1969, pp. 89-172.
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January 27th: The Fox Sisters and American Spiritualism

Pimple, Kenneth D. "Ghosts, Spirits and Scholars: The origins of Modern Spiritualism," in Out of the Ordinary , ed. Barbara Walker, (Logan, Utah: Utah State University Press, 1995, pp. 75-89.)

Isaacs, Ernest "The Fox Sisters and American Spiritualism," in The Occult in America: New Historical Perspectives. Eds. Howard Kerr and Charles L. Crow. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1983, pp. 79-110.
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February 3rd: Ideology

Carroll, Bret E. "Spiritualist Religion and the Search for Order, "American Spiritualism and the Swedenborgian Order," and "Spiritualist Republicanism," in Spiritualism in Antebellum America. Bloomington & Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1997, pp. 1-15; 16-34; 35-59.

Carroll, Bret E. "The Structure of the Spirit World," and "The Ministry of Spirits," in Spiritualism in Antebellum America. Bloomington & Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1997, pp.60-84; 85-119

Nelson, Geoffrey "Modern Spiritualist Conception of Ultimate Reality," in Ultimate Reality 11(2)1988:102-114.
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February 10th: Science

Moore, R. Laurence "Nineteenth Century Spiritualism: The Foundation of Its Appeal," in In Search of White Crows: Spiritualism, Parapsychology, and American Culture. New York: Oxford University Press, 1977, pp.3- 39.

Moore, R. Laurence "Spiritualism, Parapsychology, and the Occult: Some Summing Up," in In Search of White Crows: Spiritualism, Parapsychology, and American Culture. New York: Oxford University Press, 1977, pp. 221-243. ...con't...

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February 17th: Science, con't.

Crookes, William "Researches in the Phenomena of Spiritualism," reprinted in Crookes and the Spirit World, Ed. M.R. Barrington. New York: Taplinger Publishing Company, 1972, pp.15-60.

Garroutte, Eva Marie "When Scientists Saw Ghosts and Why they Stopped: American Spiritualism in History," in Vocabularies of Public Life: Empirical Essays in Symbolic Structure. Ed. Robert Wuthnow. London ; New York : Routledge, 1992, pp. 57-74.
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March 3rd: Gender

Carroll, Bret E. "The Religious Construction of Masculinity in Victorian America: The Male Mediumship of John Shoebridge Williams," Religion and American Culture Vol. 7 (Winter 1997), pp. 27-60.

Moore, R. Laurence "The Spiritualist Medium: A Study of Female Professionalism in Victorian America." American Quarterly 27(1975):200-221.

Braude, Ann D. "Spirits Defend the Rights of Women: Spiritualism and Changing Sex Roles in Nineteenth-Century America," in Women, Religion and Social Change. Ed. Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad and Ellison Banks Findly. Albany : State University of New York Press, pp. 419-431.
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March 10th: Women

Owen, Alex "Women and Nineteenth-century Spiritualism: Strategies in the Subversion of Femininity," in Disciplines of Faith: Studies in religion, politics, and patriarchy. Ed. Jim Obelkevich, Lyndal Roper, and Raphael Samuel. London ; New York : Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1987, pp. 130-153.

Braude, Ann D. "The Meaning of Mediumship," in Radical Spirits: Spiritualism and Women's Rights in Nineteenth Century America. Boston, Beacon Press, 1989, pp. 82-116.

Skultans, Vieda "Mediums, Controls and Eminent Men," in Women's Religious Experience. Ed. Pat Holden. Totowa, NJ: Barnes and Noble, 1983, pp. 15-26.

Haywood, Carol Lois "The Authority and Empowerment of Women among Spiritualist Groups." Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 22(2)1983:157-166.
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March 17th: Women, Con't.

Hazelgrove, Jenny "Virgin Mothers and Warrior Maids," in Spiritualism and British Society Between the Wars. Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 2000, 80-109

Hazelgrove, Jenny "Mothers, Mediums and Vampires,"147-171

Hazelgrove, Jenny "Frustration, Repression and Deviant Desire,"172-192
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March 24th: Gender and Health

Owen, Alex "Medicine, Mediumship and Mania," in The Darkened Room: Women, Power and Spiritualism in Late victorian England. London: Virago Press, 1989, pp. 139-167.

Braude, Ann D. "Mediums versus Medical Men," in Radical Spirits: Spiritualism and Women's Rights in Nineteenth Century America. Boston, Beacon Press, 1989, pp. 142-161.

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March 31st: Mortality and Healing

Barrow, Logie "Anti-Establishment Healing: Spiritualism in Britain," in The Church and Healing. Proceeds of the Ecclesiastical History Society Annual Meetings, 1982. Ed. W.J. Sheils. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1982, pp. 225-247.

Braude, Ann "The Blessedness of Sinless Childhood in the World Beyond," in Radical Spirits: Spiritualism and Women's Rights in Nineteenth Century America. Boston, Beacon Press, 1989, 32-55.

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April 7th: Mortality and Healing, con't.

Skultans, Vieda "Empathy and Healing: Aspects of Spiritualist Ritual," in Social Anthropology and Medicine ASA Monograph 13 J.B. Loudon, ed. London/New York/San Francisco: Academic Press, 1976, pp.190-222.

Lauer, Roger, M.D. "A Medium for Mental Health," in Religious Movements in Contemporary America. Eds. Irving Zaretsky and M.P. Leone. New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1974, pp.338-54.

Lucas, Phillip Charles "On the Threshold of a New Age: Cassadaga as a Contemporary Therapeutic Community" in Cassadaga: The South's Oldest Spiritualist Community. Ed. John J. Guthrie, Jr, Phillip Charles Lucas, and Gary Monroe. Gainsville: University Press of Florida, 2000, pp. 57-95.

Wallis, John "Continuing Bonds: Relationships Between the Living and the Dead Within Contemporary Spiritualism." Mortality 6(2)2001:127-?
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