Welcome to RELG308, and to what I hope will be a challenging, engaging, and rewarding journey into research in Religion and Culture.
This module is designed to help you think carefully and critically about how knowledge about religion is produced. Rather than treating research as a purely technical exercise, RELG308 invites you to see research as a reflective, ethical, and contextually grounded practice. You will be introduced to a range of qualitative and quantitative research approaches drawn from the social sciences and applied to the study of religion, culture, and digital spaces.
Importantly, this is an experiential and student-centred module. You will not only learn about research methodologies, but you will also practise them — through critical reading and writing, discussion, reflection, and applied research tasks. Your own questions, contexts, and lived experiences matter here, and they will form an important part of how we engage with the material.
By the end of the semester, you should feel more confident in:
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understanding what research in Religion and Culture involves,
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distinguishing between methodologies and methods,
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thinking ethically about research,
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and designing and conducting a small-scale research project.
Please take time in Week 1 to read through the course outline carefully and familiarise yourself with the expectations, assessments, and weekly schedule. All announcements, readings, and assessment instructions will be communicated via this Learn site, so check it regularly.
I look forward to working with you this semester and to the conversations, questions, and insights that will emerge along the way.
Warm regards,
Dr Beverly Vencatsamy
Module Coordinator: RELG308
- Course contact: Nalita Masiza
