New Philosophy Course at USU

A new course is under development in the Department of History, Cultures, & Ideas at USU thanks to an external grant. Assistant Professor Michael Ashfield, Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow Alex Barrientos and Professor Ravi Gupta were awarded a Course Development Stipend worth £2,000 – about $2,600 – from the Global Philosophy of Religion Project 2 (GPR-2).

The goal is to offer PHIL 4600/5600, Global Philosophy of Religion, for the first time in Spring 2027 as a Depth Humanities course. Ashfield, Barrientos and Gupta are organizing a development workshop that invites faculty across the College of Arts & Sciences, USU Center for Community Engagement and other interested stakeholders to provide input and considerations on course content.

This will be a 15-week, three-credit, seminar-style course that considers philosophy of religion globally, such as religious distinction and identity, religious diversity, and other conceptual and definitional issues, construing it broadly to include the widest variety of religious traditions.

“Our goal is to create a course that not only examines global approaches to religion in theory,” Barrientos said, “but also connects those ideas to lived experience and dialogue here in Utah.”

The Birmingham Centre for Philosophy of Religion started the GPR-2 initiative with teaching and training in mind. This initiative aims to support the next generation of scholars and educators with innovative courses and mentorship opportunities.