Bringing together insights from anthropology, art history, and religious studies, this course will explore the geography of sacred space: the spatial organization of meaning across time and the world as humans have again and again made a division between sacred and profane. We will attend to this process as expressed in the geography, social dynamics, and architecture of sacred space, noting patterns of similarity and difference among and between the "little traditions" of folk and traditional societies as well as the "great traditions" of universalist and modern societies. Having developed an analytical vocabulary for understanding sacred space, we will put our model in motion by examining the dynamics of change, redefinition, and contestation that have so often surrounded the history of sacred spaces. Requirements: full attendance and participation plus three 4- to 6-page essays. No prerequisites.