Department of Religious Studies

In this class, you will embark on a fascinating journey to explore the intersection of religion, travel, and the human experience. Pilgrimage is a widespread practice found in nearly every culture around the globe, and our course itinerary examines some of the world's most famous pilgrimages, such as the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, the Camino de Santiago, a Catholic pilgrimage in northern Spain, and the Shikoku henro, a Buddhist pilgrimage in Japan. These sacred journeys are often associated with visiting the sacred sights of organized religions. However, what about visiting Jim Morrison’s grave in Paris, Elvis Presley’s tomb in Graceland, or the George Floyd Global Memorial? Can we consider these places’ shrines and traveling to them a pilgrimage as well? What about a cross-country motorcycle pilgrimage to the Vietnam Wall memorial? Does one have to be “religious” to go on a pilgrimage? Our journey together will begin here at IU with a pilgrimage to the Lily Library and see some relics on display there. Putting academic studies of pilgrimage into conversation with popular culture, such as novels, memoirs, films, and documentaries about pilgrimage, you will gain deeper insights into the role travel plays in how we understand texts, objects, people, and places as “religious.” During our journey this semester, we will use pilgrimage to ask: what is religion? How do different definitions of religion shape the way we see, experience, and define places as sacred? And where is the boundary between religion and the secular?