Sinners: Blk Religion Hoodoo

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

Ryan Coogler’s Southern gothic thriller Sinners has wowed audiences with its reckoning on black culture and most forcefully, black religion. Namely, the film showcases Hoodoo, an African American spiritual tradition, as a powerful system of thought and healing practice. Using Sinners as a cultural anchor, this course will explore a history of black religion in the United States, primarily focusing on the development of Hoodoo. By engaging texts in the fields of African American history, African American religion, cultural anthropology, and Black Studies, this course will examine how Hoodoo came to be and how it has changed over time. In addition, this course will also explore the intersection of gender and religion through the figure of the ‘Conjure woman.’ Students will engage film, tv, literature, and other popular media to investigate and challenge cultural representations and reception of Hoodoo. In all, this course urges students to consider Hoodoo as an intrinsic root of black life in the United States.