Since I have so much time on my hands, I’m taking an Independent Study this semester: Religious Communication & Digital Life. This will count as credit towards a MA in Communication at the Univ. of North Dakota, but mainly help deepen my understanding of the field of religious comm, particularly as it concerns cyberculture studies, new media, and digital life.  (Actually, I have very little time on my hands, but I love studying this stuff so much it’d be silly not to make it official.)

I’m pretty pumped about the course which is supervised by both a communication and religion professor at UND. In independent study fashion, however, I’ll be working a lot on my own. In blogger fashion, one of the course requirements is that I post thoughts here from time to time including reviews of each of the books I’ll be reading. These include:

• Religion, Media and Culture: A Reader eds. Gordon Lynch and Jolyon Mitchell, Routledge, pp. 296, ISBN: 0415549558
• Morgan, David. The Sacred Gaze: Religious Visual Culture in Theory and Practice, Univ. of California Press, ISBN: 0520243064, pp. 333.
• Halos and Avatars: Playing Video Games with God, Craig Detweiler, ed., Westminster John Knox, pp. 222, ISBN: 0664232779
• Campbell, Heidi. When Religion Meets New Media, Routledge, 2010, pp. 232. ISBN:0415349575
• Wilkie, Rob. The Digital Condition: Class and Culture in the Information Network, Fordham University Press, 2011, pp. 272. ISBN: 0823234231
• Miller, Vincent. Understanding Digital Culture, Sage Publications, 2011, pp. 264. ISBN: 1847874975

Of course, that’s just a smattering of what’s out there, and I’m aware the core literature in the field is shifting/still being discovered/not yet written. So, I’d love to hear what you’re reading, and take suggestions as to what I should add to the list.

In related news: next week I’ll be attending the Digital Religion Conference hosted by University of Colorado at Boulder’s Center for Media, Religion, and Culture. I’m eager to make new connections, have some great conversations, and drink some delicious Boulder-area beer. If you’re reading this, and would be there and up for that, let’s connect. (Tweet @ajc123 email adamjcopeland at gmail)