hoberman

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hoberman@arizona.edu
Office
Harvill
Office Hours
Please email professor to schedule a meeting or refer to class syllabus.
Oberman, Hester Elsa
Lecturer

Dr. Oberman’s research focuses on the intersection between spiritual/religious experiences and observable scientific data. Her recent areas of research include religion and violence; the psychology of spirituality; the nature of belief in the twenty-first century; and the influence of faith traditions and spirituality in health care and medicine. She teaches interdisciplinary courses in the Religious Studies Program on religion, psychology, and science, which are crosslisted with the Department of Psychology and the Department of Philosophy. She also teaches for the University of Arizona Honors College. 

Dr. Oberman is Vice-President of the American Academy of Religion in the Western Region (AAR/WR), and a chair of the AAR/WR sections on Philosophy of Religion and Psychology, Culture and Religion. She has published “A Postmodern Perspective on Mental Health, Spirituality, and Religion: Bridging Humanities and Scientific Views of Religion in the Twenty-first Century,” the final chapter in Mental Health, Spirituality, and Religion in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Age (De Gruyter, 2014). Her current book project is titled Postmodern Perspectives on Mental Health, Spirituality, and Religion.

Currently Teaching

RELI 203 – Religion and Medicine in the Western Healing Traditions

An examination of the intersection between medicine and healing in western healing traditions, from ancient times to the modern era. Key scientific and humanistic questions will be addressed.

RELI 336 – Spirituality, Psychology, and the Mind

This course is a survey of psychological theory and research investigating religious beliefs, experiences, and practices.

Ever wonder why you believe what you believe? Ever been puzzled as to why other people believe such outrageous things? Spirituality, Psychology, and Mind (SPM) investigates the nature of beliefs and practices from a multidisciplinary perspective. We will explore different ways of studying and understanding religious beliefs and spirituality through psychological, sociological, biological, philosophical, and humanist lenses. This course aims to build connections between different ways of knowing to foster critical thinking and perspective-taking. SPM will not try to prove or disprove any religious, spiritual, agnostic, or atheist claims. But instead, it will use psychological theory and scientific research to examine how we come to believe what we do. The focus will be on scientific approaches to religion's psychological nature and function concerning health, psychopathology, and coping mechanisms.

RELI 326 – God, Humanity & Science

This course is an examination of the role of religion and science in the construction of human worldviews and beliefs, in historical and contemporary contexts.

RELI 491 – Preceptorship

Specialized work on an individual basis, consisting of instruction and practice in actual service in a department, program, or discipline. Requires faculty member approval, preceptor application on file with department.