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From the earliest articulations of the category of religion in the modern era, terms like "cult," "witchcraft," and "fetishism" have been used to define the parameters of "true" religion. Though these terms are often taken at face value as they circulate in mainstream discourses, their meanings have fluctuated in response to historical shifts within various communities across time. Focusing primarily on the American context from the colonial period through the present, in this course, we will study religion through the phenomena that have come to be labeled as "not religion." How do we define cults, witchcraft, and other marginalized religious phenomena in the absence of hierarchical concepts of religion? In short, what makes a "cult?" Moreover, how do notions of religion and the religious change when (re)constructed from the margins? We will use the concept of the "cult," broadly conceived, and similar derogations to interrogate moments and traditions from the Salem Witch Trials to curanderismo. Through these interrogations, we will explore questions of the relationship between religion and the state, the racialized and gendered dynamics of religious naming, and the representation of religions outside of the mainstream. By making "the familiar strange and the strange familiar," we will endeavor to better understand the broad implications of contentious religious categories and the forces that render some religions marginal.