Learning goals in the Religious Studies Major

The Department of Religious Studies is committed to teaching students to think analytically about religion. Introducing students to a variety of interdisciplinary perspectives, the Department helps students understand how religious categories and boundaries are constructed, challenged, and changed by religious practitioners and others, including scholars. The Department fosters the development of key critical skills, including writing, oral presentation, and information literacy.

Progressing through the major or minor, students gain sophistication in their capacity to evaluate and express what they have learned in readings and classes. They also develop expertise in doing research on issues related to religion. Members of the Department encourage students to utilize and construct theories so that they can venture informed and creative comparisons among and within religions traditions. The Department is dedicated to cultivating religious literacy and facilitating independent thought based on exposure to religious histories located within diverse cultural matrices, including politics.

To achieve these ends, the Departments requires majors to take an introductory course in which they will learn about the construction of religious boundaries and contemplate various means of interpreting, analyzing, and comparing religious beliefs and practices. Majors must also enroll in eight additional courses, including ones that expose them to multiple religious traditions. Among those routinely taught are Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Daoism, and Confucianism. In addition, majors must cultivate depth of expertise by taking multiple courses treating a single tradition. Majors are required to do upper level coursework, including the seminar Theories of Religion and a capstone course in which they design and conduct advanced research projects resulting in extensive, theoretically nuanced essays. The capstone provides all students with the opportunity to present their ideas and gain feedback about the constructs that they have learned, utilized, and challenged. Majors are offered opportunities for doing guided research in independent studies and are encouraged to pursue honors study.

Minors are required to take five courses in the study of religion. They must enroll in at least one course at the advanced level. Like majors and other students taking Religious Studies courses, they are afforded multiple opportunities to refine their skills in written and oral communication. They are also offered multiple opportunities to develop information fluency and cultivate other research skills.

Both majors and minors are encouraged to participate in a community of inquiry through advance study in topical seminars and to develop leadership skills by serving on the department’s Student Advisory Board.