Ten courses, plus a one-credit Independent Study to design a Senior Evaluation project, which may be an independent research paper, an internship with a reflection paper, an example of artistic creation or performance with analysis, or a longer paper in a seminar.
The department encourages the study of foreign languages, although there is no requirement for the major. Manhattanville offers several foreign languages that are useful for research, preparation for graduate school, and study of world religions. Additional languages are available through cross-registration at Purchase College.
World Religions Senior Evaluation
The Senior Evaluation is designed to insure that students develop their capacity for original, integrative thinking and research. Projects undertaken for the Senior Evaluation may take many forms. Most have been research papers in fields such as American religious history; comparative religion and cross-cultural issues; key religious figures; ethics, gender and sexuality; new religious movements; philosophy of religion; and the relations of religion to violence or other social problems. The Senior Evaluation may also consist of an internship at a religious organization or social agency, on which the student reflects in a shorter research paper. It may be an artistic project, entailing both performance and scholarly commentary, on religious themes. The project may be undertaken in connection with a 3000-level integrative course that the student is taking, though most Senior Evaluations have been completed as independent studies or internships.
Students are required to register for a one credit seminar or independent study for World Religions majors one semester before they intend to do their Senior Evaluation. A proposal with a description of the project and an annotated bibliography should be submitted to the student’s faculty advisor and the Chair of the department by the end of the required one credit seminar or independent study. Throughout the semester in which the project is done, the student and faculty advisor meet regularly. When the project is ready for review, another faculty member then confers with the student and advisor to provide another perspective and to assign a grade (one of these two faculty members must be the current department Chair).