Our Religious Studies students are equipped to understand our diverse and rapidly changing world while learning much about themselves. This comparative field of study imbues students with the ability to assess diverse actions, traditions, and values. The knowledge and habits of mind learned in Religious Studies remain relevant forever, as key to a life of conscious choice and thoughtful, multi-cultural engagement.
Religious Studies courses help you examine your core values, both objectively and in terms of personal experience. In our classes, you will explore how people make sense of the world and enhance your global cultural knowledge as you engage in a wide variety of topics from barbecue to baseball, magic to mindfulness, and sexuality to the sacred.
Professor Rebecca Manring has been awarded the John W. Ryan Award for Distinguished Contributions to International Programs and Studies. Initiated in 1991, the award honors faculty members and librarians from all campuses for exceptional contributions to the university's international programs and studies.
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One reason why the gesture of kneeling on one leg may not be persuasive is that, as with personal religious gestures, it comes down to an individual, said J. Kameron Carter, professor who studies race. Carter said he was willing to grant that these police officers taking the knee were genuine in their opposition to the behavior of the Minneapolis police. But he added: "We still want to talk in terms of bad cop, good cop. The issues are being interpreted not in terms of a structural problem in this country, but policing at the individual level."
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In his recently released book, Loving Stones, David Haberman uses the worship of Mount Govardhan as a site to explore ways in which scholars engaged in the difficult work of representing other cultures struggle to make “the impossible possible.”
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Written by Ph.D. candidate, Dale Spicer, “Sacrificing Healthcare Workers: War, Rhetoric and the Coronavirus Pandemic” points out how national discussions of healthcare draw on military metaphors to understand the work healthcare workers are undertaking during the pandemic.
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Professor Winnifred Sullivan has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences which honors excellence and convenes leaders from every field of human endeavor.
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Michael Ing, an associate professor in the Department of Religious Studies, has been awarded a $226,000 New Directions Fellowship from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
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Congratulations to Professor Aaron Stalnaker on his recent promotion! Aaron specializes in the comparative study of religious ethics, particularly with reference to the early confucian tradition.
Read moreOur department is home to an incredible community of teachers and students ready to support your intellectual and personal pursuits. We are innovative and open-minded researchers who welcome unconventional ideas to help us better understand the role religion plays in culture and society.
The study of religion broadens and deepens your understanding of the diverse richness and mystery that attends being human. Our faculty is engaged in research through the LUCE-funded Being Human project to learn more about what it means to be human in our rapidly changing world.
The College of Arts