Religions in History
General Information
This area of concentration allows students to study religious traditions in specific historical and cultural contexts. The goal is to examine the historical articulation of religious phenomena in a specific geographical area and in relation to other relevant religious traditions. Students will develop the research methods necessary for their projects: these may include historical, philological, comparative, material, and literary analyses. They also will develop the theoretical and thematic approaches needed to articulate research questions and to explore the role of religion in particular societies and cultures. Each student will develop expertise in a second religious tradition: either religions in conversation within a specific geographical and chronological context or ones that inform a comparative project.
Major Fields
The specific areas of research in this concentration depend on the current interests of the faculty. Prospective applicants are encouraged to contact faculty as they develop their applications. Current faculty research includes: Buddhist and Hindu traditions in South Asia; Islam in the Middle East and South Asia, Japanese Buddhism, and Christianity and Judaism in medieval and early modern Europe. Graduates from this concentration will be well prepared for professional opportunities within religious studies that are geographically or chronologically focused or that center on a particular religious tradition.
Applicants should have a B.A. or M.A. degree in Religious Studies or a related field from the Humanities or Liberal Arts. Previous coursework in history, area studies, and textual analysis will provide a solid foundation for graduate study. Students progressing to doctoral work will need significant mastery of their primary research language; we thus strongly recommend that applicants have studied this language before entering the program.