Religion, PhD

Chair:

501 Hall of Languages
315-443-5713

Director of Graduate Studies:

501 Hall of Languages
315-443-3861

Faculty

Ahmed E. Abdel-Meguid, Philip P. Arnold, Zachary J. Braiterman, Virginia Burrus, Gareth J. Fisher, Ken Frieden, Ann Grodzins Gold, M. Gail Hamner, Tazim R. Kassam, R. Gustav Niebuhr, William A. Robert, Marcia C. Robinson, Joanne P. Waghorne, Ernest E. Wallwork, James W. Watts

Graduate students in the Department of Religion at Syracuse University forge a unique, creative, and rigorous program of study. The Department is distinctive in its focus on the category “religion” as an intellectually provocative and problematic concept rather than simply as a descriptive, institutional, or phenomenological label. The Department embraces two premises as fundamental to its educational program: 1) study of religion must be interdisciplinary, and 2) study of religion must investigate the material, textual, historical, and cultural dimensions of religions as well as the theories used to produce and analyze them.

The Department offers three concentrations in the following interrelated areas in the study of religion. Each concentration gives sustained attention to religion, theory, bodies, gender and materiality.

COMMUNITIES AND IDENTITIES explores religion and spirituality in modern societies, both local and global, through the lenses of anthropology of religion and history of religions.

CRITIQUE, IMAGE AND POLITICS explores how religions shape and are shaped in aesthetics, ethics, psychology, sociology, philosophy, and political and culture theory.

TEXTS AND CONTEXTS explores literary and performative expressions of religion, including scriptures, through the lenses of history, philosophy, literary theory, and rhetoric.

Students are admitted to graduate study in the Department of Religion to conduct innovative and interdisciplinary research in one concentration and one traditional or regional religious culture. Once admitted, they may select a secondary concentration and/or religious cultures.

Currently the department can support study of the following traditional or regional religious cultures:

African American
American
Buddhist
Christian
East Asian
Hindu
Indigenous (the Americas)
Jewish
Middle Eastern
Muslim
South Asian

Ph.D. in Religion

The student seeking the Ph.D. in religion must hold the M.A. in religion (or its equivalent) and a minimum of 36 additional credits, 24 of which must be taken in the Department of Religion. 12 additional dissertation credits are required. The student must demonstrate competence in at least two languages other than English, one before matriculation and the other before the beginning of the third year of study. Students must take the departmental seminar in their concentration during each semester of their course work. Students must also enroll in REL 601 and 603 during their first two semesters, and then pass a proficiency exam in theories of religion at the end of the second semester in the Ph.D. program. (A student having passed the exam while completing an M.A. in the Syracuse Religion Department is exempt from taking the courses and the exam again). After completing course work, the student is required to pass a set of three comprehensive examinations on:

1. one traditional or regional religious culture from the above list;

2. one of the three concentrations; and

3. a problem of the student’s choosing, in consultation with their advisor.

The completion of a dissertation and its oral defense are required to complete the Ph.D.