Religion, MA

Chair:

Philip P. Arnold
501 Hall of Languages
315-443- 3863

Director of Graduate Studies:

Virginia Burrus
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, Biko M. Gray, 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 unique, creative, and rigorous programs of study that emphasize both research and teaching. The study of religion at Syracuse focuses on the category “religion” as an intellectually provocative and problematic concept rather than simply as a descriptive, institutional, or phenomenological label. The Department takes 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 of the study of religion that align with the distinctive research profile of it’s faculty. 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.

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

Student Learning Outcomes

1. Students will develop a broad sense of the field of the academic study of religion

2. Students will be able to situate, explicate, and successfully execute interdisciplinary research within the current field of the academic study of religion

3. Students will be able to demonstrate expertise in a particular traditional or regional religious culture

4. Students will achieve proficiency in one language other than English relevant to their scholarly projects

5. Students will achieve academic excellence that will enable them, upon graduation, to enter Syracuse University’s doctoral program, to enter another doctoral program in religion, to teach at a community college or independent high school, or to enter the non-profit or government employment sector

M.A. in Religion

The student seeking the M.A. in religion must complete a minimum of 30 credits of graduate study; 27 of which will be taken in regularly-scheduled religion graduate courses or seminars, and including no more than nine credits in advisor-approved courses offered outside the department. Students must take the departmental seminar in their concentration in each of their first three semesters. 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 M.A. program. Additionally, students must earn three thesis credits by producing and orally defending a thesis. Competence in one language other than English must be demonstrated before the beginning of the third semester of study.