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The Historical and Cultural Studies of Religion department concentrates on the place of religion, spirituality, and theology in society and everyday life, from ancient times to the present. Students develop broad skills in the historical, cultural, social-scientific, comparative, and interdisciplinary study of the world’s sacred and secular traditions, and they gain expertise in a specific field of concentration. Students may focus their work in a single tradition (e.g. Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Judaism), a single time and place (e.g. medieval Europe, the contemporary Middle East), or a comparative or shared aspect of more than one tradition, time, or place.
Department Chair: Professor Kirsi Stjerna