Brief Program Timeline:

Year One: Coursework and regular meetings with advisor.

Year Two: Coursework; complete secondary language requirements (French and German) by the end of the summer; and prepare Second-Year Review.

Year Three: Prepare for Comprehensive Exams.

Year Four: Complete Comprehensive Exams; achieve Candidacy; and submit Prospectus within one year.

Year Five: Finish work on Dissertation research; defend Dissertation.

Requirements for the Ph.D. program in Religion are as follows:

Coursework

Ninety credit hours are required for the PhD. Fifty-four credit hours must be taken in 500, 600, and 700 level courses. Thirty-six of the 54 credit hours must be taken in 500 and 600 level seminars and include the required seminars below. Students are expected to make satisfactory progress toward the degree in a timely manner and maintain a minimum GPA of B (3.0). Students typically take three courses each semester.

The department recognizes and embraces the fact that the study of religion is an interdisciplinary project that requires forms of knowledge and methodologies from different intellectual traditions. We thus encourage each student to take coursework outside the department. However, no more than one-fourth of all credits counted towards the Ph.D. in Religion will be accepted from other departments. This does not preclude a student, of course, from exceeding this credit requirement.

Department Seminars

Two department seminars are required and are usually taken during the first and second spring semesters of the student's career. The seminars will generally draw most of their required readings from the bibliographies, developed by the faculty, for the first and third Comprehensive Exams, which all students are required to take (see below).

Language Training

All Ph.D. students are expected to pass reading exams in both French and German. These exams are ideally taken during the first two to three years of the program, that is, during the student's course work and before the Qualifying Exams. In addition, all students are expected to obtain proficiency in the language(s) of their primary sources for their dissertation research and scholarly career, whatever those may be. Normally, the student's dissertation advisor and committee will determine the status of this linguistic proficiency.

Pedagogy Requirement (Pedagogy Practicum - RELI 530)

As an integral part of the department's apprenticeship program, this is a semester-long practicum through which a graduate student apprentices with a faculty member teaching an undergraduate course in order to be trained in all aspects of course design, lecturing, advising, and grading.

Service Requirements

In return for their annual stipends, all students are expected to perform modest tasks for the department and/or individual faculty. First-year students normally provide assistance to the Department Coordinator in the main office. Second-, Third-, and Fourth-Year students are expected to work seven hours a week for a particular faculty member as a research assistant. In some cases, this might also involve providing teaching assistance for specific introductory courses. Faculty are expected to submit their request(s) for such assistance in the spring for the upcoming fall to the Director of Graduate Studies (Graduate Advisor), who then coordinates the assignments with the Graduate Representative. Students are strongly encouraged to approach these assistantships as real and integral parts of the mentoring process and as essential to their graduate education.

Second-Year Review

As a means to ensure the proper progress and development of each Ph.D. candidate and the overall quality of the program, the Graduate Advisor will solicit a substantive report from each second-year student in the spring semester and hold an oral interview (up to 90-minutes) with each student. This process will take place in consultation with the Director of Graduate Studies. Members of the faculty with applicable expertise can be invited to participate in the review of the report. The Graduate Advisor and the Director of Graduate Studies will then report back to the faculty on their specific recommendations.

Comprehensive Exam Petition

The student will petition to take a set of four Comprehensive Exams. Exams 1 and 3 are standard, with fixed bibliographies. However, students must list exams 2 and 4 and explain in brief the logic for taking them, that is, how they fit into the general trajectories of the student's research agenda. This process also includes presentation of bibliographies for exams 2 and 4. These bibliographies must be developed in consultation with appropriate members of the faculty. Any special exam (such as the fourth Thematic Exam) will require the formal approval (that is, a signature) of the faculty member(s) who will be reading and grading it. Once the scheme and bibliographies for exams 2 and 4 are approved, examinations are scheduled and written by the appropriate members of the faculty (the Comprehensive Exams Committee). This process usually takes places during the summer of the 3rd year or early fall of the 4th year.

Comprehensive Exams

The Comprehensive Exams are typically taken during the spring of the fourth year. (Students are not allowed to substitute research papers in place of exams.) The Comprehensive Exams will be four in number:

Methods and history of the discipline, required of all students; one exam dedicated to a particular religious tradition; one exam dedicated to a particular methodology or theoretical orientation; and one thematic concentration exam selected by the student in consultation with her or his advisor.

The Comprehensive Exams committee (composed of the Graduate Advisor and other appropriate members of the faculty) will review the exams within a reasonable period of time. Marked exams are returned and an oral interview (1-2 hours) is scheduled. During this interview the student responds to questions related to the written examinations. If there are deficiencies in the written exams that are not addressed adequately by the student during the oral interview, the Qualifying Exam committee can require the student to write a short essay (15-20 pages) addressing the deficient areas. The exams are given over a common two week period during the spring and fall semesters of each year. After successfully completing the Comprehensive Exams, the graduate student automatically enters Ph.D. candidacy. He or she is also awarded an M.A. at this point.

Reading lists for exams listed in italics are available for download at the bottom of the page.
The exam structure, then, breaks down as follows:

Methods and History of the Discipline

Traditions
African-American religions
African religions
Biblical religions
Buddhism
Christianity
Hinduism
Islam
Judaism
New Age and New Religious Movements

Methodological Foundations
Comparative Religious Ethics
Contemplative Studies
Gender Theory
History of Religions
Philosophy of Religion
Psychology of Religion
Religion and the Social Sciences
Scriptural Interpretation
Theology

Thematic Concentration

Normally, the Comprehensive Exams are taken over a four-day period. Students majoring in the history of religions [and students interested in comparative work] are strongly encouraged to take their second exam in a religious tradition that is not the subject of their dissertation in order to demonstrate a developed comparative perspective. Students may also highlight their comparative interests by addressing two traditions in Exam 2. Exam 1 will be based entirely on a standard bibliography prepared by the entire faculty. For Exam 3, bibliographies corresponding to the various methodological foundations will be prepared by the appropriate members of the faculty. For some students, it may be useful to present two methodological foundations in Exam 3. This should be worked out with the appropriate members of the faculty.

Normally, each bibliography will include a required list of readings roughly equivalent to twenty to twenty-five books. The bibliographies for exams 2 and 4 will be prepared by the student in consultation with appropriate members of the faculty. Together, the Comprehensive Exams are designed to give the student a broad and solid reading foundation that he or she can draw on for the rest of his or her career.

Dissertation Prospectus

The dissertation prospectus is typically advanced in late summer of the 4th year or early fall of the fifth year, that is, soon after the completion of the Comprehensive Exams. With the consultation and cooperation of a dissertation supervisor and at least two other dissertation committee members (at least one from the department), the dissertation prospectus must be submitted to the department in a standard written form (guidelines are available from the Department Coordinator).

After a discussion with the dissertation committee members open to the entire faculty, the committee will render a decision of "approval and proceed," "approval pending revisions," or "disapproval." If the latter decision is reached, the proposal may be rewritten or a new proposal advanced. The final version (with any requisite revisions) will be submitted to the Department Coordinator for filing and departmental access (all approved proposals must remain accessible to other graduate students to use for assistance in composing their own proposals).

Dissertation Defense

Once the dissertation committee (chaired by the dissertation advisor) is comfortable with the product, the student will publicly defend his or her dissertation with the full committee present. Defense outcomes are either "pass" or "fail." Students who fail two defenses are dismissed from the university.