Each area of study is interdisciplinary, involving work with Northwestern faculty specialists outside the Department as well as within it.  This flexibility allows students and advisers to craft flexible programs of study deeply grounded in religious studies methods but also informed by methods in history, the social sciences, literary studies, art history, developmental psychology, or another discipline.  All students take courses outside the department, most choose at least one dissertation adviser from another department, and many students take one qualifying examination in another discipline.

In addition, we encourage applicants to strengthen interdisciplinary connections thematically by exploring the programs, seminars, and additional fellowships available to Religion PhD students through The Graduate School’s new Interdisciplinary Cluster Initiative. 

American Religion: Northwestern University’s program in North American Religions specializes in:

• The study of religions in the North American past
• The historically informed study of contemporary North American religious cultures.

Students elect a primary focus either on religious history or contemporary religions. We invite applicants in all areas of American religious life from the colonial era (across the continent) to the present and in various religious traditions. Possible areas of specialization include religion and ecology in the United States, African American religions, American Catholic history and contemporary life (including the history of American nuns), the history and current practice of the study of religion in the Unites States, urban religions, religion and immigration and migration, Latino and Latina religion, the religious life of children and adolescents, the history of American moral life and conflict (for example, war and peace in American religion, religion and dilemmas of the body in sickness and health), and the relationship between religion and American popular culture.  We especially encourage applications from those interested in exploring religion as it is lived and practiced. 

Core faculty: J. Michelle Molina, Robert Orsi, Sarah Taylor
Support faculty: Christine Helmer, Cristina Traina, Barry Wimpfheimer, Laurie Zoloth

Buddhism: The graduate program in Buddhist Studies examines the Buddhist tradition in all of its diversity. Brook Ziporyn's research focuses on Mahayana Buddhism. He studies the metaphysical, axiological and epistemological developments in Chinese thought and religion, and also works on comparative philosophical issues emerging from the encounter between Indo-European and Sinitic thinking as evidenced in Chinese Buddhism, especially Tiantai, and the implications of this encounter for contemporary thought.   George Bond works on Theravada Buddhism.  He focuses on both classical Theravada thought as found in the Tipitaka and the contemporary interpretations of Theravada.  He studies colonial and post-colonial interpretations of Theravada in Sri Lanka.   Stuart Sarbacker's  work is centered on the relationships between Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism, and he works especially on the Indo-Tibetan area.  He specializes in the historical development and interpretation of Yoga.

Students in this program are expected to do significant work in an affiliated department, usually Anthropology, History, or Art History. 

Resources at Northwestern are complemented by those at other institutions in the area.  Students in this field have taken courses and seminars at the University of Chicago and at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

Normally applicants should have a good reading knowledge of either Chinese or Sanskrit before entering the program.  Before completing the program, a student must pass exams in one of these classical languages and also, if working in Theravada, an exam in Pali.  In addition one must pass exams in two modern languages. Other languages may be required after candidacy, depending on the focus of a student's research. 

Core faculty: George Bond, Sarah Jacoby, Stuart Sarbacker, Brook Ziporyn

Contemporary Religion: The program in Contemporary Religions at Northwestern offers students the opportunity to study religious practices, figures, and issues in current global circumstances, with attention to the theoretical traditions that have developed for understanding religion and religions today.
 
Students entering the program in contemporary religion are asked, first, to familiarize themselves with the complex theoretical inheritances, in religious studies and in the social sciences, for understanding the modern world and modern religions. They will survey the theoretical and historiographical traditions that contribute to how we think about “contemporary religions” and take a broad look at developments in religion around the world today. Such developments may include religion in Eastern Europe after 1989; religion and changing information and communication technologies; the explosion of spirit-present idioms around the world (in the proliferation of urban shrines to sacred figures across Asia, for example, or the global boom in Pentecostalism); religious idioms at the intersection of peoples (either in violence or in peace-making); religion and the neoliberal economy (in China, for instance). Students will also take a seminar on field methods in religious studies, to prepare them for dissertation research.
 
Incoming students in contemporary religions work with an adviser to develop a program for their particular interests, drawing on faculty and resources in Religion and in other departments and programs at Northwestern. Students may focus on (a) a particular region of the world; (b) on a theoretical issue of significance in understanding contemporary religions (e.g., the argument about modernity, or secularization); (c) or on a religious culture in its contemporary expression (global Christianity, for instance, or contemporary African Islam). In consultation with their advisers, students will determine the necessary languages for their program and the courses they might take outside the department in other disciplines.

All students in the program in contemporary religions will take a qualifying examination in theories of modern religion, in addition to the general examination in the study of religion required of all graduate students in the department. In addition, they will take two other examinations, developed in consultation with their advisers, one of which is to be broadly related to their plans for their dissertation.
 
Core faculty: George Bond, Sarah Jacoby, Robert Orsi, Rüdiger Seesemann, Sarah Taylor, M. Sani Umar
Support faculty: Christine Helmer, Cristina Traina, Barry Wimpfheimer, Laurie Zoloth

Islam: Northwestern University Department of Religion offers unique opportunities for the academic study of Islam in sub-Saharan Africa during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The program is especially strong on Sufism, Islamic Law, and Islamic Intellectual Traditions of West Africa.

Of the two faculty members in the Religion Department, Rüdiger Seesemann’s major fields of specialization are Islamic Mysticism, Islam and Modernity, Islam and Politics, Islamism, and Islamic Education, with a focus on the contemporary period and a regional emphasis on Africa South of the Sahara. M. Sani Umar works on Islamic Law, Contemporary Islamic Thought and Liberalism, Islam and Modernity, Islamic discourses on colonialism and the Islamic intellectual traditions of Africa.

Each student in Islam in Africa is expected to take courses in the Religion Department, and in an affiliated department, usually History (with Jonathan Glassman and Karl Petry) or Anthropology (with Robert Launay).
Faculty with expertise on Africa in the departments English, French and Italian, and Political Science provide additional opportunities for multidisciplinary research and study. Other institutional assets that make Northwestern the premier university for study of Islam in Africa include the distinguished Program of African Studies (one of the oldest in the United States); the outstanding Herskovits Africana Library and its rich collections of Arabic manuscripts from West Africa; and the Institute for the Study of Islamic Thought in Africa (ISITA).

Most universities have only one position for Islam, and the person hired is likely to be asked to teach variety of courses on Islam beyond his or her research expertise. To meet such expectation, broad knowledge of Islam is crucial. Therefore, we expect our students to take one course on Classics of Islamic Thought, one course on Islamic Scriptures, and one course on Islam in Africa. Additional courses can be taken in each student’s area of research interest in small seminars or through directed reading and independent studies.

Normally, students should have good reading knowledge of Arabic and the relevant African languages for their area of study. This can be done during course work, or after course work but before going for field research.

Core faculty: Rüdiger Seesemann, M. Sani Umar

Judaism: Students interested in doing graduate work in Judaism have three different rubrics within the Religion Department:

Students who have particularly strong backgrounds in Hebrew and/or Aramaic and considerable experience reading classical Jewish texts, can study rabbinic Judaism, defined in broad historical terms to include medieval and modern texts, within the Religion Department. Such students draw upon the faculty resources both in the Religion Department (Barry Wimpfheimer and Laurie Zoloth) and in the Jewish Studies Program (Yohanan Petrovsky-Stern, Marcus Moseley, Peter Hayes and Kenneth Seeskin).

Students interested in contemporary Jewish moral philosophy and social ethics can study within the Religion, Ethics and Public Life (REPL) track. In this track, students study Jewish philosophy and bioethics with Laurie Zoloth (Religion and Medicine), gaining historical depth for their work in the study of Maimonides with Kenneth Seeskin (Philosophy) and in the rabbinic tradition with Barry Wimpfheimer (Religion and Law). To complement their historical, literary and theological study, which focuses on close textual and Scriptural reasoning, students in Jewish bioethics do clinical work at Northwestern university-affiliated hospitals and are expected to take an active role in the ongoing science research grants at Northwestern University.

Students interested in Jewish practice and thought in the contemporary world can study within the Contemporary Religions (CR)  track. In this track, students will receive broad theoretical and methodological training within the discipline of Religion, and then apply this training within the context of contemporary Judaism. Students in this track will draw upon the Core Faculty of Contemporary Religions for their guidance in theory and method, and will receive mentorship in Jewish content from faculty associated with the Jewish Studies Program including, especially, the Post-Doctoral Fellow in Jewish American religious history and culture.

Core faculty: Barry Wimpheimer (Talmud), Laurie Zoloth (Jewish moral philosophy, bioethics, social justice).

Medieval Christianity: The program is especially strong on the religious culture of Western Europe from the 12th to the 15th century.  Richard Kieckhefer works on the devotional and mystical culture of that period, on church architecture and its connections with communal life, and on the history of witchcraft and magic.  Barbara Newman focuses on twelfth-century writers, women's spirituality, and imaginative theology.

Each student in medieval Christianity is expected to work in Religion and in an affiliated department, usually History (with Dyan Elliott as mentor), English (with Katharine Breen and Susan Phillips, along with Barbara Newman), or Art History (with Cecily Hilsdale).  To enhance placement prospects, students are expected to complete qualifying exams as well as classes and research projects in the affiliated department.

Resources at Northwestern are complemented by those at other institutions in the Chicago area.  Students have taken seminars at the Newberry Library and classes on Latin and paleography at other universities in the region.

To ensure breadth of knowledge in medieval Christian culture, students take one class on the primary sources for medieval theology and one on the historiography of medieval Christianity; these courses serve as starting points for further reading and for qualifying exams in these areas.

Normally applicants should have good reading knowledge of Latin before entering the program.  Before receiving the degree, a student must pass the University of Toronto doctoral-level Latin exam and comprehension exams in two modern languages, usually German and French.  Students are also expected to take coursework or tutorials in paleography.

Core faculty: Richard Kieckhefer, Barbara Newman.

Support faculty: J. Michelle Molina

Religion, Ethic and Public Life: This field of concentration focuses on religious responses to issues in public life, with an emphasis on the environment, bioethics and sexuality, and social policy. Students may choose either of two theoretical approaches, although they are expected to be conversant in both.

• The first--descriptive and analytical--investigates the responses of religious individuals and communities to political and social movements focused on moral questions; it emphasizes the disciplines of history, sociology, and anthropology.
• The second approach--critical and constructive--analyzes theological and moral positions on these social phenomena as expressed in many genres; it stresses the disciplines of philosophy and theology. Students may pursue a strict double major in Religion and a second department or may take a more flexible approach, as their interests dictate. 

Projects in this concentration might either focus on a single religious tradition or take a comparative approach. Our greatest strengths lie in the Islamic, Jewish, Roman Catholic, and Buddhist traditions.

Core faculty: 
George Bond (engaged Theravada Buddhism)
Christine Helmer (early modern to contemporary Protestant theology)
Robert Orsi (American religious life, especially 20th-century Roman Catholicism)
Rüdiger Seesemann (Islamic culture and education in Africa)
Sarah Taylor (American religious life, with an emphasis on “green” religious movements)
Cristina Traina (Christian ethics, especially sexuality, children, and environment)
M. Sani Umar (Islamic thought in West Africa)
Barry Wimpfheimer (Talmud)
Laurie Zoloth (justice and frontier issues in bioethics, Jewish bioethics)

Theology and Religious Reflections: The discipline of theology has changed significantly since Plato coined the word to distinguish myth from logos. The discipline has been invoked to clarify the meanings of terms in theistic religion, to formulate normative claims for a religious tradition, and to systematize knowledge concerning the self-world-God relations. Theology (or in the case of non-theistic traditions, religious reflection) investigates a religion’s content, determines the important concepts of a particular religion, and inquires into the relation between lived religious practices and the critical-theoretical reflection on these practices.

Theology and religious reflection are studied in Northwestern University’s Department of Religion from different perspectives. One may investigate the history of a religion, for example Christianity or Buddhism. From this perspective theology and religious reflection describe the significant ideas articulated by historical persons who have shaped religious culture in distinct ways. They investigate religion in history, work out key religious concepts from their historical and cultural articulations, and establish the kinds of relations between them. Any descriptive enterprise must also responsibly include justification for its respective description. Historical theology and religious reflection include methodological reflection on the type of questions posed, the ways in which questions open different sets of relations, and the issues of power at stake in asking questions.

The study of theology and religious reflection can also be constructive. Historical knowledge is always knowledge established by construction. History and construction are not opposing types of theology; historical knowledge—even knowledge of the present historical time—is always established in process. Constructive religious reflection investigates the significant concepts, doctrines, and ideas that are determinative of religious content, belief and practice. The construction can be focused on the past. It can also investigate the present. Constructive thought occurs in deep discussion with contemporary culture, its pressing concerns, and its current academic discussions in order to explore alternative possibilities of conceiving the relations between religious thinking and practice. Like historical thought, constructive thought also responsibly includes methodological reflection. The enterprise of critical thinking, its justification as well as its application, is required if theology is to represent a discipline of academic viability and integrity. The production of constructive-theological knowledge must be conscious of its own tendencies to one-sided emphasis, while responsibly representing its subject matter in the construction of the whole.

These historical and constructive tasks are an open invitation to interdisciplinary dialogue. Theology and religious reflection explore religion with the tools available to the culturally specific production of knowledge. Their classical dialogue partners were grammar and rhetoric to interpret significant texts, and logic together with dialectic to establish the validity of philosophical-theological truth. Today their dialogue partners can be extended throughout the university, for example, history, the literary-linguistic disciplines, ethnography, cultural studies, even music and film. If they are to be contributing members in the academy, they must present their content and their methodological justification in communication with other academic disciplines. Furthermore theology and religious reflection can enhance academic discussion by thoughtfully presenting the religious dimension of life to discussion partners who may have erased these approaches from their academic viewpoints.

Core faculty: Christine Helmer, J. Michelle Molina, Cristina Traina, Barry Wimpfheimer, Brook Ziporyn, Laurie Zoloth

Faculty

Associated Faculty

Josef J. Barton (History), Nicola K. Beisel (Sociology), Katharine H. Breen (English), T.H. Breen (History), Douglas W. Cassel (Law), Tod S. Chambers (Medicine), Carolyn E. Chen (Sociology), Margaret Drewal (Performance Studies), Dyan Elliott (History), Sarah E. Fraser (Art History), Paul H. Friesema (Political Science), Jay Grossman (English and American Studies), Laura E. Hein (History), Cecily Hilsdale (Art History), E. Patrick Johnson (Performance Studies), Andrew Koppelman (Law), Cristina Lafont (Philosophy), Robert Launay (Anthropology), David M. Levin (Philosophy), Phyllis I. Lyons (African and Asian Languages), Melissa A. Macauley (History), Nancy MacLean (History), Edward Muir (History), William D. Paden (French and Italian), Dylan Penningroth (History), Susan E. Phillips (English), Sandra Richards (Performance Studies), Kenneth R. Seeskin (Philosophy), Mark P. Sheldon (Philosophy), Carl Smith (English), Claudia E. Swan (Art History), Susan L. Thistle (Sociology)