DIRECTOR OF THE PROGRAM:
Associate Professor Angela Zito

DIRECTOR OF GRADUATE STUDIES:
Associate Professor Angela Zito

The Program in Religious Studies explores religious practices as important aspects of social life. We include three related approaches: examination of primary texts and artifacts; analysis of the ideas and activities that have contributed to the development of various religions; and interdisciplinary exploration of the theories and methods used in the study of religion. This multidisciplinary program seeks to prepare students with both knowledge of a religious world and the tools to study that world, including language training where appropriate. It should be stressed that the M.A. Program in Religious Studies is oriented toward the academic analysis of religious phenomena and is not intended to promote or endorse either religious belief itself or the views and practices of any particular religious tradition.

The program utilizes resources from several areas of study in the Graduate School of Arts and Science (including the Departments of Anthropology, Classics, English, Hebrew and Judaic Studies, History, Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, and Philosophy, as well as the Program in Medieval and Renaissance Studies) and in the Tisch School of the Arts (the Department of Performance Studies). The program also has close ties to the Center for Religion and Media. Courses that originate in these programs and departments are made available to graduate religious studies students through cross-listing or departmental permission. Most courses are offered during the day or early evening hours. Students who pursue the graduate program on a full-time basis (12 points per semester) complete the program in one and a half to two years.

Faculty

Adam H. Becker, Assistant Professor, Classics, Program in Religious Studies. Ph.D. 2004 (religion), Princeton; M.A. 2001 (Syriac studies), Oxford; M.A. 1977 (classics), New York; B.A. 1994 (classics), Columbia.
Jewish-Christian relations in late antiquity; critical theories of religion; Syriac language and literature; reception of classical antiquity; religion in the modern Middle East.

Ann Pellegrini, Associate Professor, Performance Studies, Program in Religious Studies. Ph.D. 1994 (cultural studies), Harvard; B.A. 1988 (literae humaniores), Oxford; B.A. 1986 (classics), Harvard and Radcliffe Colleges.
Queer theory; religion and sexuality; psychoanalysis and culture; religion, performance, and community-formation; cultures of childhood; feminist and queer performance; confessional culture; religion and secularism; Jewish cultural studies.

Francis E. Peters, Professor, Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, Program in Religious Studies , History. Ph.D. 1961 (Islamic studies), Princeton; M.A. 1952 (philosophy and Greek), B.A. 1950 (classics), St. Louis.
Islamic history and religion; comparative Judaism, Christianity, and Islam; the Haj.

Angela Zito, Associate Professor, Anthropology, Program in Religious Studies; Director, Program in Religious Studies. Ph.D. 1989 (Far Eastern languages and civilizations), Chicago; B.A. 1974 (East Asian studies), Pennsylvania State.
Chinese religions and cultural history; religion and media; embodiment, gender, and ritual; the relationship of anthropology and history.

AFFILIATED FACULTY IN OTHER DEPARTMENTS

Brigitte Mirian Bedos-Rezak, History; Barbara Browning, Performance Studies; Mary J. Carruthers, English; Peter J. Chelkowski, Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies; Hasia Diner, Hebrew and Judaic Studies; Daniel E. Fleming, Hebrew and Judaic Studies; Katherine Fleming, History; Michael Gilsenan, Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies; Faye Ginsburg, Anthropology; Center for Media, Culture, and History; Ogden Goelet, Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies; Fiona Griffiths, History; Bernard Haykel, Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies; Richard Hull, History; Alfred Ivry, Hebrew and Judaic Studies; Penelope Johnson, History; Aisha Kahn, Anthropology; Marion Katz, Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies; Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Performance Studies; Elka Klein, Hebrew and Judaic Studies; Kenneth Krabbenhoft, Spanish and Portuguese Languages and Literatures; Karen Ordahl Kupperman, History; David Levene, Classics; Paule Marshall, English; Thomas F. Mathews, Fine Arts; Gabriel Moran, Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development; José Esteban Muñoz, Performance Studies; Fred Myers, Anthropology; Nancy Freeman Regalado, French; Edward H. Roesner, Music; Avital Ronell, German; Jeffrey L. Rubenstein, Hebrew and Judaic Studies; Lawrence H. Schiffman, Hebrew and Judaic Studies; Mark Smith, Hebrew and Judaic Studies; Diana Taylor, Performance Studies; Sinclair Thomson, History; Evelyn Birge Vitz, French; Peter Wosh, History.