Degree Programs
The M.A. Program
The Ph.D. Program
Fields of Study
Religion and Nature
Religion in the
Americas
Religions of Asia
Comprehensive Exam Reading
Religion and Nature
Religion in the
Americas
Religions of Asia
Graduate Students
Completed
M.A. Thesis Topics
Evaluation of Graduate
Students
Dissertation
Proposal
Admissions and Awards
Religion and Nature
The Field
This graduate specialization is the first in the
Faculty
The Department of Religion boasts several widely-recognized scholars in this emerging field. Anna Peterson has published widely on environmental ethics, religion and social change, and grassroots religious communities. Her books include Being Human: Ethics, Environment, and Our Place in the World (2001), which explores the links between understandings of human and non-human nature, and Seeds of the Kingdom: Utopian Communities in the Americas (2005), which examines agrarian communities striving for social and ecological sustainability in the U.S. and Latin America. Her current research examines the gap between expressed environmental values and actual practices, and the theoretical as well as practical significance of this disjuncture.
Whitney Sanford studies religious attitudes
towards agricultural sustainability, particularly in South Asia and
Bron Taylor has studied grassroots environmentalism, including the edited volume
Ecological Resistance Movements: The Global Emergence of Radical and Popular
Environmentalism (1993), as well as many articles and chapters. He also edited the two-volume Encyclopedia of
Religion and Nature (2005). He is completing
a manuscript Dark Green Religion that
looks at religion and nature in
Several other departmental faculty contribute to the Religion and Nature program.
Vasudha Narayanan, a scholar of religion in
Graduate Students
Graduate students in Religion and Nature have a broad range of research interests,
including the religious and ethical dimensions of fly fishing, wolf
reintroduction, environmental education, Muslim agrarian communities, and
mountaintop removal in
Required courses: REL 6107 Religion and Nature (Core Seminar); REL 6183 Religion and Environmental Ethics (Core Seminar); One course each (minimum) from designated courses exploring Religion and Nature in the Western World, and Religion and Nature in Asia (Students without undergraduate degrees, or graduate coursework or degrees in the natural sciences, will be expected to take at least one course grounded in the natural sciences, as approved by their graduate committee.)
Language requirement: Tested competence in at least one and in many cases two non-English languages selected in consultation with the faculty supervisory committee on the basis of their relevance to the student's research program.
Qualifying examinations: 1) Religion and Nature in Religious Studies and the Social and Natural Sciences 2) Religion and Nature in Ethics and Philosophy 3) A region, discipline or tradition-based exam, which could be, for example, Religion and Nature in the Western or Eastern Hemisphere, or Religion and Nature in North (or Latin) America; Religion and Nature in Islam, Indigenous Religions etc. The bibliography for this exam will be determined by committee in consultation with area faculty. 4) An exam in the student’s secondary area, i.e., one of the standard exams in either Religions of Asia or Religion in the Americas. 5) Oral examination. Most students will take the above four exams. Alternatives may be approved by the mutual agreement of the committee and student. A student taking a global, comparative approach, for example, may propose taking for the fourth exam, a second region, discipline or tradition-based exam, such as both religion and nature in Eastern hemisphere and religion and nature in the Western hemisphere.
Religion and Nature Curriculum:
