After the satisfactory completion of two years of full-time study, the modern language requirements, the coursework outside the specialization, and the second year review, a students prepare for the General Examinations. Ph.D. students usually take these examinations by the end of the third year. All INC's should be resolved before General Examinations.
Written examinations take place in October during fall term and in April during spring term. The Committee announces the exact dates six months ahead of time, and students must submit the "Notice of Intent to Take Ph.D. General Examinations in the Study of Religion", signed or confirmed via email by their advisor, by late September for spring term generals, or by late March for fall term generals. Bibliographies for each exam are also due at that time.
The overall pattern of the written general examinations required of all Ph.D. students follows. The student should consult with his or her advisor in formulating the plan for the exams and deciding upon examiner(s) for each exam.
1. Theory and Method in the Study of Religion
2. Context of Study Exam (Religious Tradition or Historical Complex)
3. Specialization within Context of Study
4. Specialization within Context of Study
Each examination is taken in a 3-hour period, and each examination or part offers a choice of 2-3 questions. A 2-hour oral examination will be held within the two weeks following the written general exams. The examining committee for the oral normally consists of the faculty members who prepared written exams for a given student.
The Theory and Method Exam
Goals of the Exam
Building on work done in Religion 2001 and 2002, the Theory and Method doctoral exam invites students to consider both the history of religious studies as a discipline and contemporary theoretical discussions about religion in relation to their own particular subfields. In replacing the old generic exam with this new, more theoretically driven and individually tailored exam, the Committee acts on the belief that students preparing themselves for professional lives in the study of religion need to have a clear sense of issues of current moment in the discipline; students must be able to frame the particulars of their research interests in the wider context of religious studies more generally, to enter the details of their own disciplines into broader conversations that cross particular subfields. Through this exam, we also seek to help students develop an understanding of the history of the study of religion, of the making of “religion” and “the religions” as categories of various sorts of inquiry from the early modern period to the present, in the context of wider intellectual, social and cultural history. In preparing for this exam, students are also encouraged to think about major historical and contemporary theorists of religion in the broader context of the social, cultural, and political history of knowledge from the Enlightenment to the present, and in particular in relation to the place of the construction of “religions” and “religion” in this history.
Structure of the Exam
The Theory and Method examination consists of three parts:
- a section on the History of the study of “religion” and the “religions” and/or of other concepts central to the study of religion from the enlightenment to the present.
- a section on contemporary conversations in the study of religion that focuses on issues and problems of current intellectual urgency across the study of religion.
- a final section on two theorists of religion or of theorists particularly useful for the study of religion. This bibliography should include both primary source material representing the major works of each theorist, as well as secondary literature on the work and contributions of each.
Preparing for the Exam
Each student must chose a Theory and Method examiner and submit a reading list according to the Committee schedule. The student will work out in advance with the TM examiner particular problems or concerns for the student to concentrate on in his or her preparation. Examiners will be responsible for writing individually tailored examination questions, in consultation with the student.
Working with an individual faculty member serves to make room for students to bring their own interests and concerns into current conversations in the discipline and to learn to view their own areas of specialization within the wider frame of the history of the study of religion. The Committee intends that students make their substantive areas of academic concern (the development of a particular ritual in Tibetan Buddhism, a problem of interpretation in Deuteronomy, a figure in American Catholic history, or an issue in Karl Barth’s theology, to cite some examples) the pivot of the theoretical learning and engagement that characterizes the new Theory and Method examination.
Questions to pose in the task of working out specific foci for each part of the exam might include: how does a particular student’s research contribute to, participate in, or change the terms and orientations of contemporary conversations across the field? What is the specific history of their area of specialization (the intellectual history of the making of “Buddhism,” for instance) in its relationship to the broader cultural history of the study of religions? How do the theorists they have chosen to work on help them sharpen questions of religious analysis in their work?
Committee on the Study of Religion
Adopted May 22, 2009
