Religion

Return to: Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

Ahmanson Center 130
(213) 740-0270
FAX: (213) 740-7158
Email: religion@dornsife.usc.edu
dornsife.usc.edu/religion
Director: Lori Meeks, PhD

Faculty

King Faisal Chair in Islamic Thought and Culture and Professor of Religion and American Studies and Ethnicity: Sherman Jackson, PhD*

Knight Chair in Media and Religion: Diane Winston, PhD (Communication and Religion)

Carolyn Craig Franklin Professor of Law and Religion and Professor of Law: Ronald R. Garet, JD (Law)

John R. Tansey Chair in Christian Ethics and Professor of Religion: Rev. Cecil (Chip) Murray, RelD

Alton M. Brooks Professor of Religion: James Heft, PhD

Leonard K. Firestone Professor of Religion: Donald Miller, PhD

Ruth Ziegler Early Career Chair in Jewish Studies: Jessica Marglin, PhD

Professors: Lisa Marie Bitel, PhD (History); Janet Hoskins, PhD (Anthropology); Paul Lichterman, PhD (Sociology)

Associate Professors: Sheila Briggs, MA; James McHugh, PhD; Sonya Lee, PhD (East Asian Languages & Cultures); Lori Rachelle Meeks, PhD; Duncan Williams, PhD

Assistant Professors: David Albertson, PhD*; Cavan W. Concannon, PhD; Gerard Godard, PhD (History); (Lei Kwan) Rondgao Lai, PhD

Associate Professor of the Practice: Lynn Swartz Dodd, PhD

Adjunct Professors: Stephen Smith, PhD; Varun Soni, PhD

Emeriti Professors: Robert Ellwood, PhD; Ronald Hock, PhD; John B. Orr, PhD; J. Wesley Robb, PhD, LHD*

Emeriti Associate Professors: John P. Crossley, Jr., ThD*; William W. May, PhD; Alvin S. Rudisill, PhD

*Recipient of university-wide or college teaching award.

The School of Religion offers undergraduate courses in biblical studies; ancient near eastern religion, east and south Asian religions, including Hinduism, Buddhism and Taoism; religions in Latin America; contemporary North American religions; the histories of Judaism, Christianity and Islam; the sociology of religion; religion and gender; and topics in religious ethics. Courses are designed to facilitate a critical and comparative understanding of religious traditions in the light of the most current scholarship.

Students also have the opportunity to receive regular USC course credit for courses taken at Hebrew Union College. Students have the option to take occasional courses at Hebrew Union College or to declare an emphasis in Judaic Studies (see the requirements indicated below for more information).

Degree Programs

The School of Religion offers the Bachelor of Arts in Religion, the Bachelor of Arts in Interdisciplinary Archaeology, a Bachelor of Arts with an emphasis in Judaic Studies, a minor in religion, a minor in interdisciplinary archaeology and the Doctor of Philosophy in Religion.

Undergraduate Degrees

Religion Major with Honors

Majors who wish to graduate from the university with honors in religion must achieve a minimum 3.5 grade point average in the major at the time of graduation. In addition to completing the required 32 units listed above, candidates for honors must register for REL 491 x Undergraduate Honors Research , in which they must complete an acceptable senior honors project in religion. The total unit requirement to graduate with honors is 36 upper-division units.

Honor Society

Theta Alpha Kappa is a national honor society for those involved in the study of religion at the undergraduate and graduate level. It is open to declared majors who have completed at least three semesters of college and at least 12 units of religion courses. Students must have a GPA of at least 3.5 in major courses and an overall GPA of at least 3.0.

Judaic Studies Minor

See Judaic Studies for a full description of the minor.

Critical Approaches to Leadership Minor

See the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies for a full description of the minor.

Graduate Degrees

The School of Religion offers graduate study at the doctoral degree level in the field of religion with three tracks: Asia Pacific Religions, Comparative Christianities and Global Islam. Graduate work in the field of religion is designed to develop competencies and critical apparatuses in the distinct tracks and religious traditions as well as in religions’ interactions with society, culture and the major themes that transcend the boundaries of geography, history and tradition.

The three tracks include:

Track I: Asia Pacific Religions

Trains students in the foundational texts, histories, worldviews, socio-political and cultural impact of religions in the pre-modern and modern Asia Pacific. These religious traditions include Hinduism, Buddhism and other religious movements in the region as well as their global manifestations.

Track II: Comparative Christianities

Trains students in the vast global range of historical and contemporary Christian traditions often grouped together homogeneously as Christianity. Rather than focusing exclusively on textual and intellectual traditions, this track integrates the social, cultural and material dimensions of religion in its study of plural Christianities, and challenges students to frame their research in transnational and transhistorical terms as a matter of course.

Track III: Global Islam

Trains students in the “global” dimensions of the Islamic tradition, from the traditional confines of the Middle East, Africa and South and Southeast Asia to include Islam, Islamic thought, Muslim culture and Muslim communities in the modern Western world. In addition to the acquisition of traditional skills for the study of religious texts, doctrine and spiritual life of believers, students will learn how Muslims negotiate concrete spaces and contexts they inhabit in the modern world.

Degree Requirements

The degree is conferred under the jurisdiction of the Graduate School. Refer to the Requirements for Graduation section and The Graduate School section of this catalogue for general regulations. All courses applied toward the degrees must be courses accepted by the Graduate School. Decisions regarding the number of transfer credits to be awarded will be made on a case-by-case basis by the faculty of the School of Religion.

Programs

Bachelor’s Degree

Minor

Doctoral Degree

Religion (PhD)

Courses

Religion

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