Hamilton College

Department Name: 
Religious Studies
Department website: 
http://www.hamilton.edu/academics/departments/Home?dept=Religious%20Studies
Approximate Enrollment (entire institution): 
1,800
Number of Religion Majors: 
5
Number of Full-Time Departmental Faculty: 
5
Public Institution?: 
Private
Related to a religious denomination or body?: 
No
Which best describes the institution?: 
Grants bachelor degrees only
Department offers undergraduate coursework in ministerial preparation (either a track, a minor, or a major)?: 
No
Department or institution offers masters programs in religious studies or theological studies?: 
No
Department or institution offers doctoral programs in religious studies or theological studies?: 
No
Description of Undergraduate Major: 

The goal of Hamilton's Religious Studies Department is to provide students with an understanding of religion not simply as social institution or dogma, but as a powerful facet of human experience and culture.

The program in Religious Studies emphasizes personal and social identity; text and narrative; historical encounters among traditions; and, existential / theological dimensions of cultures. Our courses are distributed over a large selection of religious traditions including: Buddhist, Hindu, Chinese, Christian, Jewish, and Native American traditions. We represent and encourage deep interdisciplinary engagement: majors learn to employ a variety of methods and engage material shared by fields such as philosophy, anthropology, sociology, psychology, history, literary analysis, oral cultures, art history, women’s studies, archeology, cinema and new media studies, and other facets of material culture.

Hamilton's Religious Studies Department offers critical, diverse perspectives on many of the world's religious traditions. Students may study the Bible, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Eastern religions and Native American traditions as well as the many cultural, social and artistic means by which religion is expressed and represented. Religious studies is deeply interdisciplinary: majors may do research in the fields of philosophy, anthropology, sociology, psychology, history, literary analysis, oral cultures, art history, women's studies and archaeology