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Exploring religious traditions in all of their complexity

Religious Studies Program

We explore religious traditions through comparative, contextual and thematic studies. Our courses are built on the established scholarly tradition of the study of religion as an academic, as opposed to a confessional, pursuit.

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Major in religious studies

Interested in a specific religious tradition? Want to learn more about religious rituals throughout history and in the contemporary world? Consider an undergraduate major or minor in religious studies!

Take a class

Start with "Religion and Ecological Sustainability" (RELST 2273) or "Sensational Religion" (RELST 2276) or take one of the many other classes we offer.

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Add a graduate minor in religious studies

Cornell graduate students working in fields related to the study of religion are welcome to apply for the Religious Studies Graduate Minor in the Cornell Graduate School.

Support religious studies at Cornell

Your support enables the program to enhance the experience for undergraduate students. Gifts can help fund lectures and conferences, student research, distinguished speakers, and other program priorities. We will greatly appreciate and immediately put into use any gift, no matter the amount.

Give to Religious Studies

Undergraduate Funding

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Weiner Family Summer Fellowship

This fellowship is given in honor of Gelek Rimpoche. It supports funding for summer experiential learning and research for a Cornell undergraduate student studying Buddhist practice in Asia. Funding is limited to travel, research materials, and living expenses. Preference will be given to a student with strong coursework in religious studies and Asian religions.

For more information contact the Director of Religious Studies.

Application deadline is March 14, 2025

Religious Studies News

'The world really is your oyster'

Grace Elmore is majoring in English & religious studies.

Historic photo of about 20 people, many of them children arranged in rows against a stone wall of a building

Ethnic cleansing explored in Annual Armenian Genocide Commemoration Lecture

Columbia University's Khatchig Mouradian will give a lecture, “Ethnic Cleansing in the Long 19th Century: The Native American, Circassian, and Armenian Cases,” on April 24.

A&S announces membership in MLA Strategic Partnership Network

“We felt this is an important resource that should be available to our humanists at all levels, whether they have the resources to pay for membership or not,” said Peter John Loewen, the Harold Tanner Dean of Arts and Sciences.

Modeling an ancient house and garden in 3D

Cornell researchers have received a $150,000 NEH Digital Humanities Advanced Grant to create a 3D virtual modeling project based on the Casa della Regina Carolina, a large Pompeian house.

From portfolios to pizza, fall A&S career events explore diverse fields

"Cornell alumni are generous with their time and efforts to assist students, to answer questions from students, or connect them to people and places."

New A&S dean relishes ‘life in a university’

Peter John Loewen says he's excited to support faculty in their research, meet students and showcase the value of a liberal arts education.

Peter Loewen named dean of Arts and Sciences

Coming from the University of Toronto, where he was the director of the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, Loewen began his five-year appointment as the Harold Tanner Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Aug. 1.

National Humanities Center selects two A&S professors as 2024-25 Fellows

Kim Haines-Eitzen, the Paul and Berthe Hendrix Memorial Professor of Near Eastern studies, and Mostafa Minawi, associate professor of history and director of Critical Ottoman and Post-Ottoman Studies, will pursue research projects in residence in Durham, North Carolina.

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