Japanese garden at the Johnson Museum of Art

Religious Studies Program

Religious Studies Events

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Weiner Family Summer Fellowship

Call for Applications for Summer 2027

Eligibility: Cornell undergraduates

Application Deadline: November 15, 2026

The Weiner Family Summer Fellowship, established in honor of Gelek Rimpoche, will award two undergraduate students with up to $5,000 each in pursuit of the academic study of Buddhism. The award may be used for travel, accommodation, research materials, living expenses, coursework fees, and more. Preference will be given to students with strong coursework in religious studies and Asian religions.

Student working in front of Sage Chapel

Joseph E. Connolly ’72 Memorial Prizes

Memorial prizes for undergraduate essays on religion and politics/society.

Eligibility: Cornell undergraduates from all colleges are eligible to apply.

Throughout history and across the contemporary global sphere, religious practice and ideology interweave themselves in the political and social fabric of human life. The Joseph E. Connolly ’72 Memorial Prizes are awarded to undergraduates who have demonstrated exceptional scholarship at the intersection of religion and politics or society. The Connolly Prizes seek to support, recognize, and inspire imaginative, wide-ranging undergraduate research that addresses these themes in any area of the humanities, and relating to religion(s), religious beliefs, and religious practices in the broadest sense.

Religious Studies News

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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