Graduate Programs

Doctoral Degree

The Ph.D. program trains future scholars to write and teach in colleges, universities, or seminaries. Students have entered with bachelor's or master's degrees from prestigious colleges and universities throughout North America and the world. Please see list of completed and on-going dissertations, which gives some idea of the kinds of intellectual projects possible in our department.

The department has established strengths in the areas of Western religious thought, ethics, and theories of religion, Religions of the Americas, Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Religions, South Asian Religions, and Buddhist studies. With some recent appointments we have created new clusters of strength in India Studies, the history of Christianity, Comparative and transnational study of Islam, East Asian traditions, and Jewish thought and culture in the medieval and modern worlds.

The faculty of the Department is strongly committed to the training and mentoring of graduate students, who embody the future of the academic study of religion. Every faculty member is available to offer you advice and to talk with you about your interests and concerns, but the Director of Graduate Studies (DGS) should be your first stop for information about requirements, financial aid, and the like. The DGS is assisted by the Department’s Graduate Secretary, a staff member who handles much of the essential paperwork and other practical matters. The DGS chairs the Graduate Studies Committee, which decides on graduate admissions, discusses policy issues, and makes final determinations on exceptions to requirements, prize competitions, and the like.

The person primarily responsible for getting you through your graduate program in an efficient and profitable manner, however, is yourself. Because the faculty member who is the DGS changes regularly and other faculty go on leaves, you are the element of continuity during your time at IU. It behooves you to familiarize yourself with the requirements of your degree program and to take the initiative in formulating a plan to meet those requirements. The information in this Guide is designed to help you to do that.

Moving from the M.A. to the Ph.D.

Admission to our Ph.D. program from our M.A. program is not automatic. Even if you were originally admitted to both the M.A. and Ph.D. and/or received a multi-year financial aid package that extends beyond the M.A., your continuation in the program and renewal of your financial aid depends on your making satisfactory academic progress, and the transition to the Ph.D. provides a particularly important opportunity for the assessment of that progress.

If you are currently an M.A. student who wishes to enter the doctoral program, you apply to do so with a streamlined application, but on the same schedule as outside applicants. You need to submit your application by January 15 (normally at the beginning of your fourth semester), and you will hear from the Graduate Committee in late February or early March.

You must submit to the DGS the following materials, which will be added to your file from when you were admitted to the M.A.:

  1. an updated statement of purpose, plotting your doctoral program within the framework of the fields of study and identifying primary faculty mentors
  2. a letter of recommendation from at least one faculty member in the Department
  3. a copy of your approved thesis proposal, language project proposal, or comprehensive examination bibliographies
  4. a writing sample
  5. a statement as to your situation regarding the French and German language requirement

If you are admitted to the Ph.D. program and receive financial aid and you are finishing your M.A. with a thesis or language project, you must submit a draft of your thesis or project to your director by August 1 before the fall semester of beginning Ph.D. work in order to receive your funding for that semester. Your director must inform of you of any necessary revisions by August 15. The thesis or project must be formally accepted by the entire committee before the end of the first (fall) semester of Ph.D. work; if it is not, the student may not take courses in the spring semester and must reapply for admission to the Ph.D. program. This policy applies to students who are finishing theses at other institutions as well as students coming from our own Ph.D. program.