The individual areas of study set general requirements for doctoral examinations and the student’s advisor and examiners approve the specifics. Most areas expect students to write an exam on a methodological approach or theme relevant to their proposed dissertation. A number of faculty in the department as well as affiliated faculty are prepared to write exams on various methods and themes that traverse areas of study. Some faculty may have already prepared exams on particular approaches and/or topics; others are open to working with students to develop more personally tailored exams. What follows is intended to be suggestive not definitive.
APPROACHES/METHODS
Anthropology of Religion – Blankholm, Perez, Yang
Archaeology of Religion – Thomas
Comparative Study of Religions – Holdrege
Ethnographic Methods – Blankholm, Johnson, Perez, Reynolds, Yang
Legal Methods – Blankholm, Moore
Sociology of Religion – Blankholm
THEMES/TOPICS
Art – Holdrege
Asceticism and Monasticism – Thomas, Wallace
Atheism – Blankholm
Body – Holdrege, Steavu-Balint, Wallace
Cinema – Afary,
Colonialism and Postcoloniality – Afary, Campo, Holdrege, Yang
Death – Campo
Devotion – Holdrege
Diaspora – Busto, Moore, Perez
Ecology – Yang
Ethics – Wallace
Fiction – Busto, Thomas
Food – Campo, Perez
Gender and/or Sexuality – Afary, Holdrege, Moore, Yang
Geopolitics – Afary, Campo, Moore, Rambelli, Yang
Hermeneutics – Carlson, Holdrege, Thomas, Wallace
Law – Afary, Ahmad, Blankholm, Moore
Media – Carlson, Yang
Modernity and Post-Modernity – Ahmad, Afary, Blankholm, Carlson, Yang
Music – Reynolds
Mysticism – Cabezon, Campo, Carlson, Holdrege, Wallace
Myth and Symbol – Busto, Holdrege, Reynolds
Nationalism and the State – Yang
Objects and Material Culture – Thomas
Orality and Literacy – Reynolds, Thomas
Pluralism – Moore
Race and Ethnicity – Busto, Perez
Ritual, Performance, and Practice – Campo, Holdrege, Reynolds, Yang
Sacred/Profane – Carlson
Science and Medicine – Holdrege, Steavu-Balint, Wallace
Scripture – Garr, Holdrege, Thomas
Secularism – Blankholm
Semiotics – Holdrege, Rambelli
Space – Campo, Holdrege, Thomas, Yang
