Welcome to the Department of Religious Studies at Brown.

Whatever brought you here—curiosity about a text, a question that keeps tugging at you, or a sense that the news you get each morning is unintelligible without some understanding of the religious currents beneath it—whatever brought you here, you are in good company. Religion touches on nearly everything: how people mourn, how laws get written, how nations govern and go to war, how communities draw their boundaries, how a painting or a poem or a piece of music both creates and expresses religious sensibilities, and how people decide what matters in their lives. Our department exists because understanding such issues means taking religion seriously—scholarly, creatively, and in its full range of expression.

We are a medium-sized department with a large reach. Our faculty study multiple religious traditions in relation to multiple topics, for example, religion and ecology, politics, race, gender, sexuality, Indigeneity, affect, and the arts. This broad range is evident in our seminars and classrooms. By taking our courses, students—with various backgrounds—gain not only knowledge about particular religious traditions and topics but also such skills as how to read closely, argue rigorously, and engage with complexity without reducing it facilely.

We are also a department committed to creating community and belonging, one that is open to—indeed, that invites—different perspectives, backgrounds, and orientations. That commitment shapes not just what we teach but how we teach and work together as a community of students and faculty.

I encourage you to look at our courses, our concentration, our areas of graduate study, and the work our faculty are doing. And if you have questions, please reach out to us.

Welcome, and thank you for your interest in Religious Studies at Brown.

Mark Cladis
Department of Religious Studies