Religion and Culture

General Description
Coursework
Languages
Doctoral Examinations
Faculty

General Description:

Religion and Culture focuses on the critical study of culture with specific attention to the position of religion within modernity. The field explores a variety of philosophical and cultural themes arising from modern discourses on religion, including academic discourses. The theoretical basis of Religion and Culture is informed not only by the Western philosophical tradition but also by a broader range of intellectual traditions, incorporating the perspectives of ethnography, critical theory, and contemporary cultural criticism.

All students in Religion and Culture are expected to become well-grounded in modern Western intellectual and cultural history since the seventeenth century, including the major traditions of modern scholarly engagement with religion as well as the critical reactions to these traditions. Building on this foundation, each student designs and carries out focused study in a specific discursive tradition or a particular empirical moment of cultural practice. Students specialize in such areas as the ethnographic study of religion, religion in American law and politics, Jewish studies, religion and gender, and modern Western religious thought.

Coursework:

RELI 720, Critical Lineages in Religion and Culture, is required of all Religion and Culture students. Additional coursework should be selected through close and regular consultation with the student's faculty advisor.

Languages:

Each student is required to be competent in two modern research languages. These languages are commonly French and German, through other research languages can be substituted with the approval of the faculty in the field and the student’s advisor if appropriate for the student’s specific area of research.

Doctoral Examinations:

At the doctoral level, the student's competency in the following areas will be examined through the Doctoral Examinations:

1. Western intellectual and cultural history since 1600. This examination includes basic issues in the philosophy of religion, theory and method in the study of religion, and contemporary critical theory. The purpose of the exam is to situate the field of Religion and Culture in its historical and intellectual context.
   
   
2. Area of specialization. This examination focuses on major scholarly literature specific to the student’s specific field of study
   
   
3. Cultural theory. This examination focuses on methodological and theoretical issues in an area of cultural theory relevant to the student’s scholarly work, such as literary theory, cultural studies, ethnographic theory, postcolonial studies, or gender theory.
   
   
4. Dissertation examination. This exam covers historical and critical literature specific to the student’s area of dissertation research.

Faculty:

CORE FACULTY:

Jonathan Boyarin Leonard and Tobee Kaplan Distinguished Professor Ph.D. New School for Social Research, 1984 J.D., Yale Law School, 1998
125F Saunders Hall (919) 962-3937 jboyarin@unc.edu	Biographical profile  Curriculum vitae
Field of specialization: Religion and Culture
Research interests: Yiddish language and culture; Jewish cultural studies; Jewishness as it relates to comparative diasporas and nationalisms, critical theory, medieval and early modern Christianity

Evyatar Marienberg E.J. and Sara Evans Assistant Professor of Jewish History and Culture Ph.D., Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, 2002
130 Saunders Hall (919) 962-3939 evyatarm@unc.edu	Biographical profile  Curriculum vitae  Personal website
Field of specialization: Medieval and Early Modern Studies; Religion and Culture
Research interests: Rabbinic Judaism and Jewish law; contemporary Catholicism; regulation of sexuality; social history in the Middle Ages; rituals; reception of Vatican II

Randall G. Styers Associate Professor J.D., Yale Law School, 1984; Ph.D., Duke University, 1997 on leave Fall 2009 semester.   To contact the acting Director of Graduate Studies, click here.
106 Saunders Hall (919) 962-3938 rstyers@unc.edu	Curriculum vitae
Field of specialization: Religion and Culture
Research interests: Modern Western religious thought; contemporary critical thought; religion and magic; religion and law; gender theory

Ruel W. Tyson Professor B.D., Yale University, 1957; Manchester, Chicago, Oxford
113 Saunders Hall (919) 962-3935 tyson@email.unc.edu	Curriculum vitae
Field of specialization: Religion and Culture
Research interests: History of social thought; epistemology and rhetoric of ethnographic practices; symbol and allegory in the ritual practices of the Blue Ridge Primitive Baptists

ASSOCIATED FACULTY:

Lauren G. Leve Assistant Professor Ph.D., Princeton University, 1999
112 Saunders Hall (919) 962-3925 leve@email.unc.edu	Curriculum vitae
Field of specialization: Religions of Asia; Religion and Culture
Research interests: Ethnographic methods and the ethnography of religion; Buddhism in South and Southeast Asia; personhood and identity; gender and feminist theory; globalism, nationalism, and postcoloniality; anthropology of religion; religions of South Asia and Nepal