Religion

The program in the study of religion introduces students to a variety of global religious traditions, experiences and expressions, and invites an empathetic understanding of difference. The program provides students with tools to critically engage "religious texts," including written, oral, performative, and symbolic. Religion courses engage students in the comparative study of themes and dimensions such as beliefs, practices, rituals, and myths within and between religious traditions. The religion program facilitates interdisciplinary engagement with the study of religion and other human endeavors by encouraging students to learn and use a variety of methodologies, including: textual, social-scientific, historical, feminist, and post-colonial.

Philosophy

Philosophy is a mode of engaging thoughtfully and critically with the grounding ideas and assumptions of human practices. Such thinking includes reflection on the relationship between different forms of knowledge (scientific, ethical, political, historical, cultural, and aesthetic) and the material world, as well as reflection on the intertwining social, historical, and geographical forms of power and human community. Courses in philosophy develop a wide range of intellectual abilities and offer a unique opportunity for students to develop their own modes of thoughtful and critical engagement with different domains of knowledge and practice. The emphasis is on primary texts and a careful discussion of them and their ideas. In addition to graduate studies in a number of fields, students who major in philosophy are well prepared to enter the range of career options available to liberal arts college graduates.