In addition to the departmental languages, French and German, students are required to be proficient in the classical language of their chosen tradition and other necessary research languages.

Students are encouraged to study issues in their selected area in the larger context of Asian religions as a whole and in a broad cultural context, which embraces the study of history, literature, and art.

Students are strongly encouraged to take a course outside the field of Asian religions in any of the other fields offered in the department. They are also encouraged to take courses outside the department, for example in the departments of History of Art, History, and East Asian languages and literature, and to prepare one of their comprehensive examinations under the direction of faculty in one of these departments.

The qualifying examinations in Asian religions are taken after the conclusion of required course work and must be completed before admission to candidacy. Ordinarily students take the examinations in the third year of residence. Preparation for the qualifying examination is comprised of a combination of course work and supplementary individual readings. The usual procedure is to take the qualifying exams with instructors with whom one has already taken a graduate level seminar. It is, therefore, important to give thought to the intended qualifying exams during the first and second years of study. One would then typically spend one more semester working with the relevant instructor to develop a further bibliography for independent study following which one would take place the exam. The precise mode of preparation will vary depending on the student, the examiner, and the particular topic and circumstances. The goal of the qualifying exam process is to help the student develop breath outside of their central area of specialization and the topic of their dissertation, and it is expected that at least one of the qualifying exams will be administered by faculty outside of the Asian Religions teaching group.

Although the precise format of the exams will be determined by the examining instructor (in consultation with the teaching group in Asian Religions, if the examiner is not within the Asian Religions teaching group), the usual procedure will involve a written examination followed by an oral examination. The written one will be an at-home and open-book exam, and each written exam will consist of three questions administered either over a single period of 24 hours, or over three successive days with 8 hours allotted per question. An oral exam will then follow shortly thereafter, during which time the examiner will be able to ask follow up questions pertaining to the content of the written responses.

The Asian Religions program has two qualifying exams:

1. Cognate Regional Exam:

This subject of this exam will be a topic in the field of Asian Religions outside of the student’s primary geographical area of specialization but related to the religious, disciplinary, or topical area of the intended dissertation. For example, a student writing a dissertation on Chinese Buddhist monasticism might take a Regional Exam on Korean Buddhism; or Christian monasticism; or Indian Buddhism. A student writing a dissertation on modern Korean Buddhism might take an exam on modern Chinese Buddhism.

1. Cognate Disciplinary Exam:

The subject of this exam will be a topic closely related to the student’s dissertation topic in terms of geographic region, but set in a different discipline. A student specializing in medieval Chinese Buddhism, for example, might take an exam in either medieval Chinese literature or Chinese Art History; a student specializing in modern Korean Buddhism might take an exam in modern East Asian history, or East Asian anthropology.

Suggested areas include:

East Asian Buddhism
Buddhism and Modernity in East Asia
Chinese and Korean art history
Chinese and Korean history
Chinese and Korean literature
Himalayan religious history
Indian literature
Indian art and archeology
Buddhism in the Japanese Empire
Korean Buddhism, History, and Culture
Monastic life; sectarianism and historiography in Asia
Ritual and magic in Asia
Sanskrit language and linguistics
Scripture and doctrinal exegesis in Asia
Buddhism, Atheism, and Sexuality

The dissertation prospectus is prepared following the completion of the qualifying exams. Students normally submit a dissertation prospectus and have a colloquium on the prospectus no later than the first semester of their fourth year. The prospectus is developed in consultation with the faculty, and submitted to the teaching group in the field, who meet with the student for a two-hour colloquium to assess the scope, significance, and feasibility of the topic and the student’s preparation to accomplish it in a reasonable time. The prospectus itself ordinarily should include a statement of the precise nature of the topic, its significance, its relationship to previous work, and the method and sources to be employed. After approval by the teaching group, a two-page summary of the prospectus is submitted to the entire graduate faculty in Religious Studies and thence, if none object, to the Dean of the Graduate School. Once accepted, this prospectus becomes the basis for the eventual assessment of the completed dissertation. After acceptance of the prospectus, the student is admitted to candidacy for the Ph.D.

Students normally begin writing their dissertation in the fourth year and normally will have finished by the end of the sixth. The completed dissertation must be evaluated in writing and approved by a committee of three readers and the departmental faculty. There is no oral examination on the dissertation.