There is no single ideal route to this program. Students may apply with a background in any of the humanistic or social scientific disciplines. The rigor of the program inheres in the mastery of a case, a question, a context, a text, a mind, a comparison—a work of research that sheds light on religion and modernity in some of the numerous ways these terms and histories can be conceived.

The statement of purpose should include an identification of principal research interests and questions, a conceptual account of your work to date along with an indication of its role in your decision to pursue advanced study, and an assessment of what your work aims to contribute to the field of religious studies and scholarship in the humanities more broadly.

Applicants to the program are encouraged to have some experience with one or more of the languages relevant to their research. In order to advance to candidacy (following acceptance of the dissertation prospectus), students must be proficient in at least two languages.

Our field defines languages broadly: students may receive credit for this requirement not only in languages such as Spanish, Yiddish, Urdu, but also in computer programming or musicology.

The language requirement can be satisfied by (a) taking and passing a translation exam offered by the relevant department; (b) taking a Yale language for reading course, either in the summer or in the school year; (c) passing a translation exam set by a faculty member in Religious Studies; (d) achieving a grade of A or B in one of Yale’s intermediate language courses; (e) demonstrating proficiency in case of a non-linguistic mode of communication. Transfer credit for language work completed elsewhere is accepted on a case by case basis.

Students take twelve courses (in addition to any language courses), and this is typically done during the first two years of study. Student must earn a grade of Honors in two graduate courses, a requirement set by the Graduate School.

The expectation is that students will take at least five of their twelve courses with faculty in Religious Studies. These five may include the required doctoral seminar in the study of religion, RLST 510. In addition, students are encouraged to study with affiliated faculty in Religion and Modernity, as well as to explore other fields within the Department of Religious Studies, the Divinity School, and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

Before the end of the second year, in preparation for the qualifying exams, students completing coursework will: 

1. Constitute their exam committee of three faculty members. One of the three committee members will serve as chair. The exam committee need not anticipate the makeup of the dissertation committee.
2. Attend an advising meeting with the exam committee and the ADGS, at which the focus is exams and any other questions about program and development.
3. Develop exam bibliographies in three areas of concentration (see exams), each of which will be supervised by one of the three faculty members on the exam committee.

Purpose

Preparation for the qualifying exams consists of a combination of coursework and supplementary individual reading. While the dissertation will demonstrate a student’s capacities as a research scholar, the exams test a student’s preparation to undertake research and their powers of breadth and ingenuity. They are the culmination of coursework—an opportunity to show what has been learned and where a student is headed. The aim is control of the larger spheres within which students will identify the specific questions and materials of the prospectus.

Procedure and areas of concentration

The qualifying exams are taken in the third year of residence, typically between January and April of that academic year.

The exams consist of both a written and an oral component.

The written exams consist of questions in three areas the student has developed in the bibliographies. These three areas will be variations on the clusters denoted by 

• thought (philosophy, theology, art, politics, theory), 
• social forms, including questions of secularism, social divisions, and discursive patterns, and 
• history, with a focus on the historiography of a particular theme or context, and including questions of method and perspective.

The oral exam is to enable students to augment their written material in response to questions. Each examiner may ask questions about any of the written exams.

Specifications

1. The three written exams are to be completed over a 14-day period. Students may use any research materials during this period and may work on them wherever they like, but they must not discuss them with anyone else or use AI for any element of them.

2. The date of the written exams refers to the first day of the 14-day period. Questions for all three exams are given on the first day. The examinee emails all completed exams to all examiners at the end of this period. The date for the oral exam is set for a maximum two weeks after submission of written exams. Planning for exams should begin at least eight months in advance; dates for both the written and oral exams are to be set at least two months in advance. The chair of the exam committee initiates the scheduling and oversees the process.

3. Each of the three exams is supervised by a single examiner, who assists the examinee in developing the bibliography and preparing to write on it. There is latitude for each examiner–examinee dyad to establish ground rules for the nature, number, and timing of the questions. Some will prepare with sample questions, leaving the actual question(s) unknown until the exam itself. Others will prepare a list of possible questions to be selected from on the exam. For all exams, examinee should have a choice of questions, e.g., pick one of two, pick two of four.

4. Length of each bibliography: typically between 20 and 60 works.

5. Length of exams and number of questions: Examinee will typically complete 1-2 questions per exam. If more than one, examinee may connect the questions, and will perhaps inevitably do so. There is no advantage to keeping them discrete, unless a student needs them to be. Maximum word count per exam: 5000.

6. Everything else about each exam – structure of bibliography, coverage, style of questions – is up to the individual examiner in consultation with the examinee. At its best, preparation between faculty and student involves consistent mentoring practices that assist students in the threefold task of broadening, delimiting, and deepening their areas of interest.

7. In cases where a student is combining Religion and Modernity with another subfield, there will be adjustments made, for example a slightly larger exam committee and a possible additional exam(s), with the total number of exams (including oral exam) not exceeding six. In case of additional exam(s), the time period for their execution will be accordingly expanded.

After completing all coursework, language requirements, and the qualifying exams, students formally identify a dissertation advisor (or co-advisors) and prepare a dissertation prospectus. The prospectus ordinarily should include a statement of the precise nature of the topic, its significance, its relationship to previous work, the method and sources to be employed in the dissertation, a chapter outline, and select bibliography. The prospectus (typically 15–20 pages including bibliography) is reviewed by a faculty committee with expertise in the dissertation topic, including the dissertation advisor and usually two other faculty. 

Shortly after submission of the prospectus to the committee, a colloquium is held. The colloquium is a cooperative, collegial enterprise, the goal of which is to facilitate the success of the dissertation project. Discussion is on the scope, significance, and feasibility of the topic, and the student receives constructive feedback. After approval by the committee, the student submits a two-page summary of the prospectus to the entire graduate faculty in Religious Studies and thence (if none object) to the Dean of the Graduate School. The student is then admitted to candidacy for the Ph.D. The dissertation colloquium committee will continue to provide support and feedback throughout the dissertation writing process.

The expectation is that the prospectus colloquium and approval will occur before the end of the registration period for the seventh semester—roughly four to six months after the qualifying exams.

At the prospectus colloquium each student will indicate when they expect to submit a first chapter draft. Soon after the first chapter is completed, the dissertation committee will convene a workshop with the student to read, review, and assess the chapter.

Students begin writing their dissertation in the fourth year, completing either in the fifth or the sixth year of the program. The completed dissertation must be evaluated in writing and approved by a committee of three readers and the departmental faculty. Normally the three readers will be the same as those present at the prospectus colloquium and the first chapter workshop; however in some circumstances different readers may serve. 

Students in years one to three of the program are advised by the Assistant Director of Graduate Studies (ADGS), in addition to the faculty mentors who are close to their areas of interest. For students allied with more than one subfield, an initial meeting with both ADGSs sets a path for coordination of the subfields. In the first two years, advising meetings are held in the late spring with the ADGS and a group of faculty chosen by the student. These meetings are opportunities for students and faculty to talk about work to date, goals for the future, questions of procedure and direction, and approaching milestones. The meeting in the second year is with the exam committee.