The Graduate Program in Religion

Our Department

Gray Building
Gray Building

The Graduate Program in Religion is part of the Duke Graduate School. Unlike many of its peer programs, which are housed in either a university religion department or a divinity school, it is a collaborative program involving the Department of Religious Studies in the College of Arts and Sciences and Duke Divinity School. Its faculty numbers more than 40 scholars. Though focused on scholarly research, the Ph.D. program also aims to prepare students to teach undergraduate courses in religion beyond the areas of their specialized training. It sponsors a program in pedagogy designed to prepare its students for careers in higher education.

Strengths of the Graduate Program in Religion include its small, highly selective student cohort and distinguished faculty, as well as ample resources for research, mentoring, and professional development. Normally about 40-50 students are part of our program in a given year. Duke seeks to allow students to develop regimes of study that accord with their interests and abilities as well as with the demands of the disciplines of their fields of concentration.

Cooperative Agreement

The Graduate Program in Religion benefits from close ties to two neighboring universities, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University in Raleigh. A cooperative agreement makes possible cross-registration of graduate courses in religion and cognate disciplines, increasing the range of course offerings and expanding the graduate student cohort. UNC and NC State faculty serve on preliminary exam and dissertation committees. During the school year, buses run between Duke and UNC every 30 minutes.