GRADUATE STUDENTS in the Department of Comparative Religion are offered a program that is highly flexible and tailored to an individual's aspirations and goals. This section of the web site is intended to outline the program, and serve as a guide to current graduate students, as they move through the several stages of advancement toward the Master of Arts degree in Comparative Religion. Students are encouraged to take this document seriously, but at the same time remember that the reality of a program is not paper and ink; it exists in the minds of the faculty who administer it and of the student who completes it.
The Department of Comparative Religion is relatively small, and a degree of flexibility within the constraints set by the university can be expected. To make this work to the advantage of all, however, requires that communication between students and faculty be established early and constantly nurtured. It is imperative that students keep in close contact with the faculty with whom they are working. Some students will need to consider at length the area in which they will work and gain knowledge of faculty resources and teaching styles. Students are reminded that these faculty are the individuals who will be writing their examination questions and judging their theses.
Finally, the faculty encourage students to work together for mutual support and the sharing of ideas throughout their residency, and especially when preparing for the qualifying examinations.
The Director of Graduate Studies is Lisa J.M. Poirier, Ph.D. (contact information below)
This overview of the Master of Arts program is divided into the following categories:
APPLYING> COURSES > ASSISTANTSHIPS > EXAMINATIONS > THESIS > THE BUREAUCRACY
APPLYING
In addition to Graduate School application forms and your college transcripts, which should be sent directly to the Graduate School, the following procedures must also be observed:
1. Submission of Departmental Application:
This consists of three letters of recommendation from faculty members familiar with your previous university work, and a statement of purpose. The letters of recommendation should be composed on official letterhead. The statement of purpose should consist of a description of your intellectual history, field of interest in religious studies (area of emphasis), and professional or other ambitions, insofar as you are able to clarify and express them at this time. About two pages is an adequate length for this statement.
2. The GRE is required to apply to our program. Please have your scores sent to Miami University. When taking the GREs, the institution code for Miami University is R1463, and the Department Code for Comparative Religion is 2904.
3. Deadline:
February 15 to be considered for enhanced financial awards.
4. Submit all departmental materials to:
Dr. Lisa J.M. Poirier
Director of Graduate Studies
Department of Religion
Miami University
Oxford, OH 45056
Tel: (513) 529-4180
E-Mail: poirielj@muohio.edu
COURSES
The number of courses available within the department specifically for graduate students is limited. It is common practice for a graduate student to sign up for an independent study course with the understanding that he or she will attend an appropriate advanced undergraduate course taught by the same faculty member as a part of the required work. No degrees are granted without the successful completion of the qualifying examinations and the thesis. Generally speaking, three courses are required of all incoming graduate students and one additional course (repeated second semester) will be required of all teaching assistants:
The following courses are required of some or all students:
1. REL 600.B (Gifford or Hanges. Fall semester. 4 hours). Seminar: Formative Approaches to the Study of Religion. This course will serve as a framework for the mastery of the core reading list. The final examination in this course serves as the qualifying examination, which is a prerequisite to further work in the program. Required of all first-year graduate students.
2. REL 600.A (Staff. Spring Semester. 4 hours). Seminar in Religion: This course provides a context for first year graduate students to develop their thesis proposals. Required for all first year graduate students.
3. A seminar given at least once a year, and required of all graduate students in residence. The designated course will usually be either REL 610 or REL 502. (4 hours). Recent topics have included: (1) Sacred Space: Religion and Material Culture; (2) Embodied Religion: The Human Body as a Focus of Religious Practice and Reflection; (3) Ritual as a Comparative Category; (4) Religion and Colonialism; (5) Religion, Society, and Culture in New England.
4. REL 620 (Staff. Fall and Spring semesters. 1-2 hours). Practicum in Religion. This course is an adjunct to a student's duties as teaching assistant and is required only of teaching assistants. The instructor(s) will be those teaching the particular course in which the student assists. Usually all teaching assistants will be assigned both to REL 101 (Varieties of Religious Expression) and REL 103 (Religion, History, and Society); instructors vary.
All incoming students should consult with the Director of Graduate Studies before registering for courses in the autumn.
ASSISTANTSHIPS
Currently, most of our graduate students serve as teaching assistants in return for a tuition waiver and a stipend for living expenses. Duties of an assistant are attending an undergraduate course (usually REL 101 and REL 103), conducting two discussion sections per week, helping to construct examinations, grading papers, and being available to help undergraduates in their sections as needed. Assistants must also attend the Practicum course (REL 620), which functions as a weekly staff meeting of all instructors and assistants of the assigned course.
EXAMINATIONS
As indicated above, successful completion of REL 600.B through an examination based on a list of six formative texts (plus up to three others selected on an individual basis) in the study of religion is a prerequisite to further work in the program. This examination is in two parts: first a written response to a question or questions submitted by the faculty, usually scheduled for the interim between the first and second semesters; second an oral examination conducted by a minimum of three religion faculty members. Here follows the core book list around which exam questions might be structured:
1) Ludwig Feuerbach, THE ESSENCE OF CHRISTIANITY (1841).
2) William James, THE VARIETIES OF RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE (1902).
3) Max Weber, THE PROTESTANT ETHIC AND THE SPIRIT OF
CAPITALISM (1905).
4) Emile Durkheim, THE ELEMENTARY FORMS OF THE RELIGIOUS LIFE (1912).
5) Rudolf Otto, THE IDEA OF THE HOLY (1917).
6) Max Weber, SOCIOLOGY OF RELIGION (1922)
7) Sigmund Freud, THE FUTURE OF AN ILLUSION (1927).
8) Mircea Eliade, COSMOS AND HISTORY: THE MYTH OF THE
ETERNAL RETURN (1949).
9) Mircea Eliade, PATTERNS IN COMPARATIVE RELIGION (1958).
10) Jonathan Z. Smith, IMAGINING RELIGION (1982).
11) Michel Foucault, DISCIPLINE AND PUNISH: THE BIRTH OF THE
PRISON (1995).
12) Wendy Doniger O’Flaherty, OTHER PEOPLE’S MYTHS (1995).
13) Stephen Prothero, THE WHITE BUDDHIST (1996).
14) Wendy Doniger, THE IMPLIED SPIDER (1998).
15) Karen McCarthy Brown, MAMA LOLA (2001).
THESIS
The primary work of the second semester of the first year will be the formulation of a thesis topic and the beginning of serious work on the thesis. At the beginning of the second semester or at such time as the thesis area begins to take shape, each student will be assigned an advisor in consultation with the Director of Graduate Studies. In most cases this advisor will become the thesis director. Students should begin to consider during the first semester what sort of thesis area they wish to pursue and which faculty member would be most appropriate to guide them in this pursuit.
Topic: At least one course during the second semester should be chosen for the purpose of formulating a thesis topic and writing a proposal. This should be worked out with the advisor or the Director of Graduate Studies. This often will be a consideration in choosing courses first semester as well.
Proposal: Each first year student should submit a thesis proposal for approval by the religion faculty by 1 April. The proposal must be worked out in consultation with the proposed thesis director; the director may also consult with other members of the department who agree to serve as readers. The proposal must propose a problem of or investigation with a specific focus, give a clear sense of how the questions it raises may be answered, and provide a tentative outline for the thesis. It should include some attention to the current state of scholarship on the problem, and it must include an appropriate bibliography in which (1) works already read are distinguished from works to be read as the student continues work on the thesis, and (2) primary sources are distinguished form secondary sources. The proposal should be from ten to fifteen double-spaced pages in length.
Colloquium: A thesis colloquium will be arranged in conjunction with REL 600.A. A majority of the faculty who serve as the thesis committee must approve the proposal, sometimes with revisions, before the student is formally considered a thesis candidate.
Thesis itself: The master's thesis is neither a doctoral dissertation nor a book nor a life's work. It is a clearly delimited exercise in dealing on a serious level with a problem in research and interpretation. Its scope and character should be clearly thought out and discussed with the thesis director. It should be between 40 and 80 pages in length, and conform to the rules set forth in Kate Turabian, A MANUAL OF STYLE.
Thesis Defense (Final Examination): This ritual has the form of a final oral examination with the thesis as basis. It is intended to ensure that the thesis committee work together and agree on the final document. The defense of the thesis will not be scheduled until the director is satisfied that the student's manuscript is ready for the defense. Attendance by the thesis committee is required. A copy of the thesis must be presented to each member of the thesis committee no later than two weeks before the defense.
THE BUREAUCRACY
Certain items and procedures are required to conform to the university rules. These include applying for graduation, clearing fees, clearing the thesis with the Graduate School Office (to ensure correct form), and arranging for the thesis to be electronically submitted as well as bound in hard copy. Consult with the Graduate School Office early in the semester in which you hope to graduate.
Note that in addition to the copies of the thesis required by the University, the department also requires one copy for its archives. In past years the approximate deadlines to apply for graduation are:
May graduation: First week in February
August graduation: First week in June
It is the responsibility of each student to check the Graduate Bulletin for such rules and deadlines and to take care of the necessary paperwork at the Graduate School Office, 102 Roudebush Hall.
