Departmental Values

The Department of Religious Studies at Stanford University examines religion in diverse cultures and periods of human history up to the present. We do so within a framework that values difference, welcomes diversity, and sustains community. 

Religions ask existential questions about how human beings make sense of life in the world and how we structure societies. Grappling with what it means to be human, religions have historically been forces for inclusion as well as exclusion, for fighting against oppression as well as compounding it. Because religion shapes systems of power, human interactions, and attitudes toward the environment, the academic study of religion opens new ways of understanding and appreciating human and planetary diversity. At the same time, academic approaches to religion have historically contributed to the objectification and racialization of individuals and communities. Since religions are complex, they require deliberate and reflexive study from a range of perspectives and approaches.

The faculty and students in the Department of Religious Studies at Stanford value the careful study of religion as an invitation to critically examine authority structures, discursive traditions, meaning-making practices, and identity formation. We study a range of subjects, including but not limited to: race and religion, minority communities in India, music and medicine, material cultures of religion, the history of religious ideas and religious ideas about history, thanatology, mysticism, translation, exegesis, religious approaches to ecological crisis, and more. We draw on archival research, ethnographic fieldwork, philological analysis, and other approaches to explore perspectives and positions within and outside of religious traditions with critical empathy. We value intellectual and experiential representation in our discipline, our research, our pedagogy, and our community. 

The Department of Religious Studies at Stanford is committed to providing an inclusive and welcoming space for all faculty, staff, students, and guests. Through our curriculum, as well as our extra-curricular departmental activities, we continually strive to approach the study of religion with integrity, curiosity, and critical reflection, attentive to marginalized as well as mainstream perspectives. We invite all who are interested in learning more about our work to join us for public events, workshops, and classes, and to explore our individual profiles for more details. 

We are committed to equal opportunity and non-discrimination, and we seek talent from all segments of global society.