Mission

The Program of Graduate Studies in Religion at Duke University is designed to foster the scholarly study of religion and to equip persons of distinguished academic ability for teaching in departments of religion in colleges and universities, as well as in theological seminaries.

Higher education in America has over the past several decades witnessed the establishment of the academic study of religion as an important part of liberal education. Since 1939, when the first doctorates in religion were awarded at Duke, more than five hundred men and women have earned the Duke Ph.D. in religion and have assumed academic posts in this country and abroad. Currently there are 530 living Ph.D. alumni of the Program.

Both the master's and doctoral degree programs at Duke are administered by the Graduate School of the University. The graduate faculty in religion, drawn from the faculties of the Divinity School and the Department of Religion, numbers more than forty scholars. Combining breadth with depth of scholarly research, the Ph.D. program also aims to prepare students to teach undergraduate courses in religion beyond the areas of their specialized training. The Graduate Program in Religion sponsors a year-long program in pedagogy designed to prepare its students for more effective careers in higher education.

The Graduate Program in Religion at Duke remains small and selective, although the institution's faculty, library, and other resources are ample. Normally about 65-75 students are in residence in a given year. Duke seeks to allow students to develop programs of study that accord with their interests and abilities as well as with necessary demands of the disciplines of their fields of concentration.