Proposal on Restructuring of Undergraduate Major

Religious Studies

August 2004

Students majoring in religious studies in a large state university come to the program with diverse needs, goals, and background. The curriculum should be able to prepare those who wish to go on to masters or doctoral studies in religion, philosophy or other humanities, professional schools, or the ministry. Conversely, students who wish primarily to satisfy their own intellectual curiosity or search for meaning should also find courses that meet these goals.  The five areas provide students with broad exposure to various content areas in religious studies. Sacred texts are now situated within the wider cultural resources of literature and history as is appropriate in a university setting. The revised curriculum maintains and expands UNM’s long-standing expertise in Latin American, American and Southwestern cultural and religious traditions.

To address this variety of academic trajectories the following restructuring of the majors is proposed: Restructure the major from the existing four major areas (Western, Eastern, Sacred Texts, Religion in America) to the following five major areas:

The Western Religious tradition (WR): the history, theology, sacred texts and contemporary reality of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Sufism, Bahai, Mormonism, and other traditions that originated in the West.

The Eastern Religious tradition (ER): history, theology and sacred texts, and contemporary reality including Hinduism, Buddhism, and the religions of China.

Religion, Science, and Culture (RSC): the relationship of religion to scientific inquiry, medicine, ethics, and the law. This area also includes the psychology of religion; sociology of religion; and the anthropological, archeological, and cultural analysis of religion.

Religion and the Humanities (RH): sacred texts, art, music, and spirituality. Historical studies would be integrated into the respective traditions.

Religion in the Americas (RA): the historical and contemporary reality of the religious traditions of the United States, Latin America, Canada, and the Caribbean, and the study of religious culture within particular geographic regions and racial/ethnic groups of the Americas, including the American Southwest.

Requirements for the Major

The major will continue to require 33 hours. Required courses for all majors that should be considered prerequisites for upper division courses are Eastern and Western Religions. Introduction to World Religions will count toward the major, but not toward any of the five major area requirements. Each major will be required to take at least two courses from each of three of the five major areas listed above for a total of six courses (18 credit hours) to ensure a wide-ranging knowledge of the scope of religious studies. To ensure that students obtain core knowledge in religion: three courses are required: Western religions, Eastern religions and a course in Sacred texts.

Both lower and upper division courses would count toward the distribution requirement. Of the 33 credit hours required for the major, 21 hours must be in upper division classes. Each major would be asked to select one of the five areas as a concentration that would be the focus of additional course work. Two additional courses over and above the general distribution requirements will be required for the concentration. The courses can be chosen from both lower and upper division classes. This will enable students to obtain experience of in-depth research in a particular area and the opportunity to be introduced to the methodology of a specific discipline. Each major would be required to write a senior project, which could be a substantial paper, a community service project and oral presentation, or another form approved by the religious studies committee emerging from their work in the chosen concentration. Religious studies faculty would advise students majoring or minoring in religion on structuring their programs to meet the requirements and concentration. Besides courses offered under a topic heading, other related courses in other departments may also count for credit and would be evaluated on an individual basis.

For religious studies majors 3 hours must be in a 400 level seminar and 3 hours in a senior project for non-honors students. Honors students will continue to take the 6 thesis hours. In accordance with university policy, the RS course requirement for students fulfilling a double major would be lowered to 30 hours, of which 18 must be upper division; other requirements still apply.

Minors in Religious Studies:

Course requirement will remain at 18 credit hours.

Religious Studies: Proposed Regrouping of Courses

This is the proposed grouping of courses in the five proposed areas (see catalog for course descriptions):

Western Religion (WR)

Eastern Religion (ER)

Religion and the Humanities (RH)

Religion, Science, and Culture (RSC)

Religion in the Americas (RA)

General Religious Studies (R): (these courses do not count toward the five areas for majors):

Note: Upon approval from Religious Studies, other courses listed as Relig 447 and Relig 547 may count toward a particular major area, depending upon the contents of the course in a particular semester.