Learning Outcomes

*Effective January 2019*

Upon completion of their degree, Religion majors will be able to:

Explain “Religion” as a category of analysis in academic contexts, identifying when and how religious beliefs, interpretations, and practices shape human life, culture, and history, as well as how they change over time.
Analyze religious traditions and expressions within their historical, social, and cultural contexts.
Describe an array of academic tools or methods in the study of Religion (including textual analysis, historical methods, theological and ethical reasoning, ethnography); apply some of these methods to focused questions in upper-division seminars; and demonstrate the use of one method in a culminating project.
Demonstrate the ability to engage in constructive dialogue as they explore tensions between universal truths and particular interpretations and practices, and between historical movements and the urgent challenges of today.
Demonstrate skills of critical reading, scholarly thesis-driven research and writing, and effective oral presentation.

Students in lower-division Religion courses should accomplish:

Basic reading: accurate reporting on texts, beginning to identify an author’s assumptions and the structures of arguments
Basic writing: writing a short paper (5-7 pages) for clear expression and understanding in lower division courses; command of basic grammar, spelling, and form; capacity to describe a text accurately; capacity to relate one’s own ideas clearly and structure an interpretation or argument
Basic communication: capacity for oral communication and presentation skills in small group and large group settings
Basic thinking: interacting critically with course material; becoming aware of one’s own assumptions and biases and how these inform one’s understanding of religion’s texts, practices, histories, theologies, and/or ethics
Beginning facility with academic tools and methods within a disciplinary area (e.g., contextual study of texts, practices, histories, theologies, and/or ethics)

In addition to the aforementioned, students in upper-division Religion courses should be able to:

Reading: Read, critically and empathetically, the works of scholars in the field of religion; identify and describe the vision, theme, or argument in primary and secondary sources
Writing: Demonstrate advanced undergraduate writing abilities, including a longer paper (15-20 pages); construct a well-organized research paper which offers a persuasive argument
Communication: Demonstrate competence in discussing and evaluating complex ideas
Thinking: Demonstrate their mastery of factual and conceptual frameworks within the field of religion; expand and deepen one’s description and interpretation of texts by locating them within their larger social, cultural, and geographic contexts; demonstrate, in writing and speaking, their assumptions and biases
Receive and respond to constructive criticisms of their written and verbal presentations
Use, with growing sophistication, the scholarly tools and methods of the discipline; identify and pursue a question or problem independently, using the library and other sources.

Lower Division

Method: to know academic tools and methods within a disciplinary area.
Content: to be familiar with thinkers, texts, practices, histories, theologies, and/or ethics which shape the academic study of religion within a disciplinary area or on a topic in the field of religion.
Relevance: to recognize religion’s roles in shaping human life, culture, and history.

Upper Division

Method: understand academic tools and methods within disciplinary contexts.
Content: understand thinkers, texts, practices, histories, theologies, and/or ethics which shape the academic study of religion.
Relevance: understand religion’s roles in shaping human life, culture, and history.
Engage: integrate the works of scholars of religion and factual and conceptual information using appropriate tools and methods on a single topic.

To develop intellectual humility and critical empathy as they learn from a variety of religious perspectives which may differ from their own.
To develop the ability to think about the meaning of human existence from the perspective of Christian Traditions and Global Religious Traditions.
To develop the ability to engage in constructive dialog regarding questions of religious faith and values as they are encountered in local and global cultures.

The student who majors in religion will thus be able to demonstrate the capacity to:

Reading: Read, critically and empathetically, the works of scholars in the field of religion; identify and describe the vision, theme, or argument in primary and secondary sources
Writing: Demonstrate advanced undergraduate writing abilities, including a longer paper (15-20 pages); construct a well-organized research paper which offers a persuasive argument
Communication: Demonstrate competence in discussing and evaluating complex ideas
Thinking: Demonstrate their mastery of factual and conceptual frameworks within the field of religion; expand and deepen one’s description and interpretation of texts by locating them within their larger social, cultural, and geographic contexts; demonstrate, in writing and speaking, their assumptions and biases
Receive and respond to constructive criticisms of their written and verbal presentations
Use, with growing sophistication, the scholarly tools and methods of the discipline; identify and pursue a question or problem independently, using the library and other sources.
Demonstrate their mastery of factual and conceptual frameworks within the field of religion
Majors are required to publicly present their study and research in an engaging and persuasive manner
Demonstrate all Knowledge Learning Objectives expected at the upper-division level
Be able to discuss their education in Religion in relation to the Values and Beliefs objectives