 About Our Department
Stanford's Department of Religious Studies offers a variety of disciplinary perspectives on religion and on the history, literature, thought, and practice of particular religious traditions. The department is home to a dozen regular faculty, with strengths especially in the study of Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, and Islam; it enrolls about thirty graduate students and roughly as many undergraduate majors.
Religious Studies works closely with several related programs at Stanford: the Department of Philosophy, with which we share staff and offer a joint undergraduate major; the Stanford Center for Buddhist Studies, with which we share Building 70 on the Main Quad; the Taube Center for Jewish Studies, the Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies; the Program in Medieval studies; Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities, with which we offer joint graduate degrees; and the Asian Religions & Cultures Initiative. More information on these programs can be found in Resources.
In addition to our regular curriculum, the department sponsors several annual academic programs: the Religious Studies Colloquium; the Aaron-Roland Lecture in Jewish Studies; the Evans-Wentz Lecture in Asian Philosophy, Religion and Ethics; the Howard M. Garfield Forum for Undergraduates; and the Religious Studies Lecture in Islamic Studies.
Stanford's Department of Religious Studies was founded in 1973, with William Clebsch as its first chair. A lively account of the early history of religious studies at the university can be found at former chair and emeritus professor Van Harvey's "Religious Studies at Stanford: An Historical Sketch."
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