Welcome to the Department of Religion at Florida State University. The study of religion is a unique interdisciplinary site in the humanities: we cover philosophy, history, anthropology, and cultural studies. Through all of these methods, we teach our students, at both the undergraduate and graduate level, how religious traditions have been used to legitimize and criticize various commitments, values, and practices.
We give our students the broad “soft skills” typical of a liberal-arts education—including critical thinking, and excellent oral and written communication skills—that are currently in demand by employers. We also give our students the skills necessary for contextualizing and coping effectively with social issues in the contemporary world.
Our faculty members represent a wide range of orientations to the study of religion. We are proud to be at the forefront of the study of religion both nationally and internationally. Our faculty and students are prodigious contributors to the discipline of religious studies and its various subdisciplines, and we continue to attract the best and brightest to our undergraduate and graduate programs.
The departmental website profiles faculty activities, as well as the programming we sponsor (in the “News & Events” tab at our front page), and our involvement in various centers and institutes across campus. If you’re interested in our graduate programs, please visit our “Graduate Studies” page. If you’re thinking about becoming an undergraduate major, please visit the “Undergraduate Studies” page to learn about the program and contact the current undergraduate advisors team. If you are an alum of our program—even if you were only a minor—I’d love to hear from you; email me and let me know what you are doing these days. And should you want to make a financial contribution to the department and help us keep producing excellent alumni and alumnae at all levels, visit our fund at the FSU Foundation. On behalf of all my colleagues, I thank you for your support.
Martin Kavka
Chair, Department of Religion