Today, modern societies often tend to dismiss or marginalize religion. But historical study reveals how religious and cultural beliefs, practices, and identities have fundamentally shaped and continue to shape human history in realms of law, politics, and war, in art, literature, and music, and through empire building, social movements, and ideologies about race, gender, and sexuality. This concentration prepares students to understand diverse religious and cultural perspectives across time and space, and to think critically and creatively about the powerful and complex role played by religion and culture in both the past and the present.

Student Learning Outcomes:  

  • Identify key characteristics of different religious and cultural systems, and how those various systems evolved over time around the world. 
  • Evaluate and assess the strengths and weaknesses of scholarly arguments regarding religion and culture in diverse historical contexts.  
  • Critically analyze primary historical sources from different religious and cultural perspectives. 
  • Demonstrate how religion and culture have shaped politics, economics, law, warfare, and society in diverse ways across time and space through well-supported historical narratives, arguments, and reports of research findings.