The Master of Arts in Women’s & Gender Studies in Religion introduces students to women’s issues across religious traditions and a wide variety of feminist scholarship in this richly expanding field.

The MA in Women’s & Gender Studies in Religion is designed to introduce students to the field of feminist scholarship in religion. Our program addresses a vital need for more scholars whose training addresses gender and identity and how different religious traditions approach sexuality and spirituality. As is true of other CGU programs, the program gives you the flexibility to design your own course of study in line with core courses that will introduce you to important methodologies in these fields. You will study and build close working relationships with expert faculty-scholars, learning side by side with doctoral students as you prepare to become a teacher, enter a doctoral program, or consider careers outside academia.

Program Highlights
  • Interdisciplinary concentrations are available to you, including American Studies, Early Modern Studies, Hemispheric & Transnational Studies, Media Studies, and Museum Studies.
  • You will meet once a month for an Advisory Group Meeting held in the home of one of the faculty members, thus gaining an opportunity to get answers to questions and bond with classmates.
  • You can take courses and interact with faculty and students in other CGU departments and at The Claremont Colleges in such areas as Asian religions, African American religions, New Testament, women’s studies, and U.S. history.
  • The program allows students great flexibility in designing their studies while core courses introduce students to important methodologies in these fields
  • You will have access to the libraries of CGU and Claremont University Consortium which offer more than two million volumes – more than 250,000 in the field of religion alone.

Program at a Glance

UNITS
40 units

ESTIMATED COMPLETION TIME*
2 years

*This estimate assumes full-time registration and pursuit of the degree. Actual completion times will vary and may be higher, depending on full- or part-time course registration, units transferred, and time to complete other degree requirements.

COURSES BEGIN
Fall | Spring

DEPARTMENT
Religion

DEGREE AWARDED
MA in Women’s & Gender Studies in Religion

Featured Courses

REL 304
Introduction to Women’s Studies in Religion

Explores the rapidly expanding field of Women’s Studies in Religion from a multi-cultural and multi-religious perspective.

REL 363
Major Interpreters in the Study of Religion

Analyzes methodological issues in the study of religion through a reading of classic theories of religion (e.g., Marx, Weber, Durkheim, Freud, and Otto), as well as notable examples of contemporary theory and interpretation.

REL 457
Body, Gender & Sexuality in Early Christianity

Surveys recent feminist thinkers on gender systems and constructions of the body to explore early Christian literature on asceticism, martyrdom and theologies of sexuality.

REL 362
Theories of Religion

Takes an in-depth survey of the major theories of religion as they are portrayed through some of their influential interpreters in the post-Enlightenment West.

REL 416
Religion in America: 1865-present

Explores some of the most important and innovative recent scholarly work examining the significance and shape of religion in the modern United States.

REL 407
Introduction to Ancient Mesopotamian Religion

Explores ancient Mesopotamian religion and, in the process, unpacks many modern notions of what constitutes religion by looking at texts, religious structures, references to religious officials, and other artifacts.

Additional Program Requirements

MA Unit Requirements

MA students in Religion with a Women and Gender Studies in Religion (WGSR) concentration must complete 40 units and include the following courses:

Research Tools Requirement

Thesis and oral defense

Faculty & Research

  • Nicola Denzey Lewis profile image

    Nicola Denzey Lewis

    Professor of Religion
    Margo L. Goldsmith Chair in Women’s Studies in Religion

    Research Interests

    Social and Intellectual History of the Roman Empire, Gnosticism, Women’s Studies, Religion in the Roman Empire and Late Roman Empire, Late Antiquity

  • Ruqayya Y. Khan profile image

    Ruqayya Y. Khan

    Professor of Religion
    Malas Chair of Islamic Studies

    Research Interests

    The Qur'an, Arabic literatures, progressive Islamic theologies, women in Islam, Islam and environmental ethics, Islam and the digital age, late antiquity and Islam, origins of Islam, cultures of Umayyad Damascus and Abbasid Baghdad

  • Tammi J. Schneider profile image

    Tammi J. Schneider

    Danforth Professor of Religion
    Chair, Religion Department

    Research Interests

    Ancient Near Eastern history, literature, archaeology, and religion;
    Women in the Hebrew Bible

  • Gawdat Gabra profile image

    Gawdat Gabra

    Clinical Professor of Coptic Studies
    Professor Emeritus

    Research Interests

    Religion, Coptic studies, Egyptian Christianity

  • Daniel Ramírez profile image

    Daniel Ramírez

    Associate Professor of Religion

    Research Interests

    American religious history; Latin American religious history; Religion, migration, and transnationalism; Religion in borderlands; Contemporary theories of religion

Interdisciplinary Concentrations

As a student in the School of Arts & Humanities, you have the option of completing one of five interdisciplinary concentrations.

American Studies

The American Studies concentration takes a multidisciplinary approach to the study of United States culture, society, civilization, and identity through the curricular lenses of history, literature, critical theory, and more.

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Early Modern Studies

The Early Modern Studies concentration undertakes interdisciplinary examination of history, culture, politics, and society within the transitional and transformative period that stretched between Medieval and modern societies, marked especially by the advent of print, Christian confessional war, and the rise of the modern state.

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Hemispheric & Transnational Studies

A comparative analysis of culture in the Americas, the concentration in Hemispheric & Transnational Studies explores how scholarship on the Atlantic, borderlands, and diaspora have reshaped U.S. American Studies, Caribbean Studies, and Latin American Studies, emphasizing the topics of empire, race, religion, and revolution.

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Media Studies

Situated at the bustling intersection of cultural studies, new media, critical theory, and popular culture, the burgeoning field of Media Studies examines the creative and critical practices of media consumers, producers, artists, and scholars, focusing on questions of representation, power, technology, politics, and economy.

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Museum Studies

The Museum Studies concentration investigates the history and political role of museums in society, the interpretation and display of a wide variety of cultural productions, and topics of special concern to museums as cultural organizations, using a multidisciplinary, practice-based approach to understand the historical development of this evolving field.

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These concentrations are available for students pursuing the following degree programs:

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Jill Steggall

Assistant Director of Admissions
T: 909-607-1186
E: jill.steggall2@cgu.edu