Multidisciplinary & Comparative Cultural Programs
The Department of Religious Studies has had a long history of supporting multi-disciplinary and comparative cultural programs at UTK. These have included Asian Studies, African and African-American Studies, American Studies, Global Studies, Latin American Studies, Women's Studies, Medical Ethics, Ancient Mediterranean Studies, Islamic Studies, Medieval and Renaissance Studies, University Studies, College Scholars, and Comparative Literature. Since 1991, the department has worked with other university faculty and administrators to add Judaic Studies, which now has its own interdisciplinary major and minor, to this impressive list of multi-disciplinary programs. The Fern and Manfred Steinfeld Program in Judaic Studies Program is chaired by our current department head, Gilya G. Schmidt.
The department has developed a reputation both for organizing and cooperating with other departments and units to sponsor successful public symposia on topics including, for example, The Fragility of Goodness, Habits of the Heart, The Harlem Renaissance, Islamic Awareness Month, China Week, India Week and India Semester, Africa Week, and Africa Semester, periodic Holocaust conferences, as well as several human rights symposia involving Latin American, African, and Muslim scholars and activists. These are in addition to the dozen or so academic lectures Religious Studies co-sponsors with other academic departments or programs each year. The department also sponsors the Religious Studies Association which is composed primarily of students who major or minor in Religious Studies, but is open for participation by any interested students in the university.