Paths
For students who matriculate in fall 2025 or later, the Graduate Division of Religion is organized into paths. The following paths are currently offered. Please click on the links below for additional information on each path.
Ethnography and Social Theory of Religion
Historical Studies in Theology and Christianity
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The Open Path allows students to enter the GDR outside of an established path if their research interests are not reflected in current path structure. Students taking the Open Path should identify three or more GDR faculty members who will support their academic plan. The student works closely with one faculty member as primary advisor to coordinate with other faculty to design the path through coursework, language study, fieldwork, exam topics, etc.
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Open Path Any group of three or more GDR faculty members, with one serving as primary advisor. |
| The Africana Religions path trains students to take a transregional and multidisciplinary approach to the study of religious traditions on the African continent and in the African diaspora. This path is defined geographically so as to include the multiplicity of traditions practiced by Africans and people of African descent. Those traditions include primarily, though not exclusively, Indigenous African or African heritage religions, Islam, and Christianity. Attention is paid to the content and contexts of the traditions, and to their interactions, entanglements, and transformations in relation to one another. Students will ground their work in at least one disciplinary approach within the range of humanistic and social scientific studies of religion, and engage such interdisciplinary frameworks as global Black studies, critical race theory, and postcolonial/decolonial studies. Students are expected to gain expertise in African and African diasporic studies, at least one religious tradition, languages relevant to their research, and theoretical debates within religious studies. Collaborations with other GDR paths are encouraged and anticipated, such as: the Islamic Studies path or Global Christianity path for those seeking further specialization in these religions; the Religions in the Americas path or South Asian Religions path for those working on global African diasporas; and the Ethnography and Social Theory path, and the Practical Theology path, for those wishing to deepen their methodological or theoretical training in these areas.
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Africana Religions Path Advisor
Path Faculty
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The Christian Ethics path educates students in the questions, methods, and histories of Christian ethics, with careful attention to critical understandings of social contexts, forces, and structures. In coursework, independent studies, and exams, students learn to engage texts, institutions, everyday practices and cultural expressions through theological and ethical lenses. While this path focuses on the moral significance of Christian traditions, it converges with other paths for social analysis and comparative work across religious traditions. There can be a range of collaborations with students and faculty in other GDR paths, such as Ethnography and Social Theory, Practical Theology, Religions in the Americas and Theological Studies. |
Christian Ethics Path Advisor Path Faculty
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The Ethnography and Social Theory path is an interdisciplinary path encompassing the anthropology of religion, sociology of religion, and ethnographic approaches to theology. Our faculty bring to bear expertise in a wide variety of different religious traditions as well as different geographical regions. In addition, some of us work in areas such as religion and mental health or religion and politics through an ethnographic and social science lens. Given this breadth and depth of possibility, potential students are encouraged to study our faculty list and to be in touch with both the path chair and individual faculty members who may share their interests before applying. Some students may choose to work primarily with experts in a particular religious tradition while for others a particular set of theoretical or methodological issues may be key. We collaborate with one another and with faculty from other paths to train students in the application of ethnography and social theory to questions related to the socio-cultural contexts of religious life, vernacular religion, as well as the lived experience of religion and moral experience. Students will work with the path chair and committee or advisor to identify the courses, language training and skills they will need for their particular project or interest. They will receive grounding in the academic study of religion broadly as well as in ethnography and social theory. Students will benefit from collaboration with other GDR paths, especially Africana Religions, Islamic Studies, Practical Theology, Religions in the Americas, and South Asian Religions.
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Ethnography and Social Theory
Path Advisor Path Faculty
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The Global Christianity path is designed to equip PhD students with the competencies needed for scholarship related to the study of Christianity as a global phenomenon uniquely expressed in a multiplicity of contexts around the world. While Global Christianity scholarship is all encompassing—no region of the world or historical period is excluded—it is particularly attentive to indigeneity and marginality as well as the transnational, multidirectional, strands or movements constitutive of the globalization of Christianity. It also favors a bottom-up analytical framework. As an area of academic study and research, Global Christianity is inherently interdisciplinary and utilizes a variety of models, methods and theoretical constructs (that typically expose the limitations of, or transcend, the Western intellectual tradition). The field of study remains strongly oriented towards historical, social scientific, and theological approaches, but this is neither preclusive nor policed. The Global Christianity path will enable candidates to acquire and master theories, models, new rationalities, and methodologies (including intercultural critique and ethnographic study) that are central to the field of study and maximize access to the cross-disciplinary resources their research agenda requires. Students will have ample opportunity for collaborations with students and faculty in other paths, such as South Asian Religions, Africana Religions, Practical Theology, and Religions in the Americas. In addition to coursework, directed study, and exams, students in the Global Christianity path will gather in regular colloquia for scholarly engagement and community formation. |
Global Christianity
Path Advisor
Path Faculty
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The Hebrew Bible path equips students to employ a wide range of approaches for the study of the Hebrew Bible in its linguistic, historical, and social contexts. These methods include historical-critical, social-scientific, literary, and iconographic modes of analysis alongside the diversity of contemporary contextual hermeneutics. During coursework, students will engage the larger ancient Near Eastern cultural context, the history of biblical interpretation, and the reception history of the Hebrew Bible. Through coursework, independent studies, and exams, students are also encouraged to develop interdisciplinary expertise in related literatures and related fields (e.g., archaeology, art history, literary theory, rabbinics). The students in the Hebrew Bible path profit from a range of particularly extensive collaborations with students and faculty in the New Testament path, as well as those in the Practical Theology path and Historical Studies in Theology and Christianity path. Those students who elect to engage in reception-historical approaches to the Hebrew Bible will also benefit from further collaborations with students and faculty in Religions of the Americas path, Islamic Studies path, and the Global Christianity path, among others.
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Hebrew Bible Path Advisor Path Faculty
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The Historical Studies in Theology and Christianity path constitutes the organizing center for pluridisciplinary historical research in the theology and contexts of the Christian tradition. The path is home to faculty and students with diverse research interests that range across the history of Christianity. We support research that utilizes historical methods to investigate the theology, intellectual and social contexts, and ecclesial history of Christianity. Given the pluridisciplinary nature, complexity, and breath of possible historical studies, the path has no unique coursework or exam structure outside of the requirements shared by the entire GDR. Rather, each student, in consultation with faculty, designs a plan of study that satisfies their special academic interest, the exigencies of their research, and their future professional goals. As such, while the path offers courses in a number of historical fields (e.g., early Christianity, late ancient, early modern Christianity, the Reformation, liturgical history), a student’s coursework will normally include seminars from other paths in the GDR and departments in Emory College of Arts and Sciences. Within the GDR, students regularly study with faculty in Theological Studies, New Testament, Hebrew Bible, and Global Christianity; within Emory University, students regularly study with faculty in History, Philosophy, and Classics.
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Historical Studies in Theology and Christianity
Path Advisor
Path Faculty Anthony Briggman
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The Islamic Studies path applies a Religious Studies framework to the study of Islamic tradition and Muslim practice. It embraces multiple methodologies such as textual studies and philology, ritual studies and performance, ethnographic study and ethics, historical studies and archives, or cultural studies and post-coloniality. It embraces a range of cultural contexts from Asian, African, and Middle Eastern regions as well as in the diaspora, in both Muslim majority and minority contexts. Faculty strengths include Quran, Sufism, gender and sexuality ethics, contemporary Islam in politics and media, and Muslim-Christian-Jewish relations. Students pursue Islamic Studies with focus on a particular region, era or community. Students also develop competence in a second religious tradition (or a second field of academic inquiry that critiques, reframes, or modifies how Islam is understood and practiced). The Islamic Studies path places high premium on language competency. Emory currently offers introductory to advanced instruction in Arabic, Persian, Hindi-Urdu, and Hebrew; students may study other languages (for example Bahasa, Swahili, or Turkish) through language programs outside of Emory. Language preparation prior to admission is nearly always necessary. The Islamic Studies path will maintain particularly close collaboration with faculty and students in the South Asian Religions path and the Africana Religions path, as well as faculty and students in the Christian Ethics, Theological Studies, and Global Christianity paths.
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Islamic Studies
Path Advisor
Path Faculty
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The New Testament path trains students in critical biblical studies as applied to the New Testament. Throughout their coursework and exams, students develop competencies in a variety of methods of interpretation. We foreground methods like postcolonial criticism and queer or gender studies alongside historical and literary approaches. As they pursue their research topics, students also branch out into other areas. The wider context of the GDR exposes students to theories and methods shared across the study of religion more broadly, which can prompt new questions or approaches to the study of the New Testament. In addition, we collaborate frequently with colleagues in the Hebrew Bible path, and students also benefit from connections with faculty and students in other paths, such Historical Studies in Theology and Christianity, Christian Ethics, South Asian Religions, and Practical Theology. Students also develop their research interest by connecting across Emory University to study topics like literary and gender theory, ancient history and culture, philosophy, or art history. As a result, student dissertations center on the interpretation of a New Testament text but range widely in their research question and method.
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New Testament
Path Advisor
Path Faculty
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The Practical Theology path prepares students to pursue questions of religious practice attentive to the contextual realities of individuals, communities, and cultural systems. This path encompasses work in areas such as liturgy and worship, ecclesial practice, homiletics, pastoral care, religious and theological education, spirituality, lived theology, congregational studies, and other areas of inquiry. Faculty support students in developing methodological competencies appropriate to their research trajectories, including ethnographic, social scientific, narrative, and cultural analytical approaches. Studies in Practical Theology tend to be interdisciplinary by nature, and students may collaborate with faculty and students in the Christian Ethics, Theological Studies, Historical Studies in Theology and Christianity, Hebrew Bible, New Testament, and other paths. Students pursuing work related to culture, migration, and diaspora will benefit from collaboration with paths including Religions in the Americas and Africana Religions. Students engaging in fieldwork may collaborate with the Ethnography and Social Theory path. |
Practical Theology Path Advisor |
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The Religions in the Americas path welcomes students with interests in religious traditions across the United States, Latin America, and the Caribbean; and with transnational connections to Asia and the Pacific. Centered in historical, ethnographic, and cultural-analytical methods, this field also welcomes students with diverse methodological training and interdisciplinary interests. Current strengths of the faculty in Religions in the Americas include United States religious history, African diasporic traditions, Asian American and Asian diasporic traditions, Latinx Christianities, and Catholicism in the Americas. Students who affiliate with Religions in the Americas will work with relevant faculty to cultivate expertise in the regions and methodologies that best suit their interests. The curriculum is flexible and interdisciplinary, allowing students to tailor their studies to their specific interests and goals. Faculty and students for whom this path is secondary may employ different methodologies, and we are open to those as well. We expect to work with students who associate with other GDR paths, including but not limited to those in Africana Studies, Christian Ethics, Global Christianity, Islamic Studies, and—particularly for those interested in reception history approaches—Hebrew Bible and New Testament. |
Religions in the Americas
Path Advisor
Path Faculty
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The South Asian Religions path is dedicated to the study of religions both in and of South Asia with faculty specializing in South Asian Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and Jainism and their associated diasporic communities. Embracing a variety of interdisciplinary approaches in ritual, textual, historical, and ethnographic studies, this path offers rich opportunities for creative work across diverse historical and cultural contexts. Students train in a wide range of South Asian languages, both literary and spoken, in order to complete projects involving themes such as gender, performance, beauty, death, body, pilgrimage, politics, and identity. The study of South Asian religions invariably includes the wider study of South Asian culture. As such, the study of any individual religion is greatly enriched by the study of other religious traditions of the region. Students and faculty in this path therefore engage traditions comparatively with attention to cross-fertilization of ideas, exchange of practices, and common patterns among traditions practiced in this broad region. Students are asked to take at least one seminar in another South Asian religious tradition, to be determined based on their particular research agenda, and to engage the full spectrum of relevant scholarship, from indigenous to contemporary academic. Most students in this path undertake fieldwork, and faculty are involved with guiding students in seeking outside funding from major grant agencies. Summer language programs and language programs abroad are also a common element on this path.
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South Asian Religions Path Advisor
Path Faculty
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The Theological Studies path is designed to encourage critical, constructive, and historically informed engagement with the full breadth of Christian teaching across different historical periods and cultural contexts. The path faculty believe it is essential for students to be exposed to a wide range of methods, perspectives, and literatures in pursuing doctoral study in this field (various designated as constructive, dogmatic, or systematic theology), and we correspondingly support graduate work in theology that reflects sympathetic yet critical engagement with the widest possible range of Christian thought, including Black, Asian, Latine, feminist, womanist, and queer theologies with and alongside the more formally confessional positions of the Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox traditions. We also welcome proposals that seek to explore projects in comparative theology with other religious traditions represented in the GDR and the Laney Graduate School more broadly. Students in the Theological Studies path are especially encouraged to profit from collaboration with students and faculty in the Africana Religions, Christian Ethics, Global Christianity, Historical Studies in Theology and Christianity, and Religions in the Americas paths.
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Theological Studies
Path Advisor
Path Faculty
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