The Course of Study in West and South Asian Religions (WSAR) draws on the extensive strengths of Emory’s faculty in Islamic, Hindu, and Buddhist traditions to offer seminars and dissertation supervision in these traditions from a range of methodological perspectives. While these three main traditions broadly define three primary streams of study within WSAR, the cross-fertilization of ideas and practices across traditions and throughout West and South Asia remains a core interest of the faculty and students.
All students are required to have a secondary area of expertise, most frequently one of the three religious traditions within WSAR but occasionally another religious tradition (e.g., Judaism) or area of academic inquiry (e.g., cognitive science). The result is a diverse intellectual community that engages in conversations touching on a wide range of cultural, historical, and theoretical issues. These conversations are pursued through the regularly scheduled WSAR colloquium, at which faculty and advanced graduate students present their research.
Methodologically, the faculty in WSAR offer preparation in a wide range of approaches to the study of religion, including ethnography, historiography, gender studies, philosophical studies, performance theory, philology, cultural studies, literary studies, legal studies, hermeneutics, cognitive science, and contemplative practices. Most students will specialize in one of these approaches, usually incorporating elements of one or more of the others. Seminars in these methodologies are offered regularly as part of the general preparation. In some cases, methodological preparation will come through directed readings in addition to, or in place of, seminars.