博士学位课程适用于已经获得宗教研究硕士学位或同等学历并准备大学教学和研究或其他需要博士学位的职业的UCSB学生。宗教研究系提供有关人类经验的宗教方面的培训，涉及世界各地以及不同时期的各种传统和文化。该系强调宗教研究的跨文化比较和多学科方法。我们的研究生课程旨在为学生提供对古典和现代宗教理论的理解，发展和进行严格而重要的研究的语言和方法技能，以及对特定地区和/或宗教元素的深入专业教育或传统。该系采用人文和社会科学方法来研究宗教，并强调对相关语言进行高级学习的重要性。教职员工在研究中采用了多种方法，并从广泛的
The Department of Religious Studies uses a variety of methods (historical, textual, ethnographic, philosophical and social scientific) to study of the religious dimensions of world cultures and traditions. Its program offers concentrations in a variety of religious traditions: (Christian, Jewish, Islamic, Hindu, Buddhist, Native American and indigenous) and areas, with particular strengths in South and East Asia, the Middle East, the ancient Mediterranean world, and North America. Faculty teach, research and publish in the study of sacred textual traditions, religion in public life, sacred space and pilgrimage, healing systems, race/ethnicity and pluralism, religious experience, religious movements, religious violence, and the implications that nationalism, globalization, science and the new media hold for the development of religion in the modern era. Cross-cultural research and interdisciplinary approaches -- involving disciplines such as history, sociology, philosophy, anthropology, psychology, gender studies, art history, comparative literature, and political science -- are especially encouraged by the Department and supported by faculty affiliates across the university.