throwawaymcforumuser

Yeah, this is an important point. I mainly restricted the list to Religion programs to avoid potential confusion. I applied to Notre Dame to work with Noll/Dochuk for that reason (alas, to no avail), but it seems like a great place to be. I wonder if it's a bit more difficult to go from a religious studies program/divinity school to history than the reverse, especially if you don't have extensive undergrad work in history. Thanks for the insights, Ted - that's extremely helpful in giving a better lay of the land. Do you have a sense for which programs have been most successful lately when it comes to placement (e.g. do you know how Harvard's doing)?

I've been a lurker on the forums for a while now (what a simultaneously stressful and helpful place). One of the things that I haven't seen talked about that much is the American religious history/American religions subfield. I know that compiling a list of rankings is probably not the most fruitful and, if past threads are any indication, will likely end in chaos. That being said, I thought it might be helpful - for the sake of people currently choosing between programs and future applicants - for the hivemind to evaluate/offer impressions of the doctoral programs in this area - in terms of reputation, faculty, resources, placement. Especially since a lot of the "big names" in the field for the last few decades (e.g. Butler, Wacker) have retired or are nearing retirement, it would be nice to get a sense of what departments remain strong, which are up-and-coming, etc. Off the top of my head (that's been steeped in this stuff over the last year), some of the programs - limited to Religion departments and not History - that have a American religions subfield or people working in that area are: Harvard, Yale, Chicago, Duke, UNC Chapel Hill, Stanford, UVA, Emory, Vanderbilt, Florida, Florida State, Iowa, Indiana Bloomington, Southern Methodist, UT Austin, UC Santa Barbara, Columbia, Princeton, Princeton Theological Seminary, Northwestern, Fordham. Am I missing any, and what do you think of these programs' places in the subfield?