Question about Princeton Religion PhD

[Adelaide]

Hey everybody! I've noticed that various folks have applied to the Princeton PhD in Religion, so maybe someone's familiar with the department. I know that Princeton's departments are fairly conservative in terms of sticking to the "accepted" methodologies of the discipline. However, Religion is inherently interdisciplinary, right? Would it follow that I would get support if I wanted to do something that was historical, literary and sociological? I haven't read the work of the faculty yet, so I probably should look there as well, but if anyone has insight, please share!

Thanks!

Edited July 8, 2012 by Adelaide

[Lux Lex Pax]

The humanities and social science departments at Princeton are actually quite interdisciplinary. It may not be advertised, but there is a lot of collaboration among them. For instance, they have an interdisciplinary doctoral program in the humanities (http://www.princeton.edu/ihum/).

As far as the Religion department's amendability to your project, you'd have to be more specific since your proposal might fall in multiple subfields. What regions, historical periods, languages, and religions will you need to work in and with? The answer to this question will be determinative since certain fields aren't covered by the Religion department, for instance, Medieval and Modern Europe. For that, one might try the History department.

[Adelaide]

Cool, thank you. I've talked to a couple of Princeton people and they haven't mentioned that program. My focus is in 20th (bleeding into 21st) century African American religion, with an emphasis on women (I get more specific, but that's the general idea). I know there are multiple faculty members in the Religion department who can advise me and specialize in subjects surrounding my field, so that's not a problem. I'm just wondering if I can do ethnography and not catch hell for it.

Edited July 10, 2012 by Adelaide

[Lux Lex Pax]

According to the web page (http://www.princeton.edu/religion/graduate/academic_fields/religion_in_america/) for the Religion in the America's subfield, which I'm guessing you're interested in, students are actually encouraged to work with faculty in departments like Anthropology, Sociology, etc., so I don't think you'd catch any flak for doing ethnography. Based on your interests, Princeton might be the perfect place for you. I'd encourage you to contact members of the faculty to get more information about the program.

[Adelaide]

Thank you, Lux Lex Pax! I feel a little dumb for missing that. Somehow I scour the website for some things and completely miss others. I appreciate the info.

If anyone has any first-hand experience with faculty at Princeton, please also let me know. It's very comforting to see the interdisciplinary encouragement on the website, but it's also good to get some accounts of how some professors might operate, too.