The add-on Graduate Certificate in Religious Studies offers graduate students the opportunity to study religion from an academic perspective, and prepares students to be knowledgeable global citizens. The Department of Religious Studies at UT promotes the critical and comparative study of religion. Drawing upon a range of perspectives – historical, anthropological, textual, and theoretical – the Department highlights both the variety and complexity of religious beliefs, practices, communities, and institutions. Our curriculum and faculty thus provide students with a wide variety of methodological skills and perspectives with which to conduct their own research, scholarship, and engagement.
Campus Code
Knoxville Campus
Graduate Certificate Type
Add-On
Admissions Standards/Procedures
Application to the Religious Studies graduate certificate must be made through the Office of Graduate Admissions by submitting the certificate application and copies of relevant transcripts to the Religious Studies Department Head. The Religious Studies certificate is intended as additional study for graduate students who are concurrently enrolled in a master’s or doctoral program in another discipline at the University of Tennessee. Students must be admitted to the certificate program prior to completing six graduate credit hours toward the certificate. Students will select their graduate coursework in conjunction with a Religious Studies faculty advisor, who must approve each student’s curriculum for the certificate.
Academic Standards
Students must maintain a minimum 3.00 graduate grade point average throughout the program.
Credit Hours Required
12 graduate credit hours
Required Courses
A maximum of 6 graduate credit hours can overlap between the Religious Studies certificate and the student’s home discipline:
Successful completion of:
Successful completion of an additional 6 graduate credit hours in Religious Studies at the 400-level or above; these can include independent study (REST 593 ), or regularly scheduled 400- or 500-level seminars. Only the 400-level courses listed in the Graduate Catalog may be taken for graduate credit and be applied toward the certificate.
Non-Course Requirements
To receive the certificate, students must:
1) complete the Graduate Certificate Course Verification Form (located on the Graduate School webpage under the Forms Central tab) and
2) through MyUTK, apply to graduate from the certificate program.
