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Degree Title

Bachelor of Arts

Summer A 2024 Start Date:

May 6, 2024

Summer B 2024 Start Date:

June 17, 2024

Overview

With a Bachelor of Arts in Religious Studies from FIU Online, you'll earn an interdisciplinary degree that provides a thorough study of the history, beliefs and practices of the world’s religions. You'll explore eastern and western religions, learn to think critically, and develop exceptional skills as a researcher and writer. The curriculum is comparative and cross-cultural, with a focus on peace and conflict, and gaining a deeper understanding of communities of multiple religious faiths. The fully online degree is an excellent preparation for master's studies as well as those students interested in a career in education, counseling, business, politics, law, or medicine.

With FIU Online, you can learn anywhere, anytime. Our interactive technology enables you to watch lectures, get real-time feedback from your instructors, and collaborate with classmates on projects. Plus, we provide you with a personal success coach who will provide you with one-on-one guidance every step of the way.

  • Why Apply?

    Religion is intertwined in every aspect of our world, and a bachelor's in religious studies prepares you for any career in which you work and interact with people from other cultures and faiths. The study of religion sharpens your analytical thinking and research abilities, which are in-demand skills in a variety of industries. While some graduates continue their study in religion and theology, most go on to pursue careers in government, education, business, or human services. 

    You'll learn from widely respected professors who are leading scholars in their fields, and the Religious Studies department is closely linked to number of interdisciplinary programs, including African-New World Studies, Asian Studies, Environmental Studies, Judaic Studies, Latin American and Caribbean Studies, and Women's Studies.

    Religious Studies Career Opportunities

    With a degree in religious studies, you can apply your skills and knowledge in a variety of settings. Depending on your interest and experience, jobs can include being an educator, multicultural consultant, cultural center coordinator, community relations officer, humanitarian relief worker, religion teacher, or counselor. Employers include religious organizations, nonprofits, social services, foreign service, mental health organizations, government and public policy institutes, international aid organizations, and educational settings where you can teach or counsel people about religious faith.

    For those interested in teaching beyond the high school level, a master's degree is generally required. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the job prospects for postsecondary teachers are expected to grow at a rate of 19% through 2022, faster than the average for all other occupations.  Wages for postsecondary philosophy and religion teachers is expected to grow by over 26% in the state of Florida and by 17% nationally.  The median income for such a degree is $66,200 in Florida and $64,990 nationally.

  • Courses

    Program Completion Requirements

    A total of 120 credits are required for the Bachelor of Arts in Religious Studies.

    The major in religious studies requires 36 credit hours with a grade of 'C' or better.  

    • Foundation Course (3 credits), a course that introduces students to the world's great religious traditions as well as various multicultural approaches and interdisciplinary approaches in the study of religion:  

      • REL 3308 – Studies in World Religions 
    • Area Courses (12 credits), one course in each of the following areas in order to develop an awareness of the breadth of the field and provide a foundation for more specialized studies: 

      • Abrahamic Religions 

      • Asian Religions 

      • Indigenous and Other Religious Traditions 

      • Society, Culture, and Ethics 

    • Focus Courses (18 credits), including at least 12 or more credits in Religious Studies and up to 6 credits in related studies, aimed at building in depth knowledge of a particular area, theme, or tradition. Related studies are selected from courses in: 

      • Art History 

      • English, History 

      • Humanities 

      • International Relations 

      • Philosophy 

      • Psychology 

      • Sociology/Anthropology 

      • Other appropriate departments 

    Capstone Course (3 credits), a senior or capstone seminar covering advanced methodology in the study of religion: 

    • REL 4030 – Methods in the Study of Religion 

    This course examines a number of the most important methods used in the academic study of religion, together with representative examples of the use of these methods. 

     * Prerequisites: Religious Studies major status or permission of the instructor.

  • Requirements

    To ensure every student’s success, we have certain admissions requirements for each of our programs. To help you through the application process, our enrollment advisors are here to answer your questions and guide you every step of the way.


    FIU Admission Requirements

    Applications are accepted for Spring, Fall and Summer terms.


    Steps to Apply

    First Year Students

     Please submit the following:

    • Online application

    • $30 application fee.

    • Official SAT, ACT and/or CLT scores.

    • Official high school transcripts.


    Transfer Students

     Please submit the following:

    • Online application

    • $30 application fee.

    • Official college transcripts.

    • If you have less than 60 transferable college credits, you must also submit official high school transcripts and SAT, ACT and/or CLT scores in addition to any transcripts from postsecondary schools to the Office of Undergraduate Admissions.


    International Students

     In addition to the above requirements, international applicants should submit:

    • Official English Language Proficiency exam scores (TOEFL or IELTS).

    • NACES official course-by-course evaluation and translation of college transcripts.

    • If you have less than 60 transferrable college credits, you must also submit official high school transcripts with translation.

     

    Returning Students

    Returning students must meet the current university and degree-specific requirements to be admitted.

    FIU has policies for students who left FIU, please click here for more details.

    Please submit the following:

    • Online application $30 application fee.

    • Updated official transcripts

     

    Program Admission Requirements

    • Candidates must first be accepted into the university. Students admitted to Florida International University are admitted directly to their chosen major.

    • Program Completion Requirements

    A total of 120 credits are required to complete the fully online undergraduate degree.  Students must complete the University Core Curriculum, University requirements and Steven J. Green School of International and Public Affairs requirements while satisfying requirements toward their Spanish major and are expected to make good progress based on critical indicators, such as GPA in specific courses or credits earned. In cases where students are not making good progress, a change of major may be required. The Steven J. Green School of International and Public Affairs advisors work to redirect students to more appropriate majors when critical indicators are not met.  For specific course requirements, visit the Courses tab on this program page.


    Admission Documents

    To complete the online undergraduate programs admissions form, select your program from the application form. You may complete the online application and submit it, even before taking any entrance exams. All supporting admission documents may be sent to:

    
Florida International University
    
Office of Undergraduate Admissions

    P.O. Box 659003

    Miami, FL 33265-9003

    USA



    FIU also accepts transcripts electronically via:

    • Faster (All FL public institutions)

    • Naviance (Typically used by private high schools)

    • SMART/Joint Service Transcript – Military records

    *Meeting the university minimum requirements does not guarantee admission

  • Tuition

    We’re thrilled that you’re considering online education and want you to know exactly what to expect for tuition and fees. Education is an investment in your future. Use the following student tuition and fees calculator to determine your costs.

  • Top Faculty

    Iqbal Akhtar

    Dr. Iqbal Akhtar is an Professor with a dual appointment in the departments of Religious Studies and Politics & International Relations within the School of International and Public Affairs. He completed his doctorate at the University of Edinburgh’s New College School of Divinity. His current work explores the origin of the Khōjā peoples in the Subcontinent through extant oral traditions known as the kahaṇī in Sindhi, Gujarati, and Hindustani.

    Daniel Alvarez

    Professor Alvarez's teaching and research interests have been primarily in the areas of Christian theology and world religions, with emphasis on Protestantism, Evangelicalism and 19th century liberal theology. Having been raised as a Fundamentalist Christian, he has developed a life-long interest in the varieties of religious Fundamentalisms. Outside of Christianity, Buddhism and Islam are the religions with which he is best acquainted and those that have exercised his thinking the most. 

    Whitney Bauman

    Professor Bauman's teaching and research interests in Religious Studies fall within the broad field of "Religion and Ecology." The driving question of his interests and commitments to the field is: How do religious beliefs, insights, doctrines, and practices shape the material-physical worlds around us? This question assumes that some sort of "religious sentiment" is part of what it means to be a human being in the world. He is interested in analyzing how these "big questions" are changed by forces such as global climate change and globalization. 

    Ana María Bidegain

    Dr. Ana María Bidegain was born in Colonia Suiza, Uruguay. She studied History in Uruguay and Belgium, where she earned her PhD, with great distinction at the Catholic University of Louvain. She developed her academic career in Colombia, where she lived and taught for more than 20 years. Dr. Bidegain founded the History Department in the University of Los Andes and opened the field of Religious Studies at the National University of Colombia. In the 2003-2004 biennium, she directed the Social Sciences Research Center of the National University of Colombia. Prior to joining us here at Florida International University, Ana Maria was a Visiting Professor in Harvard’s Women’s Studies in Religion Program.

    Erik Larson

    Dr. Larson's interest focuses on the interaction between religion, language and culture began when he was an undergraduate student at the American University of Beirut.  At FIU, he teaches classes on the Hebrew Bible, or Old Testament, Biblical Archaeology, the Dead Sea Scrolls, the New Testament, Early Christian History, Islam, and World Religions. He also teaches language classes on Biblical Hebrew, New Testament Greek, and Classical Arabic.

    Tudor Parfitt

    Dr. Tudor Parfitt founded the Centre of Jewish Studies at SOAS and was its director from 1993 to 2006 and from 2010-11. He was also Chair of the Middle East Centre at SOAS for 4 years and Chair of the SOAS Senior Common Room for 15 years. In 2012 he was Distinguished Visiting Scholar, (Global Engagement Program) at the University of Pennsylvania, Sheila Biddle Ford Foundation Fellow (Spring Term) at the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute Harvard University (where he gave the Huggins Lectures in 2011) and Visiting Professorial Fellow at the Isaac and Jessie Kaplan Centre for Jewish Studies and Research, Cape Town, South Africa. In 2012 he was appointed President Navon Professor of Sephardi and Mizrahi Studies and SIPA Research Professor at FIU.

    Samani Unnata Pragya

    Professor Pragya has been teaching since 2004 as an Assistant Professor in Jainology Department in JVBU. She is also an Adjunct Faculty at Florida International University teaching courses like ‘Meditation & Spiritual Development’, Intro to Asian Religions, Religion Life & vegetarianism, Healing in Asian Religions since 2007.  Her advanced stidues include the study of Jainism and other philosophies under the spiritual guidance of the Anushasta of the JVBI, H.H. Acaraya Mahaprajna. The study included Jain Scriptures, Indian Philosophy,Western Philosophy & others by H.H. Acharya Mahapragya himself as well as other scholars including: Prof. Dayanand Bhargava, Aruna Kumar Mukharji, Pandit Vishwanath Mishra.

    Oren Baruch Stier

    Professor Stier's main area of interest is Jewish Cultural Studies, with a special emphasis on the contemporary period and all aspects of present-day Jewish life and thought. His ongoing current research concerns Holocaust memory and representation: He has published one book on this topic, Committed to Memory: Cultural Mediations of the Holocaust (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2003), which addresses the roles the contemporary media and modes of cultural mediation play in shaping consciousness of the legacy of the Holocaust, especially in the form of its institutionalized memory. He is currently working on a second book in this area of research, Holocaust Symbols: The Icons of Memory, which deals with the historical and memorial contexts of several fundamental images associated with the Holocaust.

    Steven Vose 

    Dr. Vose's main areas for research and teaching are the religious traditions of South Asia, primarily in Jainism and secondarily in Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, and Islam.  Dr. Vose is interested in devotional practices as public religious expressions, especially pilgrimage and temple ritual; and the place of “tantra” and alchemy in medieval Indian society. Dr. Vose also works on the development of vernacular literary traditions, especially in Old Gujarati, and the interaction of Sanskrit, Prakrit and vernacular languages and literatures.  

    Erin Weston

    For her undergraduate work, Professor Weston received a BA in Religious Studies, a BA in Philosophy, and a Certificate in Women’s Studies from FIU. She has a Master’s Degree in Religious Studies (1999) and a Master’s Degree in Asian Studies (2006) both from FIU. Her Religious Studies thesis focused on a contemporary Japanese religion named Mahikari in the Caribbean island of Martinique. For her final paper in Asian Studies, she wrote about changes in the Shakyamuni Buddha’s iconography as Buddhism spread throughout various locations in Asia.

    Albert Wuaku

    Professor Wuaku holds a Ph.D. degree in Religious Studies from the Center for the Study of Religions at the University of Toronto in Canada. He went to the University of Toronto after completing a BA at the University of Ghana, a Certificate in Peace studies at the University of Oslo in Norway and a MA in Religion and Society at McMaster University in Canada.

fiuonline.fiu.edu

120 Credits Required

fiuonline.fiu.edu

235.57 Per Credit Hour (In-State) + Fees

fiuonline.fiu.edu

648.87 Per Credit Hour (Out-of-State) + Fees

* Total tuition and fees are subject to change.

Highlights

  • Fully online degree

  • Every online undergraduate student is paired with a success coach
  • Excellent preparation for any career where you interact with people of other cultures and faiths
  • Program Starts: Fall, Spring and Summer
  • Become part of an exceptional community and make the most of your education. Join the Honors College.
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