The Research Master's programme in Religious Studies comprises 120 ECTS credits: 90 credits for core courses, electives and tutorials; 12 credits for the Master's Research Project, and 18 credits for the Research Master's thesis.
The backbone of the Research Master's in Religious Studies is made up by four core courses, to be taken in the first three semesters of the programme:
You can tailor the Research Master's programme to your own interests by selecting electives from the one-year Master’s programme in Spirituality and Religion and its specialisations Esotericism and Spirituality in Western Culture (e.g. Introduction to Western Esotericism and Spirituality); Religion and Spirituality in Contemporary Societies (e.g. Religion and Spirituality in the City); and Religion and Spirituality in Islam (e.g. Global Islam in Historical Perspective).
In a tutorial setting, you will work closely with one of our staff members. Tutorial subjects are suggested by staff members and informed by their current research projects, but you can also propose your own tutorial in order to, among others, delve deeper into a particular corpus of literature, familiarise yourself with particular research methods, prepare posters or papers for conferences or write papers or book reviews intended for publication in academic journals. In addition, you will also participate in seminars at one of the national research schools, where you will meet Research Master’s students, PhD students and researchers from other universities.
For more information about available internships and the experiences of other student interns, visit the website for current students.
To complete the Research Master’s programme, you will conduct an extended Thesis Research Project in the final semester of the second year, which is reported on in the Research Master’s Thesis. This research and its report are carried out under the supervision of an academic staff member involved in the programme. The subject of this research must be mutually agreed upon by the student and the academic supervisor. An accompanying thesis seminar will sustain you in finalising your thesis programme.
There is an urgent need for highly qualified critical expertise on religion. It is very stimulating to work with our students at the UvA, sharing our joined research interests, while striving to offer the very best in international scholarship in our field.Prof. Gerard Wiegers