The University of Utah's Independent Student Voice

The Daily Utah Chronicle

The University of Utah's Independent Student Voice

The Daily Utah Chronicle

The University of Utah's Independent Student Voice

The Daily Utah Chronicle

Write for Us
Want your voice to be heard? Submit a letter to the editor, send us an op-ed pitch or check out our open positions for the chance to be published by the Daily Utah Chronicle.
@TheChrony
Print Issues
Write for Us
Want your voice to be heard? Submit a letter to the editor, send us an op-ed pitch or check out our open positions for the chance to be published by the Daily Utah Chronicle.
@TheChrony
Print Issues

U to offer religious minor in Fall 2009

By Katie Valentine, Staff Writer

The U will begin offering a minor in religion starting in Fall 2009.

The 18-credit minor includes courses in several different colleges, including philosophy, literature, sociology, history and Middle Eastern studies.

“For the first time, U students will be able to study religion and get a specific degree,” said Muriel Schmid, a professor of language and literature who helped create the degree.

The U has a religion and culture track in comparative literary and cultural studies but doesn’t allow students to get a degree for studying religions. The U is the only university in the Salt Lake Valley that doesn’t offer a religion minor.

“The flagship university is left behind,” Schmid said.

Vince Pecora, chairman of the English department, said the religion and culture track has had success as a precursor to the religion minor and he hopes the same students will be interested in the minor as well.

Schmid said that since 9/11, many universities nationwide have created a religions study program because of an increased interest in Islam and Islamic traditions. Scholars began to develop religion programs and courses to teach about these cultures in an academic and positive setting, Schmid said.

“After 9/11, we as a culture received a wake-up call about religions,” said Jordan Rainey, a junior in comparative literary and cultural studies.

Islam is a major world religion and learning more about it helps prevent prejudgments about that culture, Rainey said.

The U’s research initiative group in religious studies met several times during the course of a year to work on the development of the minor.

Pecora and Schmid wrote the proposal for getting the degree approved along with presenting the minor to the College of Humanities and Academic Senate committees.

“(Schmid) was the leading force in getting the minor through, and she deserves the credit,” Pecora said.

Pecora will take on independent study students and plans to teach courses in three years, including a theory of religions course.

Jessica Woods, a senior studying French, said there will even be a class on Tai Chi Yoga movement, taught by Bill Parkinson, which will be one of the classes students can take for the religion minor. The class is now offered in the theater department.

Woods said she thinks that a general religion course like “World of Religions” should be a required course for all students. She hopes that one day the U will offer a major in religion.

[email protected]

Leave a Comment

Comments (0)

The Daily Utah Chronicle welcomes comments from our community. However, the Daily Utah Chronicle reserves the right to accept or deny user comments. A comment may be denied or removed if any of its content meets one or more of the following criteria: obscenity, profanity, racism, sexism, or hateful content; threats or encouragement of violent or illegal behavior; excessively long, off-topic or repetitive content; the use of threatening language or personal attacks against Chronicle members; posts violating copyright or trademark law; and advertisement or promotion of products, services, entities or individuals. Users who habitually post comments that must be removed may be blocked from commenting. In the case of duplicate or near-identical comments by the same user, only the first submission will be accepted. This includes comments posted across multiple articles. You can read more about our comment policy at https://dailyutahchronicle.com/comment-faqs/.
All The Daily Utah Chronicle Picks Reader Picks Sort: Newest

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *