The Department of Religious Studies prepares students to lead social change and navigate cultural differences. Religious Studies offers a wide variety of classes in global religious and cultural knowledge and a one-of-a-kind Nonprofit Leadership career track.
Individual attention from award-winning faculty & staff and advisors.
Program is dedicated to deepening your understanding of religious phenomena, and broadening your global cultural knowledge.
Religious Studies will help you on your path to a future career in Nonprofit and NGO leadership.
This interdisciplinary degree prepares students for leadership in nonprofit, philanthropic, and community-based sectors. Students develop intercultural competence, strategic thinking, and practical skills for creating meaningful social change at local and global levels.
Learning about religions means that you understand different cultures and develop a more global perspective. Religious Studies is the ideal major for those who seek a career in international & interdisciplinary fields.
The Concentration in Nonprofit Leadership is unique at Michigan State University, that will appear on your official transcript, and that gives you additional career options available only as a Religious Studies major at Michigan State University.
To study religion is to develop cultural knowledge that will be of value both to you and to your future employer. We offer minors in both Religious Studies & Religion in the Americas.
Our professional degree programs train and empower nonprofit leaders to tackle local and global challenges through an ethical lens while building intercultural competence and knowledge of human and ecological systems.
Learning about religions means that you understand different cultures and develop a more global perspective. Religious Studies is the ideal major for those who seek a career in international & interdisciplinary fields.
The Concentration in Nonprofit Leadership is unique at Michigan State University, that will appear on your official transcript, and that gives you additional career options available only as a Religious Studies major at Michigan State University.
To study religion is to develop cultural knowledge that will be of value both to you and to your future employer. We offer minors in both Religious Studies & Religion in the Americas.
Our Global Nonprofit Leadership M.A. is offered 100% online and our competency and knowledge-based curriculum allows you to build on your previous knowledge and experience while learning in a unique five-week course sequence that builds your skills and knowledge.
Nonprofit Leadership
What is Religious Studies?
“My emphasis on Nonprofit Leadership has given me immense perspective about how to help bring people together using the skills learned throughout my Religious Studies major, including learning about people’s beliefs and traditions.”
Liv Swanton
Religious Studies Major with Nonprofit Leadership Focus
In early 2011, Egyptians calling for “bread, freedom, and social justice” took to the streets to protest the 30-year authoritarian rule of Hosni Mubarak. Jan.
Elan Pochedley, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies and 1855 Professor of Great Lakes Anishinaabe Knowledge, Spiritualities, and Cultural Practices, was awarded the Newberry Consortium in American Indian and Indigenous Studies (NCAIS) long-term faculty fellowship to research how Indigenous peoples’ expressions of environmental stewardship and governance have been practiced, sustained, interrupted, and/or rekindled throughout the central and western Great Lakes region.
Renee Hall earned dual bachelor’s degrees in English and Religious Studies from Michigan State University in 2010 and a master’s degree, also from MSU, in Rehabilitation Counseling in 2014. She has been an active member of the disability community for more than 20 years, serving in roles including advocate, direct support professional, service coordinator, counselor, and research specialist. She also is a first-generation college graduate.