Religion Department

Religion faculty

The Religion Department is dedicated to the academic study of religion as a complex and dynamic phenomenon deeply interwoven with other aspects of life and culture. It is an integral part of the liberal arts curriculum of the University. The department’s goals are:

  • To teach about the world’s religious traditions, introducing students to the thought, beliefs, institutions, symbolic expressions, worship, and social and moral implications of these traditions, and to illuminate their interaction with other social and cultural forms, including other religious traditions;
  • To introduce students to the various methods employed in religious studies: historical, philosophical and theological, sociological and psychological, textual, hermeneutical and aesthetic, and comparative;
  • To provide a place for addressing big questions of value, meaning, and human cares and for assessing the ways these are addressed in religious communities;
  • To encourage students to think about religious ways of life tolerantly, sympathetically, and yet critically.

Department Info

  • Tucker 202
    Washington and Lee University
    Lexington, Virginia 24450

Jeffrey Kosky

Department Head

Kerri Ritter

Administrative Assistant

Feature Stories


W&L’s George Alford ’24 Awarded U.S. Teaching Assistantship to Austria

Alford will teach English at two secondary schools in Austria before attending Princeton Theological Seminary.

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W&L’s Gillian Holloway ’24 Earns Fulbright to Spain

Holloway was selected for a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship to teach English in Spain.

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2024 Distinguished Alumni Awards

Washington and Lee University is proud to announce this year’s Distinguished Alumni Award winners

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Jay L. Garfield to Deliver Robert W. Root ’42 Endowment Lecture at W&L

The esteemed Buddhist philosopher will host a talk in Stackhouse Theater on March 7.

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Composer Gerald Cohen to Lecture on His Musical Compositions Commemorating the Holocaust

Cohen’s talk, “Music as Witness: a Composer Commemorates the Holocaust,” will be held at 4 p.m. on Feb. 13 in Hillel 101.

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2024 Five-Star Distinguished Alumni Awards

Washington and Lee University is proud to announce this year’s Five-Star Distinguished Alumni Award winners

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Six W&L Students Awarded Gilman Scholarships to Study Abroad

The Gilman Scholarship Program offers awards of up to $5,000 to U.S. undergraduate students who are Pell Grant recipients.

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2023 Distinguished Young Alumni Awards

Washington and Lee University is proud to announce this year’s Distinguished Young Alumni Award winners

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W&L Alumna Annie Talton ’21 Selected for Fulbright to Hungary

Talton has been awarded a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship to teach English to the Roma student population in Hungary.

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2023 Distinguished Alumni Awards

Washington and Lee University is proud to announce this year’s Distinguished Alumni Award winners

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2023 Five-Star Distinguished Alumni Awards

Washington and Lee University is proud to announce this year’s Five-Star Distinguished Alumni Awards winners

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W&L Presents “Blacks and Jews in America: An Invitation to Dialogue”

Terrence Johnson, professor of African American religious studies at Harvard University, will discuss his latest book on March 1.

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