Crossculture Religious Studies Project

Salzburg – Munich – Seoul -Yogyacarta – Nairobi – Haifa

The truly global Crossculture Religious Studies MA (Masters degree) program 

Begin your studies at your home university then continue to explore and complete your degree in one of the participating partner universities.

Take advantage of opportunities to study religious cultures in the field, in a number of religious contexts, with the expertise and facilities of the six participating universities selected for their distinct areas of expertise and ideal locations:

Salzburg, Munich, Yogyakarta, Seoul, Nairobi, and Haifa.

Welcome to the Crosscultural Religious Studies Project!

Are you interested in studying religions in different cultural contexts and from diverse perspectives? Would you like to benefit from the academic exercise as well as the access to religious groups, sites, and rituals around the world? Would you want this experience to culminate in a Masters degree in Religious Studies? If so, the Crosscultural Religious Studies Project is for you.

Religions are in a continuous process of transformation on a local and global level. In order to understand their impact on societies and cultures, the Crosscultural Religious Studies Project aims to provide students the possibility to experience academic concepts and on-the-ground practice of different religious traditions in relation to their cultural analysis. The project examines religions and their impact in light of interreligious and intercultural processes, engaging as well their economic, political, and, at times, conflictual dimensions.

The vision of the Masters program is a cooperative one, in which a number of universities participate. Students will spend their first academic year (two semesters) in a religious studies program at one of the participating universities. Their third semester will be spent at another university, for an immersion in a different cultural environment, studying with scholars of expertise in a religious tradition other than the one to which the first year was devoted. Students may choose to spend their fourth semester at any participating university, including those at which they studied over the previous semesters. All six universities guarantee full mutual recognition of academic credits gained at the other participating institutions. The degree/diploma will be granted by the university at which the student spent their first year of study.

Every year all participating students and academic staff will be welcomed in the beginning of August to join the Crossculture Religious Studies Summer School in Salzburg to share their experiences, to study with the professors from the six universities, and to deepen their own intercultural and interreligious relations. Attending the Summer School will also allow students to take advantage of the famous annual ‘Salzburger Hochschulwochen’, which will be in progress. So too, students will enjoy all the benefits of the annual University of Salzburg Summer School, with which our program will be fully coordinated, and which offers a rich cultural program featuring special concerts, student events, and tours.

Universities participating in the Crosscultural Religious Studies Project MA Program include:

• The Dongguk  University, Seoul, South Korea, focusing on Buddhist history and thought.
• The University Haifa in Israel, with a focus on Jewish Studies and Theology 
• The Munich School of Philosophy and the Interreligious College at the House of Cultures and Religions in Munich, focusing on intercultural ethics and interfaith dialogue.
• The Gadjah Mada University Yogyakarta with the Center for Religious and Cross-Cultural Studies (CRCS), which has a focus on Islam and other Indonesian Religions
• The University of Nairobi for African Religions & Intercultural Philosophies
• The Faculty of Catholic Theology at Salzburg, for Religious Studies, Theology and a focus on Contemporary Religion and Spirituality 

We trust that this rich program will be of interest to serious students of religion and culture worldwide and looking forward to hearing from you.

On behalf of all participating Universities,

Martin Rötting
Director of the Crossculture Religious Studies Project, Professor of Religious Studies in Salzburg

Download our booklet.