About Us

The Department of Religious Studies at California State University, Northridge began offering courses in 1969.  In 1971 the program inaugurated its major and minor degree programs and serves up to sixty majors each year. The department offers an array of General Education courses as well as specialized courses to support our majors and minors.

Religious Studies is one of twenty academic departments and interdisciplinary programs in CSUN’s College of Humanities. In 2024 the department includes fifteen faculty members, including both tenure-line and lecturer faculty.

The department offers courses that examine religion and culture from antiquity to the present, focuses on various geographic regions across the world. Through introductory courses such as Introduction to Religious Studies and World Religions, and specialized upper-level courses such as Atheism, Psychology of Religion, Women and Religion, and Religion and the Environment, we serve hundreds of students each semester and welcome students from all majors and backgrounds into our classes.