To the Leaders at the University of Oregon:
20 August 2025
Dear President Karl Scholz, Provost Chris Long, Dean Chris Poulsen, and Members of the Board of Trustees:
The leadership of the American Academy of Religion (AAR), the premier professional association with a world-wide membership of over 6000, writes to express its concern that the University of Oregon may be planning to eliminate the Department of Religious Studies along with several other Humanities programs. The AAR is dedicated to advancing the academic study of religion and fostering the public understanding of religion, a commitment it has maintained and refined over more than a century since its conception in 1909. We have reminded the public of the relevance and significant contributions religious studies makes to higher education in our public statement issued in 2020.
The research and public engagement of religious studies scholars, including many of the award-winning scholars at the University of Oregon, makes it very clear that the study of religion is more than ever before essential to the mission of the university, to the understanding of global challenges such as violence and poverty, and to making the world a place of respectful co-existence. To eliminate religious studies is to foreclose an opportunity to participate in creating a more just world. We respect the fact that the University of Oregon is committed to “solving the world’s most complex challenges” and to “prepare our students for fulfilling, impactful careers and lives.” We would like to call on you to continue your support of religious studies and your outstanding faculty who have a demonstrated record of service to the university, as you seek to fulfil these commitments.
As you point out, “[t]he University of Oregon has long served as an agent of change and innovation. For more than a century, we’ve grown along with our state and region. Through it all, we’ve been steadfast in our focus on the future.” You are also justifiably proud that your students are “[d]iverse, well prepared, and multi-talented [and] hail from all fifty states and more than a hundred countries.” As such a leading research university and innovative public education institution, the University of Oregon offers more than practical degrees. It provides the educational foundation for meaningful civic engagement. The academic study of religion is critical to this education, providing not only transferable skills and competencies but a special vocabulary, historical depth, and informed perspective to lead in global and local conversations on various kinds of community needs, meanings, and innovations.
We recognize that as part of the public university system of Oregon, your university has obligations beyond providing basic career preparation. You are responsible for helping shape thoughtful, engaged, and critical citizens. Eliminating the department and degree programs that have at their center intercultural literacy and critical consciousness of world religious traditions goes counter to the public record of distinction of the University. We urge you to recognize that religious studies is a strong ally, and enabler, of the mission and vision of the university. In the spirit of constructive partnership in higher education, we ask you not to eliminate but to support these programs in religious studies.
Sincerely,
Leela Prasad, President of the American Academy of Religion
Laurel Schneider, President-Elect of the AAR
Angela Sims, Vice President of the AAR
Nikia Robert, Treasurer of the AAR
Kathleen Sands, Secretary of the AAR