Learning Goals for Ph.D. in Theology

  • Students will be competent, from the point of view of knowledge, scholarship, and disposition, to become a professor.
  • Students will demonstrate awareness of their own theological, historical, and ethical methods in their research and publication.
  • Students will demonstrate the habitus of a scholar who can ask independent questions, research unexplored areas, and suggest novel syntheses.
  • Students will demonstrate reading proficiency in two modern languages (normally German and French or Spanish) and will be able to use these linguistic skills in independent research. If appropriate to a student’s field of study, proficiency in one or more pre-modern languages will be acquired (e.g., Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Coptic, Aramaic, Syriac).
  • Students will be prepared with pedagogical training that is both time-tested and up-to-date, so that they will be effective and independent educators.
  • Students will be competent to conduct research and teach introductory undergraduate-level courses in at least one area outside their main field of study.
  • Students will have become professionals in their fields of study: presenting at conferences, formally critiquing others’ written work, submitting manuscripts for publication, and representing Fordham around the world as a site of innovative research.