A program and major in Religious Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder was constituted in 1971 under the leadership of Professor Robert Lester, and the Department of Religious Studies was officially established in 1980. The Department subsequently developed a Master of Arts program in Religious Studies, which began admitting students in 1984. In 1999, the Department of Religious Studies moved into the Eaton Humanities Building, seen above. We are widely regarded as among the leading medium-sized religious studies departments in public universities in the United States, with thriving B.A. and M.A. programs whose graduates have gone on to pursue work at top doctoral programs in the country. The Department is distinguished by a multi-disciplinary and theoretically engaged approach, offering not only coursework in specific religions, but also thematic concentrations such as ritual studies, biblical studies, transnational religion and decolonization, religious minorities, religion and the body, religion and gender, and religion, media and culture.