Tallula Russell – Contributor

On Jul. 1, 2028, the Religion, Society and Culture department of Bishop’s University will officially close. It will mark the end of 185 years of teaching religion in some capacity here, one of the longest unbroken chains in Canada. At its inception, Bishop’s taught Christian theology classes, the study of holy books and their doctrine. Today, Religion classes are for the academic study of religion, an outgrowth of sociology focused on the human phenomena of religious practice and belief. Religion, Society and Culture classes are interfaith and focus on the history, politics and social factors that shape and change faiths worldwide, and on how they affect the institutions and lives of practitioners and those around them. 

Photo courtesy of UBishop’s

The closing of the department will follow the retirement of RSC Professor, Dr. Michele Murray. Murray has taught at Bishop’s since 2000 and has served as the Dean of Arts and Sciences and Dean of Arts during her tenure. Murray and her fellow RSC professor, Dr. Daniel Miller have been the only two full-time faculty members since the retirement of Dr. Harvey White in 2020. White was not replaced upon his retirement, a result of the many factors that have led to the department’s closure. 

In interviews with Murray and Miller, both have articulated that a general decline in the Humanities is greatly to blame. Since the beginning of the 2000s, Miller has noticed a change in how the University itself is perceived. Expressing that post-secondary education isn’t for expanding the mind, deepening understanding of the world, or growing as a person, it’s for getting a job. The Humanities don’t advertise themselves as a means for employment, and the growing economic disparity in North America means that fewer and fewer people can afford to get a bachelor’s degree in something that won’t immediately lead to a way to pay off student debt. Religion is especially poor on this front as there are many transferable skills but not many technical ones. Enrollment in RSC has never been tremendous, but in the 2010s Murray described a marked drop-off. Low enrollment means less funding, which means less money to hire and pay a professor, full-time or contract faculty. The small student body in Religion is a principal element of why White was not replaced, and part of why Murray won’t be. 

Another factor in the lack of replacement for Murray is the financial distress the University has been put under by the actions of François Legault’s CAQ government in the fall of 2023. Legault’s government tried to reduce funding to English-speaking universities, citing it as a threat to the French language. Bishop’s University fought hard to get an exemption to the tuition hike and was successful, but the damage was done. Enrollment at Bishop’s was lower the following year, and the lowered number of international students as imposed by the federal government has shrunk the school’s budget. 

When asked how he felt about the closure of the department, Miller issued a grave warning. “It concerns me. It concerns all of us in the Humanities that the Humanities continue to dwindle. In a time of great financial restraint, retired people will not be replaced. It seems the writing is on the wall. All over North America, Humanities departments are on the chopping block.”

However, Murray is optimistic that there may be a future for Religious Studies at Bishop’s. There are different strategies that could promote the humanities to other disciplines, such as expanding the divisional requirements for graduation or setting up a set of foundational classes that could make the Humanities more accessible to students. Furthermore, vested interest in the Humanities, both from faculty and administration, with projects like Humanities Fest, can make a change.