Santa Clara University

The Local Religion Project offers a variety of undergraduate research opportunities:

• work as assistants or interns on LRP’s documentation of local congregations and organizations, much of which is published on this website—research in the field, writing portraits, website development, background research on the local region
• work independently on a project through the LRP Practicum (RSOC 198)—the sample included here is a project Stacey Rotta (’05) developed on “roadside religion” or, Ferber on El Salvador Crosses
• conduct LRP research in upper division courses—two samples included here are from RSOC 123, Religions@SiliconValley (Spring 2006)
• assist faculty in research projects—the sample included here is a project Everett DePangher (’06) completed for the “religious diversity and secondary education,” a project funded by a university grant and directed by religious studies faculty
• Academic Conference presentations—since 2004 students have given papers on LRP research at the AAR western regional annual meeting
  

Students are invited to review the material included on this website, and/or to contact the LRP director to discuss their interests and possibilities.

Students enrolled in religious studies classes that involve LRP are able to complete research that meets the course requirements and may be disseminated through the LRP web site. Typically, faculty design an assignment in which the local religion is something of a “lab” in which their interactions with individuals in local congregations and organizations provide a chance to test out what they have been learning in the classroom. LRP elaborates on this process in the research guide.

• Click here to view the research guide.

Our current and former Research Assistants

Research Assistant Position Description

We are in the process of listing the courses and posting the results of student reseach. The following links present some of this work:

RSOC 123, Religions@SiliconValley (Spring 2006)

• Mari Matsumura, Silicon Valley and Two Buddhist Immigrant Communities
• Freya Bernardo, Allah in America

• Stacey Rotta

• Everett Depangher, “South Bay Homeschooler Experiences”