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Columbia University · Religious Studies

20.4% of Columbia University's Religious Studies course descriptions are framed from the left. Across all 100 schools' Religious Studies departments, it is 4.6%.

0%25%
Columbia University: 20.4% Religious Studies at all 100 schools: 4.6% each other school in the comparison

Where Religious Studies courses fall

3%Far left92–100
46%Left75–91
30%Center-left59–74
8%Center42–58
3%Center-right26–41
8%Right9–25
3%Far right0–8
37 plotted courses (the ones with a political subject). 100 = far left, 50 = the average American, 0 = far right. Subject places what a course studies, not the side it takes.

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FramingSubject

Subject places what a course studies, not the side it takes. A course on slavery or the Holocaust lands far right and a course on Marx or the Soviet Union lands far left, whether the course praises, criticizes or simply describes it.

Furthest-left subjects

RELI GU4227 · Empire and Decolonization in North Africa: Race, Religion, Climate94

Religious Studies

The course examines crucial debates in colonial and decolonial studies from a North African point of view, with a particular focus on Algeria. What does it mean to rethink conceptually and globally about empire and decoloniality from the…

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RELI GU4425 · Climate, Religion and Colonial85

Religious Studies

This course examines intersections between religion and climate through the lens of colonialism. In recent years, scholars across the humanities, social sciences, and physical sciences have suggested that the climate crisis dates to the…

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RELI UN2312 · Religion and Nasty Women85

Religious Studies

Used in 2016 by then presidential candidate, Donald Trump, in reference to his female opponent, Hillary Clinton, the phrase “nasty woman” has become a badge of honor and a rallying cry for women’s empowerment. The origin of the word…

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Furthest-right subjects

RELI UN3881 · The Doctrine of Discovery: Religion, Law5

Religious Studies

How did European-Christians justify the colonization of the Americas? Did these justifications vary between different European empires, and between the Protestant and Catholic faiths, and if so, how? Do these justifications remain in effect…

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RELI UN3202 · RELIGION IN EARLY AMERICA12

Religious Studies

This course examines religion in North America from the 1500s through the early 1800s with a focus on colonial projects, race and slavery, and gender. We begin with comparing Spanish and French Catholic and English Protestant colonies,…

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RELI GU4322 · EXPLORING THE SHARIA: ISLAMIC LAW17

Religious Studies

The platform of every modern “Islamist” political party calls for the implementation of “the shari‘a.” This term is invariably (and incorrectly) interpreted as an unchanging legal code dating back to 7th century Arabia. In reality, Islamic…

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Why this number, in plain words

Share of courses described from the left. Percent of all courses in the group whose Framing reading is leftward: the description frames its subject one-sidedly to the left.

Counted: all courses in the group, including N and I. No interval is published for this number.

  • Readings are of catalog description text, not of teaching, syllabi or individual professors.
Details: exact rows, definitions and method
NameMetricValue95% intervalnscored
Columbia University · Religious Studiesbias_left_share20.4—113—
Religious Studiesbias_left_share4.64.1 – 5.17,282—
Formula
100 * count(bias_cat = 'L') / n
Interval
Wilson score 95% (wilson_interval)
Model / prompt / snapshot
gpt-5.6-sol · r12 (2026-10-16-le49-r12) · 6df50b10
Metric caveats
Right-framed courses are almost absent (33 of 124,290); this run cannot tell catalog reality from model sensitivity. Compare schools with adjusted_ratio, not this raw share, because department mix differs.

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