UCLA Journal of Religion

The submission window for Volume 7 of the UCLA Journal of Religion is open from October 3, 2025 through January 9, 2026. You’ll find instructions below.

The UCLA Journal of Religion is a student-run undergraduate journal dedicated to publishing papers on diverse topics in religious studies. If you are interested in being a part of the student editorial board, please contact bdkraemer@humnet.ucla.edu.

Through our efforts, we aim to engage and familiarize students with the process of journal publication–a cornerstone of academic life–and provide an opportunity for them to display their research in this fascinating field. We welcomed submissions incorporating all methodological and theoretical approaches, and highly encouraged interdisciplinary papers. Our goal is to publish superior work regarding the academic study of religion.

We hope you appreciate the students’ work in the current and prior volumes available below.

Qualifications for submitting to the Journal

Must be an undergraduate student or alumnus who has graduated in the past year. No previously published material will be considered. Open to submissions currently under peer-review for other journals, however, by submitting to UCLA Journal of Religion, we retain the first-right to publish your paper if selected by our editorial board.

Submission window for Vol 07: October 3, 2025 through January 9, 2026

• Formatting and style instructions: Word (.doc/.docx files) or Adobe/PDF document (.pdf files) – NO INFORMATION IDENTIFYING THE AUTHOR MAY BE INCLUDIED IN THE BODY OF THE WORK. Submissions are blindly reviewed and will not be accepted if the author’s name is anywhere on the document (this includes margins). Submissions must be in English.
• Title page: Should include author’s full name, institution, year, major, and a history of the manuscript (e.g. course for which the paper was written, derived from senior thesis, presentation of the manuscript etc.). Note: the title page is the only place where the author’s name must appear.
• Length: There is no minimum or maximum length; typically,  submission are 12-15 pages. Honors theses are especially encouraged.
• Abstract and keywords: Please include a 150-word abstract and 5-7 keywords.
• Editing: If your submission is accepted, we may require you to edit it before publication, according to suggestions by the editorial board. We are looking for papers that are highly polished and have gone through multiple rounds of edits by the author. We strongly recommend that you have your paper reviewed by a Peer Learning Facilitator (PLF) at the UCLA Undergraduate Writing Center prior to submitting your paper.
• Submission: When the call is open, please email your document files (submissions will include 2 documents: the main paper and separate title page) to the Center for the Study of Religion at csr@humnet.ucla.edu. Submissions must be received by 11:59pm PST on 1/9/26. There is no submission fee. Please email questions to Beth Kraemer at bdkraemer@humnet.ucla.edu. You will be notified when your submission is received, as well as if it is rejected or accepted.

To learn more about our student leadership team, read the story about the creation of Volume 6.

UCLA Journal of Religion Vol. 6

UCLA Journal of Religion Vol. 5

UCLA Journal of Religion Vol. 4

UCLA Journal of Religion Vol. 3

UCLA Journal of Religion Vol. 2

UCLA Journal of Religion Vol. 1