Claire Rostov
Dean’s Award for Excellence in Teaching
Ph.D. Candidate, Religious Studies
Bio
Claire Rostov is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Religious Studies, with a focus on American Religion, and is expected to earn her doctorate in 2026. Rostov received her Master of Theological Studies with a focus on Religious of the Americas at Harvard Divinity School in 2021, and her B.A. in Religion and Women’s and Gender Studies at Carleton College in 2017.
Rostov approaches teaching as an invitation to curiosity with sustained engagement, approaching religion as part of everyday life. She says her goal as an instructor is to create an environment where students can engage in learning that is experiential, embodied, and social. In her instruction, Rostov incorporates skills learned from Duke’s Certificate in College Teaching Program, as well as The Kenan Institute for Ethics’ Teaching on Purpose Fellowship.
Alongside her teaching, Rostov has taken on leadership and service roles within Duke’s graduate and humanities communities. She currently serves as Teaching and Learning Coordinator for the Graduate Program in Religion and has also served on Duke Libraries’ Graduate and Professional Student Advisory Board. Rostov participated in multiple competitive pedagogical and professional development programs, including Preparing Future Faculty and Teaching on Purpose.
On Teaching
What do you enjoy most about teaching?
What I enjoy most about teaching is the opportunity to facilitate robust engagement with religion, a topic that is thought to be so controversial and divisive it should not be discussed at the dinner table. I consider it a great privilege to be able to create a classroom environment where students can open themselves up to new perspectives and engage in dialogue about the complexity and diversity of their own religious traditions, practices, and beliefs, as well as those that are unfamiliar to them and may be very different from their own.
How have you evolved as a teacher over time?
When I first began teaching, I wanted to be a great lecturer who inspired students to care about what I was teaching, but now, I want to be an effective facilitator who guides students to discover their own questions, interests, and relationship to the material. In other words, I have evolved to center the students’ insights and curiosities, which has allowed students to learn from their peers, as much as they do from me.
What resources or strategies have you found to be helpful in your development as a teacher?
I am incredibly grateful for all the pedagogical training I have received at Duke, including the Certificate in College Teaching, the Summer Course Development Workshop, Preparing Future Faculty, and Teaching on Purpose at The Kenan Institute for Ethics. I have also learned so much from my faculty mentors in the Religious Studies Department who have shared their love of teaching and their classroom with me.
In Others’ Words
Tributes from the Duke community
“Her teaching evaluations, which are far higher than the department average, praise the participatory, rigorous, and stimulating character of class discussions, the compassionate way she encouraged her students to submit their best work, the way she set the stage for success for everyone, and the analytical tools that critical engagement with religion and popular culture gave them.”
“I…was very impressed by the graceful way in which she interacted with students, responded to unscripted questions and student interests, deftly organized classroom prompts and discussion, and kept a roomful of undergraduates enthusiastically engaged in learning.”
“Teaching and research are intensive, daily practices that demands an ongoing critical work. Students and professors dare to name what they are trying to understand, search out the resources necessary for reaching and deepening understanding, reflect upon what succeeded and what could be improved, and then dare to try again. Claire Rostov is a model of this ongoing process.”