Field of ResearchI am a scholar of Buddhist Studies, print culture, and the history of religion in modern China. In my dissertation "Conversion by the Book: Buddhist Print Culture in Early Republican China" I argue that print culture acted as a catalyst for change among Buddhists in modern China. Through examining major publication institutions, publishing projects, and their managers and contributors from the late nineteenth century to the 1920s, I show that the expansion of the scope and variety of printed works, as well as new the social structures surrounding publishing, substantially impacted the activity of Chinese Buddhists. In doing so I hope to contribute to ongoing discussions of the 'revival' of Chinese Buddhism in the modern period, and demonstrate that publishing, propelled by new print technologies and new forms of social organization, was a key field of interaction and communication for religious actors during this era, one that helped make possible the introduction and adoption of new forms of religious thought and practice.
ACADEMIC BACKGROUND
Academic Advisor: Chün-fang Yü 于君方
Dissertation: "Conversion by the Book: Buddhist Print Culture in Early Republican China"
Thesis Supervisor: Michael Szonyi 宋怡明
Thesis title: "Heterodox Religious Groups and the State in Ming-Qing China"
summa cum laude
SCHOLARSHIPS AND AWARDS
2011 - Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship
2010 - Co-awardee: Association for Asian Studies, China and Inner Asia Council Small Grant Award for the Database of Modern Chinese Buddhism [DMCB]
2010 - C. Martin Wilbur Fellowship
2010 - Support from the Cihui Foundation Fellowship Fund in Chinese Buddhist Studies
2009 - Department of Religion Summer Fellowship
2008 - Daniel and Marianne Spiegel Fund Grant
2008 - Department of Religion Summer Fellowship
2007 - Sasakawa Young Leaders Fellowship Fund Grant
2006 - Weatherhead East Asian Institute Fellow
2006 - Columbia Faculty Fellowship
2003 - China-Canada Scholar Exchange
2000 - Canada-Taiwan Scholarship
1999 - York University Continuing Student Scholarship
1998 - York University Entrance Scholarship
ACADEMIC ASSOCIATIONS
Association for Asian Studies
International Association of Buddhist Studies
Society for the Study of Chinese Religions
ACADEMIC EXPERIENCE
Forthcoming: Religious Publishing and Print Culture in Modern China, 1800-2012, co-editor with Philip Clart and chapter contributor. Boston; Berlin: De Gruyter, early 2014.
"Chinese Buddhist Publishing and Print Culture, 1900-1950." In Oxford Bibliographies in Buddhism, edited by Richard Payne. New York: Oxford University Press, March 2013.
"The Buddhist Nationalism of Dai Jitao 戴季陶". Journal of Chinese Religions, No. 39 (2011): 55-81.
"The Dharma Through a Glass Darkly: On the Study of Modern Chinese Buddhism through Protestant Missionary Sources 彷彿對著鏡子觀看的佛法：藉由基督教傳教士的史料研究現代中國佛教". Shengyan yanjiu 聖嚴研究 (Sheng Yen Studies), Vol. 2 (July, 2011): 47-73.
Edited electronic version available at http://buddhistinformatics.ddbc.edu.tw/dmcb/Through_a_Glass_Darkly
Review of Superstitious Regimes: Religion and the Politics of Chinese Modernity by Rebecca Nedostup. Religious Studies Review, 36 (Sept. 2010): 245.
Digital Projects
Digital Bibliography of Chinese Buddhism 中國佛教電子書目
An online, searchable bibliography of Chinese Buddhist publications, 1860s - 1950s.
Database of Modern Chinese Buddhism (DMCB) 近代中國佛教檢索
A collaborative, open-content online wiki database on Buddhism in China, 1850 - 1950.
"1898-1948: The Fifty Years that Changed Chinese Religion" 1898-1948: 改變了中國宗教的50年
Contributing project member to the bibliography of Chinese religious publications in Shanghai, 1898 - 1948.
The Online Index of Chinese Buddhism 中國佛教網路資料索引
A website that presents collected links and short descriptions for online resources useful for the study of Buddhism in China. It has been updated since August 26, 2006 and was featured in The Asian Studies WWW Monitor, late Feb 2009, Vol. 16, No. 4 (293).
Contributing author and editor of Finding Aids for the Burke Library Archives, Missionary Research Library Collection
Presentations
Upcoming: "上海佛學書局與20世紀前半上海的資本, 慈善事業, 和出版合流點角色" (Shanghai Buddhist Books and the role of early Twentieth-century Shanghai as a Nexus of Capital, Philanthropy, and Publishing). Paper to be given at the conference for "1898-1948: Fifty Years that Changed Chinese Religions", Insititute of Modern History, Academia Sinica, Taiwan, November 11-12, 2013
Upcoming: "Sacred Cities: Urban Buddhism in Modernizing Asia, 1850 - 1950", Panel Organizer and Paper Presenter: "Shanghai Buddhist Books (Shanghai Foxue shuju) and Shanghai as a Nexus of Chinese Buddhist Publishing in the 1930s", American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting, Baltimore, November 23-26, 2013
Upcoming: " Revisiting the Revival: Holmes Welch and the Study of Buddhism in Twentieth-Century China", Workshop Co-Presider, American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting, Baltimore, November 23-26, 2013
"Networks of Content and Collaboration in Early Chinese Buddhist Periodicals, 1912 - 1918", Workshop on Modern Chinese Buddhism, Groupe Sociétés, Religions, Laïcités, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris, November 29, 2012
Paper Presenter: "The Publishing of Buddhist Books for Beginners in Modern China from Yang Wenhui to Master Sheng Yen 中國近代歷史上的佛學入門書籍出版事業 - 從楊文會居士至聖嚴法師而言", Fourth International Conference of the Sheng Yen Educational Foundation, Taiwan, June 3, 2012
"Early Chinese-language Buddhist Periodicals as Social and Religious Networks", Workshop on Buddhists and Buddhism in the History of Twentieth Century China, May 30, 2012, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Panel Convenor: "The Construction of Religion between China and Japan, 1860s - 1930s", Paper Presenter: "Periodicals, Canons, and Buddhist Print Culture in Translation between China and Japan", Annual Meeting of the Association for Asian Studies, Toronto, March 15, 2012
Panel Co-Convenor: "Publishing Religion, Negotiating the Party-State: New Perspectives on Religion in Modern China", Paper Presenter: "Classical Exegesis and the Dharma: Navigating the Sea of Scriptures with Ding Fubao (1874 - 1952)", American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting, San Francisco, November 21, 2011
Panel Convenor: "Right Belief, Orthodoxy, and the Boundaries of Modern Chinese Buddhism", Paper Presenter: "Print Culture and the Making of Buddhist Histories in Meiji and Republican East Asia", XVIth Congress of the International Association for Buddhist Studies, Dharma Drum Buddhist College, New Taipei City, Taiwan, June 24, 2011
"Print Culture and the Making of Buddhist Histories in Meiji and Republican East Asia", Buddhist Dynamics in East Asian Religions, Italian School of East Asian Studies, Kyoto, June 18, 2011
"The Dharma Through a Glass Darkly: On the Study of Modern Chinese Buddhism through Missionary Sources," Third International Conference of the Sheng Yen Educational Foundation, Taipei, Taiwan, May 31, 2010
"The Dharma Through a Glass Darkly: On the Study of Modern Chinese Buddhism through Missionary Sources," North American Graduate Students Conference on Buddhist Studies, Toronto, Canada, April 10, 2010
Panel Discussant: "Religious Narratives," Columbia University Graduate Student Conference on East Asia, February 6, 2010
"World Religions in Missionary Attire: Timothy Richard and his New Testament of Higher Buddhism," talk presented as part of Religion Unwound series at Columbia University Department of Religion, October 13, 2009
"Secularization and Statecraft: The Buddhist Nationalism of Dai Jitao (1890-1949)," panel on "Chinese Lay Buddhists in the Early Twentieth Century and the Question of Secularization: Four Case Studies - Sponsored by the Society for the Study of Chinese Religions," Annual Meeting of the Association for Asian Studies, Chicago, March 26, 2009
Panel discussant: "Buddhist Practice and Cultural Identity," Columbia University Graduate Student Conference on East Asia, February 7, 2009
"Secularization and Statecraft: The Buddhist Nationalism of Dai Jitao (1890-1949)," Columbia University Graduate Student Conference on East Asia, February 6, 2009
"The Revival of the Weishi School in Modern Chinese Buddhism", Columbia University Department of Religion Graduate Student Conference, April 10, 2008
Teaching Assistantships and Internships
- Columbia University Libraries' Graduate Student Internship Program in Primary Sources, June 2009 - August 2010
- Duties include organizing, cataloguing, and writing research guides for archival materials related to missionary activities in Japan and China
- Columbia University, "RELI V2405: Chinese Religious Traditions," Spring 2010, Prof. Chün-fang Yü
- Class lectures: "Religion in Late Imperial China", April 5, 7
- Duties include exam and paper grading, drafting quizzes and exams, and meeting with students during office hours
- Columbia University, "RELI V2415: Japanese Religious Traditions," Fall 2009, Prof. Michael Como
- Class lecture: "The Discovery of Religion in Modern Japan", December 9
- Duties include assignment marking, leading discussion sections, drafting quizzes and exams, and meeting with students during office hours
- Columbia University, "RELI V3604: Religion in the City," Spring 2009, Prof. Courtney Bender
- Duties include assignment marking, leading discussion section, and meeting with students during office hours
- Columbia University, "RELI V2802: Intro to Asian Religions," Fall 2008, Prof. Wendi Adamek
- Class lecture: "Shinto: The Way of the Gods", November 24
- Duties include test and paper marking, leading discussion section, and meeting with students during office hours
- Columbia University, "RELI V2008: Buddhism: East Asian," Spring 2008, Prof. Chün-fang Yü
- Class lecture: "Chinese Buddhist Schools," February 21
- Duties include test and paper marking, meeting with students during office hours
- Columbia University, "RELI V2415: Japanese Religious Traditions," Fall 2007, Prof. Michael Como
- Class lecture: "The Chinese Conquest of Buddhism", September 24
- Class lecture: "Chan Buddhism in China", October 31
- Duties include drafting tests, assignment and test marking, meeting with students during office hours
- University of Toronto, "Introduction to East Asian Civilizations," 2004-2005, Dr. John Stowe
- Duties include test and paper marking, leading discussion section, and meeting with students during office hours
Recent Academic Activities and Service
- Student Rapporteur for the Columbia University Buddhist Studies Seminar Series, November 2007 - May 2010
- Duties included helping to coordinate seminars, and producing audio recordings of seminars that were posted online - see the Center for Buddhist Studies Weblog for posts and downloadable recordings
- Fall 2008 - Spring 2010: Columbia Center for Japanese Religion, website manager [http://www.columbia-cjr.org]
- Member of Conference Committee, Columbia University Department of Religion Graduate Student Conference 2009: "Belief Matters: Reconceptualizing Belief and Its Use"
- Graduate student representative to the faculty of the Columbia University Department of Religion and the Graduate Student Activity Council, September 2008 - August 2009
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