B.A. (University of Chicago); M.A. (Chicago, UCLA); Ph.D. (UCLA)
Tel: (65) 6516 5044
Office: AS1 05 - 07

I have always been interested in Asian cultures, and have a particular fascination with China. After studying Chinese as an undergraduate at the University of Chicago, I taught English for two years in China and returned to UCLA to complete my doctoral degree in modern Chinese history. Within Chinese history, my specialty is in living religious traditions. My first book introduced religious life and rural society in north China during the late 19th and 20th centuries and was based primarily on two years of fieldwork that I conducted in the villages of Hebei Province. Before coming to NUS, I was fortunate enough to spend two years at Washington University in St. Louis as a Mellon post-doctoral fellow in Religious Studies, an experience that allowed me to focus more closely on Asian religions than I had in my training as a historian. This experience also led me to question what scholars and others mean when they talk about “religion.” In my current research, I examine this question in the context of the Chinese Northeast, otherwise known as Manchuria. My personal interests coincide with my research. I love travel, backpacking and camping, all of which come in handy when conducting fieldwork. I especially love cycling and have taken numerous distance rides through Europe, Japan and China. On my next vacation, I hope to make a hiking pilgrimage through a series of 88 Shingon shrines in Japan

TEACHING AREAS:

-	Late Imperial and Modern China
-	Japanese Empire in China
-	Religions of East Asia

CURRENT RESEARCH:

-	Religion and local society in rural North China
-	Constructions of religion in early twentieth century Manchuria

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS:

-	The Sacred Village: Social Change and Religious Life in Rural North China (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2005).
-	Chinese translation: Shenshengde cunzhuang: Huabei xiangcun de shehui bianqian yu zongjiao shenghuo 神聖的村庄：華北鄉村的社會辯遣與宗教生活 Trans. Hu Wen and Chi Zhen (Forthcoming in the “Xiangtu yanjiu” [Rural studies] series published by Shanghai shudian).
-	(edited) Casting Faiths: Imperialism and the Transformation of Religion in East and Southeast Asia (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009)
-	“The transformation of religion in East and Southeast Asia – paradigmatic change in regional perspective” (Book introduction) in ed. DuBois, Casting Faiths, 1-19.
-	“Japanese media and Manchurian Cultural Community: Religion in the Shengjing Times, 1907-1944” in ed. DuBois, Casting Faiths, 217-238.
-	“Manchukuo’s filial sons: States, sects and the transformation of graveside piety,” East Asian History, Vol. 35, December 2008
-	“Rule of Law in a Brave New Empire: Legal Rhetoric and Practice in Manchukuo,” Law and History Review, Vol. 26: 2, 2008, 285-317
-	“Local religion and the cultural imaginary: the development of Japanese ethnography occupied Manchuria,” American Historical Review, Vol. 111: 1, February 2006, 52-74
-	“Imperialism, Hegemony and the Construction of Religion in East and Southeast Asia” History & Theory, Vol. 44 (4), Theorizing Empire theme issue, December 2005, 113-131
-	Introduction to Folk Religions volume of “Selected Research on Modern Chinese Religions” series (ed. Ma Xisha, Dangdai Zhongguo yanjiu jingxuan congshu: Minjian zongjiao juan 當代中國研究精選叢書：民間宗教卷 Minzu Press, 2008, translation forthcoming by Brill, 2010).
-	“Village Community and the Reconstruction of Religious Life in Rural North China” in ed. John Lagerwey, Religion and Chinese Society: The Transformation of a Field (Paris: Ecole Français d’Extrême-Orient and Hong Kong: Chinese University of Hong Kong Press, 2004), 837-868.
-	“Millenarianism and Millenarian movements” in Robert Buswell, et. al., eds., Encyclopedia of Buddhism (Macmillan, 2003)

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