A Forest of Knowledge – Panelists

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Susan Andrews
(Mount Allison University)
Susie Andrews is Associate Professor of East Asian religions at Mount Allison University. Her research explores sacred place and pilgrimage, Buddhism’s interactions with autochthonous forms of practice, and the economics of religious life. Her teaching prioritizes hands-on learning and she is interested in better understanding the possibilities that embodied pedagogies hold for undergraduate students of religious studies.
James Benn
(McMaster)
James Benn is a Professor in the Department of Religious Studies. His field of research is religion in medieval China (roughly fourth to tenth century, CE). To date he has concentrated on three major areas of interest: bodily practice in Chinese Religions; the creation and transmission of new religious practices and doctrines; and the religious dimensions of commodity culture. In particular, he has focused on self-immolation, Chinese Buddhist apocrypha, and the history of tea. He works with primary sources written in literary Chinese and my research engages with that of scholars who publish in English and French as well as in modern Chinese and Japanese. Although his work is grounded in traditional Sinology—a discipline based on knowledge of the literature, history, and culture of pre-modern China—his publications are also aimed towards scholars of Religious Studies.
Robert Brown
(UCLA)
Robert L. Brown is Research Professor of Indian and Southeast Asian Art at ULCA and Curator Emeritus of South and Southeast Asian Art at LACMA.  He received his PhD from UCLA.  He studies broadly the art, cultures, and religions of South and Southeast Asia, in particular comparing them and tracing their relationships.  Among his recent publications are Carrying Buddhism:  The Role of Metal Icons in the Spread and Development of Buddhism.  Amsterdam, J Gonda Fund Foundation of the KNAW, 2014; an On-line Scholarly Catalog:  Catalog of the Southeast Asian Collection at LACMA, launched November 2013.  (seasian.catalog.lacma.org); and “Gupta Art as Classical: A Possible Paradigm for Indian Art History,” in Indology’s Pulse: Arts in Context. Delhi, Aryan Books, 2020.
CHEN Huaiyu 陳懷宇
(Arizona State University)
Huaiyu Chen (Ph.D., Princeton University) is Associate Professor of School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies at Arizona State University. He has numerous publications on medieval Chinese religious and cultural history, the Silk Road Studies, and modern Chinese intellectual history. He has held fellowships from Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, Clare Hall of Cambridge University, and the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin (MPIWG).
CHEN Jinhua 陳金華
(UBC)
A member of the Royal Society of Canada, Jinhua CHEN is Professor of East Asian religious history at the University of British Columbia, where he also served as the Canada Research Chair in East Asian Buddhism (2001-2011). He has published on East Asian state-church relationships, monastic (hagio/)biographical literature, Buddhist sacred sites, relic veneration, Buddhism and technological innovation in medieval China, and Buddhist translations.
CHEN Lang 陳朗
(Michigan)
 Dr. Lang Chen is a research fellow at the Lieberthal-Rogel Center for Chinese Studies. Before joining the University of Michigan, she was an assistant professor at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. She received her PhD in religious studies at Yale University and worked as a postdoctoral fellow for the Asia Research Institute at the National University of Singapore. She is working on her book project on Tiantai Buddhism in late imperial China.
CHEN Zhiyuan 陳志遠
(Chinese Academy of Social Sciences)
Chen Zhiyuan 陳志遠,現任中國社會科學院古代史研究所助理研究員。2013年博士畢業于北京大學歷史系,曾到京都大學、臺灣法鼓佛教學院短期訪學。主要從事六朝佛教史,中古佛教文獻,儒佛交涉的研究。出版專著《六朝佛教史研究論集》、《慢讀漫筆》,並在《文史哲》、《文史》、《中華文史論叢》等期刊發表論文多篇。
Max Deeg
(Cardiff University)
Max Deeg is Professor in Buddhist Studies at Cardiff University. He received his Ph.D. in Classical Indology and his professorial degree (Habilitation) in Religious Studies at Würzburg University, Germany. His main research interest is in the history of Buddhism and its spread; he has researched and published extensively on Chinese Buddhist travelogues. His most recent publications are: Miscellanae Nepalicae: Early Chinese Reports on Nepal—The Foundation Legend of Nepal in its Trans-Himalayan Context (2016), and Die Strahlende Lehre—Die Stele von Xi’an (2018).
Joseph P. Elacqua
(Leiden)
Joseph P. Elacqua is a Ph.D candidate at Leiden University, who teaches premodern world history and Japanese language courses at Mohawk Valley Community College and SUNY Polytechnic Institute.  While interested in world religions, his scholarly focus is on Buddhism and East Asian religions.  Often, he finds himself drawn to studying the origins of a specific concept, doctrine, or even deity.

His dissertation focuses on the Taizan Fukun 泰山府君, a minor Sino-Japanese chthonic deity that appears chiefly within the Japanese tradition of Onmyōdō 陰陽道 as well as within Sino-Japanese Esoteric Buddhism.  The dissertation will analyze and explore the origins, evolution, and history of this extraordinarily multifaceted deity, tracing its cultural legacy across India, China, and Japan.

Early Esoteric Buddhism—specifically in textual and iconographic materials relating to the Taizōkai mandala 胎蔵界曼荼羅—serves as a second area of significant scholarly interest to him.  Combined with his esteem for the recent work of Dr. Shinohara, it is this interest in early Esoteric Buddhism that drew him to this conference.

FAN Jingjing 范晶晶
(Peking University)
Dr. Fan Jingjing is an Assistant Professor of the Department of South Asian Studies, School of Foreign Languages, Peking University. Her main research fields include Sanskrit and Pāli literature, Buddhist translation studies, and the literary exchanges between ancient China and India. In addition to dozens of research papers in Chinese and English, she has published a book titled “Yuanqi: The Transformation of Buddhist Avadāna Literature” (in Chinese). 范晶晶,文学博士,北京大学外国语学院南亚学系助理教授,主要研究方向为梵语与巴利语文献、佛经翻译研究、古代中印文学关系等,发表中英文论文多篇,出版专著《缘起——佛教譬喻文学的流变》、译著《印度诸神的世界——印度教图像学手册》等。
FENG Guodong 馮國棟
(Zhejiang University)
Dr. Feng Guodong is currently a professor in School of Humanities, vice director of Center for Buddhist Studies, and vice head of School of Humanities at the ZheJiang University. He received his Ph.D. from Fudan University (2004). His research interests include the Buddhism philology, Buddhism geography and Buddhism literature. His project is the study on Buddhist inscriptions in Chinese now. He is the author of Buddhist Documents and Buddhist literature 佛教文獻與佛教文學 (2010), and Research on jingde Chuandenglu 《景德傳燈錄》研究 (2014).
GUO Lei 郭磊
(Dongguk University)
郭磊,文學博士。畢業於韓國東國大學歷史系,專業是韓國古代佛教史。博士論文題目《新羅五臺山文殊信仰研究》,在此基礎之上持續探討東亞佛教史上的諸問題,並關注中國與韓國、日本的中古佛教史交流。目前就職於韓國東國大學佛教文化研究院,曾兼任中國山西五臺山佛教與東方文化國際研究院特邀研究員(2016-2018)。陸續發表了《義相的華嚴思想與中國佛教》、《韓國密教略考》、《新罗佛教的密教特质》、《新羅慈藏參五臺山之考辯》等數篇有关中韓佛教關係的論文,出版有專著《高僧傳——元曉大師》。
Thomas Hahn
(UC Berkeley)
Thomas H Hahn received his Ph.D. from Heidelberg University with a thesis on China’s sacred mountains and alpine spaces. He has taught courses on regional planning, urban ecology and environmental history at Cornell and UC Berkeley. His latest project addresses the conversion (by way of ISO certified administrative measures and infrastructural integration) of so-called sites of special scientific interest (SSSI) into national or UNESCO accredited global Geoparks in China.

Dr. Hahn is co-author with Michael Nylan, who will present on their behalf.

Puay-Peng HO 何培斌
(National University of Singapore)
Puay-peng Ho holds the UNESCO Chair on Architectural Heritage Conservation and Management in Asia and is currently Professor of Architecture and Head of Department of Architecture, School of Design and Environment, National University of Singapore. He received architecture education from the University of Edinburgh, and practiced professionally in Edinburgh and Singapore. Subsequently, Puay-peng Ho obtained PhD degree in art and architecture history at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.

Prior to joining NUS, Ho was Professor of Architecture and Honorary Professor of Fine Arts at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. During the 25 years at the University, he served as Dean of Students at New Asia College between 2000-2004, University Dean of Students between 2005-2008, Chair of Department of Architecture between 2007-2010 and Founding Director of School of Architecture between 2010-13.

The main research and publication focus of Puay-peng Ho is in the areas of Buddhist art and architecture, Chinese architectural history, vernacular architecture and history of modern architecture in China and Hong Kong. Sustaining his research is the quest to understand religious culture and its architectural forms. While his main focus is Buddhist architecture and ritual of medieval China, his research has been located at the intersection of art, architecture and the wider societal context.

Currently, Professor Ho is appointed as an advisor to Museum of History in Hong Kong, Heritage and Identity Partnership in Singapore, a Patron of International Dunhuang Project, British Library and a member of Senior Advisory Board, Global Heritage Fund he is an editorial board member of several international academic journals.

Alexander HSU
(Notre Dame)
Alexander Hsu serves as adjunct assistant teaching professor for the Ansari Institute and the Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies. He is also the Ansari Institute’s academic advisor and program manager. His research focuses on early Buddhist scriptures in medieval China and employs perspectives from manuscript studies, genre theory, and cultural history in order to examine how the use of texts reflects transformations in religious reading practices. Hsu’s current book project examines why and how medieval Chinese Buddhists used anthologies to “economize” their gigantic scriptural canon.
HU Xiaozhong 胡孝忠
(Shandong University 山東大學)
胡孝忠: 四川宜賓人,山東大學管理學學士、歷史學碩士和歷史學博士(宗教史),香港大學博士後研究員(Post-Doctoral Fellow)。主要研究宗教教育、宗教心理、佛教史,現任山東大學歷史文化學院副教授、碩導,兼任教育部人文社科重點研究基地山東大學猶太教與跨宗教研究中心研究員、澳門歷史宗教文化研究會副監事長。於2011-2014年在香港大學饒宗頤學術館工作,親炙國學大師饒宗頤先生。在CSSCI期刊《宗教學研究》《周易研究》《華南師範大學學報》(社科版),SSCI、A&HCI期刊 British Journal of Religious Education, Journal of Beliefs & Values: Studies in Religion & Education, Religious Education等刊物發文30餘篇,出版《饒宗頤教授著作目錄三編》(合編),已在法國、中國大陸及港澳臺地區出席國際會議30余次,曾在澳門特區民政總署“嘉模講壇”主講方志與地域文化、佛教史等講座多次。曾獲山東省第三十次社會科學優秀成果獎二等獎、山東高等學校優秀科研成果獎三等獎各一次、山東省社會科學優秀成果二等獎等獎勵。先後主持香港大學、山東大學、中國博士後基金、山東省社科規劃一般項目等多個科研項目。
George Keyworth
(University of Saskatchewan)
George Keyworth is an Assistant Professor of East Asian religions. His research interests include Chinese Buddhism, Japanese Buddhism, Daoism, Shintō, and East Asian religious literature. He is specifically interested in Zen Buddhism in Medieval China and Japan, Buddhist and Daoist Spells in China and Japan, and Esoteric Buddhism in China, Japan, and Tibet.
KIM Minku 金玟求
(CUHK)

Minku Kim is an art historian specializing Buddhist art and archaeology of China and Silk Routes. He is currently assistant professor of Fine Arts at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Previously, he taught at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, and was an Andrew W. Mellon Scholar in the Humanities at Stanford University. A native of Seoul, he studied at Seoul National University (BA and MA) and at UCLA (PhD).

KIM Youn-mi 金延美
(Ehwa Womans University)
Youn-mi Kim is Associate Professor of Asian Art History at Ewha Womans University. Prior to joining the Ewha faculty, she was Assistant Professor at Yale University (2012-16) and Assistant Professor at the Ohio State University (2011-12). She is Editor of New Perspectives on Early Korean Art: From Silla to Koryo (Harvard University Press, 2013). A grantee of The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Research Fellowships in Buddhist Studies 2018, she is currently completing her two book manuscript entitled Visualizing the Invisible: Liao Pagodas, Cosmology, and Body while working on her second book, Ritual and Agency: Visual Culture of Medieval Buddhism in North China.
Nelson Landry
(Oxford)
My name is Nelson Elliott Landry and I am a third year DPhil student at the Oriental Institute, University of Oxford. I am presently working on a research project regarding the Tang dynasty scholar monk master Daoxuan (596-667) and the corpus of historiographical texts which he authored that touch on supernormal themes, especially his later compilation of miracle tales, the Ji shenzhou sanbao gantong lu 集神州三寶感通錄 (Collected Record of Miracles Relating to the Three Jewels in China).

I completed my Bachelor’s degree at McGill University in 2014, where I did a double major in World Religions and East Asian Studies. I continued my studies at Peking University with the generous support of the Chinese Scholarship Council (CSC) where I took a one-year foundational course in Mandarin Chinese, and completed a three year Master’s under the supervision of Professor Li Silong. It is at Peking University that I learned of North and South Dynasty Buddhism through courses on the philological reading of Buddhist texts from this period. My Master’s thesis analyzed the narrative use of dreams in Huijiao’s (497-554) Liang Biography of Eminent Monks, analyzing these dream sequences to try and extrapolate on their role in the process of Sinification of Buddhism that is characteristic of North and South Dynasty Buddhism.

LI Wei 李巍
(He’nan University)
After securing a doctoral degree from Peking University last year (2020), Li Wei has become a lecturer at the He’nan University 河南大學. His research focuses on Buddhism’s impact on the Chinese literary traditions. He obtained his Master Degree with a thesis on the metaphors the Sanlun master Jizang (549-623) used in his commentaries on the Mādhyamika Śāstra, better known as Zhonglun (Treatise on the Middle Way) in the Sinitic Buddhist traditions. He is presently doing research on the Avadāna Literature in Six Dynasties, as an extension to his previous work on Buddhist literature.
LIU Xuejun 劉學軍
(Jiangsu Second Normal University)
Liu Xuejun (Ph.D., Nanjing University, 2014) is the associate professor of Jiangsu Second Normal University. He was appointed the director of Teaching and Research Office of Ancient Chinese Literature, His current research focuses on Chinese medieval buddhism history, buddhist images and rituals, and East Asian art history. He has published a number of papers in Literary Heritage (《文學遺產》), Journal of Chinese Literature and History(《中華文史論叢》), and Journal of the 3-9th Century Chinese History (《魏晉南北朝隋唐史資料》). He has also published a book on the new annotation of Dhammapada(《新譯法句經》, 2018) in Sanmin Press. He has translated Professor Koichi Shinohara’s work (Spells, Images, and Mandalas: Tracing the Evolution of Esoteric Buddhist Rituals, 2014), which will be published in Chinese in the forthcoming months.
LIU Yi 劉屹
(Capital Normal University)
LIU Yi is professor and Dean of School of History at Capital Normal University and also the secretary of the Association of the Dunhuang and Turpan studies in China. His research interests include the Dunhuang studies and the medieval history of religion. For the past 20 years, he has been working on the history of Daoism and the Daoist scriptures. In terms of the former, he challenges the historical paradigm in which the sect of the Celestial Masters came directly down from the sect of the Five Pecks of Rice in the early Daoist history. In terms of the latter, he has specialized in the studies of such Daoist texts as Scripture on Great PeaceXiang’er’s Commentary on Laozi, and Classic on Laozi’s Conversion of the Barbarians, and the Lingbao Scriptures of the Six Dynasties. He has recently shifted his research to the medieval Buddhist studies and is especially interested in the issue of the “Age of Dharma Decline.” He has published about 110 research articles, book reviews, and translated articles and 6 books and collected volumes. The latest books include Historical Research on the Daoist Guling Baojing in the Six Dynasties (2018) and Research on the History and Scriptures of the Daoism in the Han and Tang Dynasties: Selected Works of Liu Yi (2015).
Michael Nylan
(UC Berkeley)
Michael Nylan is Sather Professor of History at the University of California, Berkeley. She writes on a wide range of topics, early and modern, in more popular and more scholarly venues.  She is deeply interested in human diversity and cultural changes over time.  Most recently, she has been slogging through the Documents classic, writing with a co-author on the “Four Fathers of History” (Herodotus and Thucydides, Sima Qian and Ban Gu), and trying to make sense of classical learning during the early empires.
James Robson
(Harvard University)
James Robson is Professor of East Asian Languages and Civilizations. He is the Director of Undergraduate Studies, East Asian Studies, and has served as Director of Graduate Studies for the Regional Studies East Asia M.A. program. He teaches East Asian religions, in particular Daoism, Chinese Buddhism, and Zen, as well as the sophomore tutorial for concentrators. Robson received his Ph.D. in Buddhist Studies from Stanford University in 2002, after spending many years doing research in China, Taiwan, and Japan. He specializes in the history of medieval Chinese Buddhism and Daoism and is particularly interested in issues of sacred geography, local religious history, talismans, and Chan/Zen Buddhism. He has been engaged in a long-term collaborative research project with the École Française d’Extrême-Orient studying local religious statuary from Hunan province. He is the author of Power of Place: The Religious Landscape of the Southern Sacred Peak [Nanyue 南嶽] in Medieval China (Harvard, 2009), which was awarded the Stanislas Julien Prize for 2010 by the French Academy of Inscriptions and Belles-Lettres and the 2010 Toshihide Numata Book Prize in Buddhism. Robson is also the author of “Signs of Power: Talismanic Writings in Chinese Buddhism” (History of Religions 48:2), “Faith in Museums: On the Confluence of Museums and Religious Sites in Asia” (PMLA, 2010), and “A Tang Dynasty Chan Mummy [roushen] and a Modern Case of Furta Sacra? Investigating the Contested Bones of Shitou Xiqian.” His current research includes a long term project on the history of the confluence of Buddhist monasteries and mental hospitals in Japan.
Gregory Schopen
(UCLA)
Gregory Schopen is an Emeritus Distinguished Professor at UCLA. His work focuses on Indian Buddhist monastic life. By looking beyond canonical materials in favor of less commonly used sources such as Indian Buddhist stone inscriptions, his numerous scholarly works have shifted the field away from Buddhism as portrayed through its own doctrines toward a more realistic picture of the actual lives of Buddhists, lives that were (and remain) deeply intertwined with the economic sphere. In 1985 he received the MacArthur Grant for his work in the field of History of Religion. In 2015 he was also elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Buddhist Monks and Business Matters is one of three volumes dedicated to his work.
SHI Jiangang 石建剛
(Northwestern Polytechnical University 西北工業大學)
石建剛,蘭州大學敦煌學專業博士,陝西師範大學絲綢之路歷史文化研究中心博士後,現爲西北工業大學文化遺產研究院副教授、蘭州大學敦煌學研究所兼職教授。主要從事佛教考古與佛教藝術、敦煌學、出土文獻等相關領域的研究。

近年來出版學術專著《陝北宋金石窟調查與研究》,參與《陝西石窟內容總錄·延安卷》(第1/6位編者)、《陝西石窟內容總錄·榆林卷》(第4/7位編者)、《延安石窟碑刻題記》(執行主編)等著作的編寫,發表《陝北宋金石窟布袋和尚圖像調查與研究——兼論與河西地區西夏布袋和尚圖像的關聯性》、《宋金兩朝沿邊德靖寨漢蕃軍民的精神家園——陝西志丹城台第2窟調查與研究》、《北宋沿邊黨項熟戶的淨土殿堂——陝西志丹縣何家坬石窟調查與初步研究》、《延安宋金石窟玄奘取經圖像考察——兼論宋金夏元時期玄奘取經圖像的流變》、《延安地區宋金石窟僧伽造像考察》《陝西神木清涼寺石窟金代漢文題刻校錄與研究》等論文20餘篇。

主持中國國家社科基金青年項目“陝北宋金石窟多元文化特性研究”、陝西省社科基金項目“陝北宋金石窟與黨項/西夏佛教藝術關係研究”、中國博士後面上資助項目“陝北宋金石窟碑刻題記整理與研究”等各類課題,參與中國國家社科基金重大項目“敦煌西夏石窟研究”、中國教育部重大基金項目“法藏敦煌漢文非佛教文獻的整理和研究”、陝西省文物局重點項目“陝西石窟調查”、國家社科基金項目“麥積山石窟第74-78窟考古報告”、國家社科藝術基金西部項目“圖像與歷史:兩宋時期陝北與川東地區佛教石窟藝術綜合研究”等課題。

Jackie Stone
(Princeton University)
Jacqueline Stone is professor emerita in the Department of Religion at Princeton University, where she taught Buddhism and Japanese Religion for almost thirty years. Her chief research field is Japanese Buddhism of the medieval and modern periods. Her current research interests include traditions of the Lotus Sutra, particularly Tendai and Nichiren; the role of Buddhism in premodern Japanese identity formation; and modern reinterpretations of Buddhist thought. Her books include Original Enlightenment and the Transformation of Medieval Japanese Buddhism (2001 American Academy of Religion Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion, Historical Studies category) and Right Thoughts at the Last Moment: Buddhism and Deathbed Practices in Early Medieval Japan (2017 Toshihide Numata Book Award); she has also co-edited several volumes of essays on the Lotus Sūtra and on death and dying in Buddhism. Stone has been president of the Society for the Study of Japanese Religions and co-chair of the Buddhism section of the American Academy of Religion. Currently she is vice president of the editorial board of the Kuroda Institute for the Study of Buddhism and serves on the international advisory board of the Japanese Journal of Religious Studies.
SUN Yinggang 孫英剛
(Zhejiang University)
Having studied at Peking University, Prof. Yinggang Sun received his doctoral degree from Princeton University. He is currently Professor and Director of East Asian Religions at the University of Zhejiang, he also serves as a Deputy Director of Wutaishan International Institute for the Study of Buddhism and East Asian Culture, an Executive member of China’s Society for Early Medieval History, and the Editor-in-chief of book Series “Studies of International Buddhism and Chinese Religions.” His research spans over medieval Chinese history, Buddhist history and intellectual history. In addition to more than 70 published journal papers, he is the author of The Chenwei Prophecy Texts and Medieval PoliticsA History of the Sui-Tang and Five Dynasties (both in Chinese), and so on. He also serves on the editorial boards for several academic journals.

孫英剛,先後就讀北京大學和普林斯頓大學,獲普林斯頓大學哲學博士學位。現任浙江大學東亞宗教文化研究中心主任、五台山國際研究院副院長、中國魏晉南北朝史學會理事、 “國際佛教與中國宗教研究叢書”主編。主要從事中古史、佛教史及史學理論研究,代表作包括《神文時代:讖緯、術數與中古政治研究》、《隋唐五代史》等,並發表相關論文70多篇。擔任多種國際學術刊物編委。

TONG Ling 童嶺
(Nanjing University)
童嶺(TONG Ling),1981年3月生,江蘇鎮江人。南京大學文學博士,日本京都大學文學部留學。現任:南京大學文學院教授、博士生導師;南京大學域外漢籍研究所研究員。兼任:中國魏晉南北朝史學會理事、中國科舉博物館(南京)學術委員、「中國中古學術思想書系」主編。研究方向:六朝隋唐時代的學術、思想與文學。代表作:著有《炎鳳朔龍記:大唐帝國與東亞的中世》(商務印書館2014)、《六朝隋唐漢籍舊鈔本研究》(中華書局2017),譯著:小南一郎《唐代傳奇小說論》(北京大學出版社2015)、Paul Kroll《中古中國的文學與文化史》(中西書局,2020)等。
Eugene Wang
(Harvard University)
Eugene Y. Wang is the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Professor of Asian Art. A Guggenheim Fellow (2005), he is the art history editor of the Encyclopedia of Buddhism (2004). His extensive publications range from early Chinese to contemporary art. His book, Shaping the Lotus Sutra: Buddhist Visual Culture in Medieval China (2005), which received an academic award from Japan, explores Buddhist ways of worldmaking.

He has served on advisory boards and review committees for the Center for Advanced Study in Visual Art, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, Getty Foundation, Mellon Foundation, etc.

His current research focuses on cognitive study of art. He is working on a book on Sonic Painting, probing the unheard soundscape and voice effect in pictures..

He is also the founding director of the Harvard FAS CAMLab (Chinese Art Media Lab). The lab explores multimedia storytelling and designs immersive artistic experience, turning humanistic research into creative sensorial media practice.

WANG Jinping 王錦萍
(National University of Singapore)
Jinping Wang is an assistant professor of History at the National University of Singapore. She is a social-cultural-political historian of pre-modern China, and holds a Ph.D. from Yale University (2011). Her research interests include Chinese history, Chinese religions, regional studies, and the Mongol-Yuan and Ming Empires. Her first book In the Wake of the Mongols will be published by Harvard in 2018. Dr. Wang is currently working on two new projects, “Cultural history of Quanzhen Daoism” and “Empire on the Ground: A Social History of Ming-Mongol Relations in the Northern Frontiers.”
(Photo and text from Professor Wang’s NUS official webpage: http://www.fas.nus.edu.sg/hist/About-Us/Faculty.html)
WEI Xiaomei 未小妹
(Academy of Dazu Rock Carvings 大足石刻研究院)
畢業於四川美術學院,現為大足石刻研究院文博館員,主要從事佛教美術研究和展覽文案工作。發表論文有《如意輪觀音造像考察——以巴蜀石窟為主》,收錄於《2014年大足學國際學術研討會論文集》(重慶出版社,2016年);四川美術學院硕士学位论文《如意轮观音图像的流传、改写与误读——以巴蜀石窟造像调查为基础》(2016年);《千手觀音文本與圖像關係探討(一):諸經簡況及辨偽》,刊於《大足學刊》第四輯(2020年);《千手觀音文本與圖像關係探討(二):四十手法與諸天鬼神》,刊於《大足學刊》第五輯(2021年待刊)。
WEI Zheng 韋正
(PekingU)
韋正,師從宿白先生,2002年在北京大學獲得考古學博士學位,現為北京大學考古文博學院教授,山西大學雲岡學特聘研究員。長期從事漢魏南北朝考古研究,對城市形態、墓葬制度、圖像儀式、佛教藝術粗有涉獵,著有《六朝墓葬的考古學研究》、《魏晉南北朝考古》、《將毋同——魏晉南北朝圖像與歷史》等論著。
Albert Welter
(University of Arizona)
Albert Welter’s area of academic study is Chinese Buddhism, and he has published in the area of Japanese Buddhism as well. His main research focuses on the study of Buddhist texts in the transition from the late Tang (9th century) to the Song dynasty (10th-13th centuries). In recent years, he has published Monks, Rulers, and Literati: The Political Ascendancy of Chan Buddhism (Oxford, 2006), The Linji lu and the Creation of Chan Orthodoxy: The Development of Chan’s Records of Sayings Literature (Oxford, 2008), and Yongming Yanshou’s Conception of Chan in the Zongjing lu: A Special Transmission within the Scriptures (Oxford, 2011), in addition to numerous articles. His work also encompasses Buddhist interactions with Neo-Confucianism and literati culture. He just finished a project on the social and institutional history of Buddhism as conceived through a text compiled in the early Song dynasty, Zanning’s Topical History of the Buddhist Clergy, published by Cambria Press in 2018 (The Administration of Buddhism in Chinahttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqJKcl0ygU0). Stemming from this latter research interest, Professor Welter has also developed a broader interest in Chinese administrative policies toward religion, including Chinese notions of secularism and their impact on religious beliefs and practices, leading to a co-edited volume (with Jeffrey Newmark), Religion, Culture, and the Public Sphere in China and Japan (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2017). He recently received funding from the Khyentse Foundation for a project, “The Hangzhou Region and the Creation of East Asian Buddhism,” in conjunction with Zhejiang University, the Hangzhou Academy of Social Sciences, and the Hangzhou Buddhist Academy. He also received funding from the American Council of Learned Societies (with the support of the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation) for an international conference, Creating the World of Chan/ Sŏn /Zen: Chinese Chan Buddhism and its Spread throughout East Asia.” Before coming to the University of Arizona, Dr. Welter was based in Canada, where his research projects were regularly supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
WU Xiaojie 吳小劼
(Shanghai Normal University)
伍小劼,男,上海師範大學副教授。關注領域為佛道教文獻研究和中國民間信仰,目前正準備出版《<大灌頂經>研究》。 Wu Xiaojie伍小劼is currently an Associate Professor at Shanghai Normal University 上海師範大學, His focuses areas on the literature of Buddhism and Daoism, and Chinese folk beliefs, and now he is publishing The study of The Consecration Sutra《<大灌頂經>研究》.
YAN Yaozhong
(Beijing Normal University 北京師範大學)
嚴耀中,浙江慈城人,1982年研究生畢業。1988年破格評為副教授。1992年破格評為正教授。1994—1996年間在加拿大麥克馬斯特大學(McMaster Univ.)宗教研究系和多倫多大學(Univ. of Toronto)宗教研究中心做訪問學者。2013•9- -2014•7,作為以色列國家高級研究院(Israel Institute for Advanced Studies)的客座研究員,同時也作為European Institutes for Study Fellowship Programme 的成員。現為北京師範大學歷史學院特聘教授。已出版專著有《北魏前期政治制度》(吉林教育出版社1990);《中國宗教與生存哲學》(學林出版社1991);《漢傳密教》(學林出版社1999);《江南佛教史》(上海人民出版社2000,修訂本改名《中國東南佛教史》2005);《佛教與三至十三世紀中國史》(宗教文化出版社2007);《佛教戒律與中國社會》(上海古籍出版社2007);《兩晉南北朝史》(人民出版社2009);《魏晉南北朝史考論》(上海人民出版社2010);《宗教文獻學入門》(復旦大學出版社2011,與範熒合著);《宏觀與微觀視野里的中國宗教》(華東師範大學出版社2012);《晉唐文史論稿》(上海人民出版社2013);《耶城瑣記》(上海書店出版社2015);《華梵雜學集》(上海古籍出版社2016)等。

Yan Yaozhong, born in Cicheng, Zhejiang, obtained his graduate degree in 1982 and was promoted exceptionally as an associate professor in 1988, and as professor in 1992. From 1994 to 1996, Yan was the visiting scholar in the Religious Studies Department at McMaster University and at the University of Toronto. From 2013 to 2014, he was the visiting researcher at the Israel Institute for Advanced Studies. Yan was also a recipient of the European Institutes for Advanced Study Fellowship Programme. He is currently a Distinguished Professor in the History Department at Beijing Normal University. Yan has published Beiwei qianqi zhengzhi zhidu 北魏前期政治制度 [Political System of the Early Northern Wei], Zhongguo zongjiao yu shengcun zhexue 中國宗教與生存哲學 [Chinese Religions and the Philosophy of Living], Hanchuan mijiao 漢傳密教 [Chinese Esoteric Buddhism], Jiangnan Fojiao shi  江南佛教史 [History of Buddhism to the South of Yangtse River], Fojiao yu san zhi shisan shiji Zhongguo shi 佛教與三至十三世紀中國史 [Buddhism and the History of China from the Third to the 13th Century], Fojiao jielü yu Zhongguo shehui 佛教戒律與中國社會 [Buddhist Vinaya and Chinese Society], Liang-Jin Nanbei chao shi 两晋南北朝史 [History of the Two Jin Dynasties and the Northern and Southern Dynasties], Weijin Nanbei chao shi kaolun 魏晉南北朝史考論 [History of Six Dynasties], Zongjiao wenxian xue rumen 宗教文獻學入門 [Introduction to Religious Philology], Hongguan yu weiguan shiye li de Zhongguo zongjiao 宏觀與微觀視野里的中國宗教 [Chinese Religions seen through a Macroscopic and Microscopic Lens], Jin-Tang wenshi lungao 晋唐文史論稿 [Essays on the Literature and Historiography from the Two Jin Dynasties to the Tang Dynasty], Yecheng suoji 耶城瑣記 [My Year in Jerusalem], Hua-Fan zaxue ji 華梵雜學集 [Collected Essays on Chinese and Indian Studies], etc.

YAO Qilin 姚淇琳
(Academy of Dazu Rock Carvings 大足石刻研究院)
畢業於四川外國語大學(原四川外語學院),現為大足石刻研究院文博館員,主要從事大足石刻研究英文文獻翻譯、大足石刻宣傳推廣、大足石刻旅遊景區標準化建設等工作。發表論文主要有有《大足石刻宋代兩組取經圖簡說》,刊于《敦煌研究》(2015年);《大足石刻宋代兩組取經圖簡說》,刊于《敦煌研究》(2015年);“藝術涅槃——大足石刻展”文字翻譯(大足石刻博物館常設展覽,2015年);《圖像的記憶——編<大足石刻歷史圖版>劄記》,刊於《大足學刊》第三輯(2019年);《十聖觀音敘說——以大足石刻為中心的考察》,刊於《石窟寺研究》(2019年);《大足石刻全集》目錄翻譯(2019年);《千手觀音文本與圖像關係探討(一):諸經簡況及辨偽》,刊於《大足學刊》第四輯(2020年)。
YI Lidu 衣麗都
(Florida State University)
Dr. Joy Lidu Yi 衣麗都, Associate Professor of Chinese art and architecture, specializes in visual art and material culture in China. She earned both her M.A. and Ph.D. at the University of Toronto in Canada. Before joining the faculty of the College of Communication, Architecture and The Arts at Florida International University, she was the Gretta Chambers chair visiting professor at McGill University. Dr. Yi’s research interests primarily focus on Buddhist rock-cut cave-chapel art, architecture and archaeology. Currently, she is particularly interested in the art, archaeology and liturgy of Buddhist sanctuaries of medieval China. Her most recent book, Yungang: Art, History, Archaeology and Liturgy, the first-ever comprehensive examination in any western language, provides a social art history of Yungang: a 5th-century rock-cut court cave complex, UNESCO World Heritage site, and one of the greatest Buddhist monuments of all time. It asks why, when, and under what circumstances this impressive cave sanctuary was made, who played significant roles at various stages, and what was the construction dating sequence. The initial question was what Yungang was like in the fifth century and what were the important components of the entire complex. Currently, Dr. Yi has two on-going research projects in China, one is the examination of Buddhist rock-cut cave monasteries on the Silk Road, and the other studies the relatively unknown small caves in Shanxi Province. The former is the subject of the current book manuscript project (tentatively entitled Beliefs, Practices, Donors and Visual Images in Buddhist Caves on the Silk Road). Her project in 2018 and 2019 is mainly on Buddhist cave chapels in Gansu Province on the Silk Road.
ZHANG Liming 張利明
(Zhejiang University)
張利明:男,1992年,河北靈壽人。蘭州大學歷史學學士、考古學碩士,浙江大學歷史學系在讀博士生。研究方向為犍陀羅佛教、佛教藝術與考古。在《敦煌研究》、《石窟寺研究》、《華林國際佛學學刊》、《澎湃新聞•古代藝術》等學術期刊和媒體上發表論文多篇;在江蘇鳳凰美術出版社出版著作《西遊記壁畫與玄奘取經圖像》(與導師合著);目前正參與孫英剛教授主持的國家社科基金重大項目「犍陀羅與中國文明交流史(多卷本)」(20&ZD220)。