Graduate studies in Warring State Chinese Thought
The Department of Asian Studies at the University of British Columbia is one of the premier institutions in North America for the study of traditional East Asian religious thought and culture. In Winter 2007 I admitted my first cohort of graduate students specializing in Warring States thought, with the goal of eventually having 10-12 students at any given time working in this area of study. Interested students are encouraged to consult the Department of Asian Studies application procedures; previous formal training (B.A. or M.A. in Asian Studies or equivalent) and fluency in English required.
Other Faculty with Interests in Early China or East Asian Religious Thought
Prof. Jinhua Chen (UBC, Asian Studies). Associate Professor, Canada Research Chair in East Asian Religions. One of the foremost experts on Chinese Buddhismin the world, Prof. Chen specializes in early and medieval Chinese Buddhism.
Prof. Josephine Chiu-Duke (UBC, Asian Studies). Assistant Professor. Tang and Song Dynasty neo-Confucian thought.
Prof. Zhi-chun Jing (UBC, Anthropology). Assistant Professor, Canada Research Chair in Pacific-Asia Archeology. Archeology of early China, archeological theory and methods, provenance of ancient jades and ceramics.
Prof. Jessica Main (UBC, Asian Studies and IAR). Assistant Professor. Modern Buddhist ethics, social action, and institutional life in East and Southeast Asia.
Prof. Paul Crowe. (SFU, Humanities). Assistant Professor. Daoist inner alchemy; Song and Yuan literati thought; formation of religious identity and the interplay of Buddhism, Daoism, and Confucianism; methodology in the study of religion; cross-cultural comparative philosophy; contemporary local Chinese religion.
Prof. Peter Nosco (UBC, Asian Studies). Professor and Head. Early modern Japanese religion and culture.
Prof. Nam-Lin Hur (UBC, Asian Studies). Associate Professor. Early modern Japanese religion and culture.
Prof. Donald Baker (UBC, Asian Studies). Associate Professor. Pre-modern and contemporary Korean religion and culture.
Prof. Carla Nappi (UBC, History). Assistant Professor. Early modern China, sciences and healing in history, embodied knowledge, Chinese-Islamic encounters
Current graduate student profiles:
Robban A. J. Toleno (Ph.D. candidate). Robban holds an M.A. in anthropology from the University of Hawai'i, Manoa, where he had fellowship support from the East-West Center. He researches topics in Chinese cultural, intellectual, and religious history. He is especially interested in representations of botanical knowledge and in ethical tensions associated with taste aestheticism. His dissertation research is an intellectual history of wei 味 (taste or flavor) in Chan Buddhist writings, complemented with concrete examples from the cultural history of taste (especially of tea) in Song-dynasty society, 10th-13th centuries. His sources include various Buddhist writings, agricultural texts (nóngshū 農書), materia medica (běncǎo 本草), and compilations of recipes.
Clayton Ashton (2nd year Ph.D.). Clayton received his B.A. from the University of Saskatchewan in Linguistics with a minor in Religious Studies, and his MA from UBC Asian Studies. His main area of research is Warring States Chinese thought, with a particular interest in recently discovered archeological texts. His MA Thesis concerned a set of so-called "Confucian" texts from the Guodian find.
Jennifer Lundin Ritchie (1st year Ph.D.). Jennifer was awarded a B.A. and M.A. in Chinese from UBC. Her research focus is on Warring States philosophy, and particularly Daoism, in light of recent archeological finds at Guodian in Hubei province. She intends to explore the significance of the Guodian Laozi (Dao De Jing), and its potential impact upon the modern practice of Daoism worldwide. Other interests include the Classical Chinese language and paleography.
Wayne Kreger (1st year Ph.D.). Wayne earned his B.A. from the University of Saskatchewan Religious Studies with a minor in History and his M.A. from UBC Asian Studies. His studies focused on Chinese religion in general and Chinese Buddhism in particular. He is most interested in the formative period of Chan Buddhism and its relationship with classical Chinese thought.
Matthew Hamm (2nd Year M.A.). Matt graduated from UBC with a BA in Asian Area Studies. He is currently studying Warring States thought, focusing on the concepts of the sages and sage-kings in classical texts. His other interests include notions of certainty and the ultimate in Early Chinese thought, comparative philosophy and the application of philosophical theory to contemporary issues.
Allen Chen (2nd year M.A.). Allen received his B.A. from the University of British Columbia in History and Asian Studies. He is interested in researching the historical development of Warring States Chinese thought, especially with respect to its relationship to state formation and rulership, legal history, and the central role of the idealized Sage-King in political philosophy. He also hopes to draw on recent archaeological finds of Warring States texts and to use the new insights they offer in his research.
Vorontsova Julia (1st year M.A). Julia received her postgraduate diploma in Chinese from Kharkov Skovoroda Normal University (Ukraine) and has undertaken doctoral-level research in Chinese linguistics at Hebei Normal University in China. She is interested in the phenomenon of cognitive spaces in language, applying conceptual metaphor theory to early Chinese texts, linguistics, as well as the influence of metaphor on modern language and media.
