Syncopating Religion: Global Visions in East and Southeast Asia

Department: Center for Asian Studies

Date and Time: April 20, 2021 | 5:00 PM-6:30 PM

Event Location: Zoom Meeting

Event Details

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Syncopating Religion: Global Visions in East and Southeast Asia

April 20th, 5:00 - 6:30 pm PST


Arnika Fuhrmann, Associate Professor of Asian Studies and Comparative Literature, Cornell University
“In the Mood for Zen: Buddhism as a Critical Lens on Region”

Wujun Ke, Ph.D. Student in Comparative Literature, University of California, Irvine
“Daoism in the Age of New Media: Invocations of Zhuangzi in Reform-era China”

Kaitlyn Ugoretz, Ph.D. Student in East Asian Languages & Cultural Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara
“Terra Japonica: Locating Sacred Nature in An Emerging Global Shinto Paradigm”

Xiaobo Yuan, Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Religion, Whitman College
“‘Converting 'Little Sinners': Speculative faith and precarious lives in underground Chinese Christian schools”


Mayfair Yang, Professor of East Asian Languages & Cultural Studies and Religious Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara


While religions are often framed by contemporary institutions and practitioners or else relegated to the past, religious and spiritual thought has always permeated culture, politics, and everyday life in East and Southeast Asia. Transcending temporal and spatial boundaries, religion and spirituality offer us emergent strategies of thinking and living differently in the contemporary era. What unexpected and interstitial paths does religious thought chart through and beyond Asia? How do these insights take on new relevance in an age of climate crisis, neoliberal precarity, and apocalyptic anxieties? This panel brings together research on Daoism, Shinto, Buddhism, and Christianity to explore models of ethical cohabitation against the violence of post-Cold War nationalisms in East and Southeast Asia. As part of our working group’s focus on syncopation--emphasizing off-beats and creating new rhythms for humanistic inquiry--we will hold a moderated conversation after our presentations to discuss the transnational and trans-religious connections between our work.

Zoom Registration: https://bit.ly/2ODJeKA

The event is hosted by the Syncopating East Asia Multi-Campus Working Group, sponsored by the University of California Humanities Research Institute and co-sponsored by the UCI Center for Asian Studies.