Alumni of Stanford's Buddhist Studies Program

Ben specializes in the history and culture of medieval Chinese Buddhism with a focus on the development of Chan during the era of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms. He is also in the initial stages of a new project on the conservative Buddhist movements of the late Qing and Republican periods. His most recent publication, “Crossing Ten-Thousand Li of Waves: The Return of China's Lost Tiantai Texts,” Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies, vol. 29:1 (2006/2008), traces the exchange of Buddhist texts between China, Korea, and Japan.

Michael's research focuses on the religious history of Japan, from the Asuka through the early Heian periods. He is the author Shōtoku: Ethnicity, Ritual, and Violence in the Formation of Japanese Buddhism (Oxford, 2008) and Weaving and Binding: Female Shamans and Immigrant Gods in Nara Japan (Hawaii, forthcoming). His publications include several articles on the ritual and political consequences of the introduction of literacy, sericulture, and horse culture from the continent to Japan. He is currently working a manuscript entitled "Resonant Bodies: Disease and Astrology in the Heian Cultic Revolution."

David's research focuses on Kūkai and the Shingon tradition of Japanese Buddhism. His recent publications include "Metaphor and Mandala in Shingon Buddhist Theology," Sophia: International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, Metaphysical Theology and Ethics 47/1 (4/2008); and "Transcendence and Immanence in Kūkai's Thought," Esoteric Buddhist Studies: Identity in Diversity, Proceedings of the International Conference on Esoteric Buddhist Studies ( (Koyasan University, 2008).

Wil's research focuses on ethnography, folklore and healing in early modern Japanese religion. He is the author of When Tengu Talk: Hirata Atsutane's Ethnography of the Other World (Hawaii, 2008). He is currently working on projects concerning Shinto and nationalism, including theories that the early Japanese had a native writing system given them by the kami.

John moved to Bristol in 2005, after eight years as a research fellow at Academia Sinica, Taiwan, and then to Hong Kong in 2011. His research focuses on the history of medieval Chinese Buddhism, especially in relation to other aspects of Chinese culture. He is the author of The Eminent Monk: Buddhist Ideals in Medieval Chinese Hagiography (Hawaii, 1997), and The Impact of Buddhism on Chinese Material Culture (Princeton, 2003). He is currently working on a manuscript on Chinese Buddhist historiography.

Dr. Lin holds a juris doctorate from the University of Southern California, Law Center and is a member of the State Bar of California. She also holds an MA and a Ph.D. from the Department of Religious Studies, Stanford University, specializing in East Asian Buddhism. She has published several articles on divine boys in the Japanese religious imaginaire. Dr. Lin ran the Stanford Center for Buddhist Studies from its inception in 1997 to 2001 and has returned from overseas in 2007 to run the Center again. She is fluent in Japanese, Mandarin, and Taiwanese. She is teaching a course on monsters, ghosts and other fantastic beings during Autumn term.

Max's research focuses on premodern Japanese Buddhism. He is the author of Localizing Paradise: Kumano Pilgrimage and the Religious Landscape of Premodern Japan (Harvard, 2005). He is currently working on a manuscript on "Geographies of the Imagination: Buddhism and the Japanese World Map." Max serves as associate director of the Donald Keene Center for Japanese Culture and of the Columbia Center for Japanese Religions.

David specializes in medieval Japanese Buddhism, with a research focus on the Shingon Ritsu 眞言律 movement. Recent publications include "Emulation and Erasure: Eison, Ninshō, and the Gyōki Cult," Eastern Buddhist, n.s., 39/1 (2008); and "Creating Bodhisattvas: Eison, Hinin, and the ‘Living Mañjuśrī,’” Monumenta Nipponica 62/4 (2007). Current research interests include the literature of kōshiki 講式 and medieval Buddhist developments in Japan's eastern regions.

Dominic's research interests include early medieval Daoism, the Buddho-Daoist interchange of divinatory techniques and medico-apotropaic knowledge, and the presence of Daoist elements pertaining to healing, prognostication, meditation, or alchemy in medieval Japanese religion.

Mark's specializes on medieval Japanese Buddhism, with particular interest in the relation between intellectual history and social practice. Other interests include modern Japanese religions, comparative religion, and Buddhism and psychotherapy. He is the author of Shingon Refractions: Myōe and the Mantra of Light (Wisdom, 2004); and editor of Buddhism and Psychotherapy Across Cultures: Theories and Practices (Wisdom, 2006).