I received my Ph.D. in East Asian Languages and Cultures from Columbia University in 2014 (with distinction) and M.A. in Buddhist Philosophy from Korea University in 2007. I taught at DePauw University from 2014 to 2024 and joined Johns Hopkins in 2024.   

My research focuses on the transnational interactions of Buddhist practices in East Asia by engaging a variety of networks that connect people, places, and praxis in the Buddhist world. Studying such networks has required me to develop an interdisciplinary approach that aims to bring religious studies into conversation with anthropological scholarship on ritual, myth, materiality, and sensory experience. Within this interdisciplinary approach, my method takes specificity as an avenue to new conceptual elaborations. Thus, I zoom in on a discrete deity, a sacred site, a sensorium, or a particular material manifestation of belief to understand how these transnational boundary crossings find and forge new and renewed sociocultural meanings.  

My first monograph, Shinra Myojin and Buddhist Networks of the East Asian “Mediterranean” (University of Hawai‘i Press, 2019) is not only the first monograph in any language on the Tendai Jimon school in Japanese Buddhism, but also the first book-length study in English to examine Korean connections in medieval Japanese religion. By shifting the paradigm from a land-centered vision to a sea-centered one, the work underlines the importance of a transcultural and interdisciplinary approach to the study of Buddhist deities.  

My second book project, entitled Korean Magical Medicine: Buddhist Healing Talismans in Choson Korea, investigates the religious, historical, and iconographic dimensions of healing talismans produced in Buddhist settings during the Choson period. Although its primary focus is Korean talismans, the book also locates itself in the broader East Asian context, aiming to show the complex web of talismanic culture in East Asia. This project was supported by an ACLS/Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation Fellowship (AY 2021–2022). The manuscript is under advance contract with the University of Hwai‘i Press. 

I am currently developing a third book project, From Scent to Stench: Smellscapes of Buddhist Temple Kitchens. Recognizing the olfactory sense as one of the key agents that shape everyday experiences and religious beliefs, From Scent to Stench foregrounds a space that has not been explored before—the temple kitchen. The temple kitchen is a realm where ritual offerings, nourishment for monastics, and medical concoctions converge, each corner being replete with a wide array of smells: incense for the kitchen god, smells of cooking, the scents of brewing tea and drying herbs, and even foul garbage. Conceptually, building upon but moving beyond the network model, the book takes a meshwork approach to describe the heterogeneity of smellscapes and their entangled olfactory trails. 

Critical thinking is an overarching thread in all of my classes. I strive to develop in my students the ability to articulate well-informed questions based on critical thinking. Also, I am deeply dedicated to mentoring graduate and undergraduate students, equipping them with the skills and knowledge necessary for their future careers. 

Beyond contributing to core Anthropology courses already on the books and co-teaching courses that connect religion and anthropology, I am also keen to develop new courses that intersect with undergraduate and graduate students’ interests, as well as other courses that closely engage with my expertise in Buddhism and Religious Studies.  

Books  

Shinra Myojin and Buddhist Networks of the East Asian “Mediterranean” (University of Hawai‘i Press, 2019).  

Korean Magical Medicine: Buddhist Healing Talismans in Choson Korea (under advance contract with the University of Hawai‘i Press). 

Book Chapters 

“Reviving Wonhyo and Revamping Korean Buddhism,” Jin Y. Park and Sumi Lee eds., Korean Buddhism: Selected Readings from Primary Texts. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press (forthcoming). 

“The Lovelorn Lady and the Stony Monk: Women, Sexuality, and Imagination in the Kegon engi emaki.” James McRae and Robert Scott eds., Introduction to Buddhist East Asia: An Interdisciplinary Resource (Albany, NY: SUNY, 2023): 237–254. 

“Flesh in the Closet: ‘The Secret Wife’ in Korean Buddhism,” Hwansoo Kim and Jin Y. Park eds., New  Perspectives in Modern Korean Buddhism: Nationalism, Practice, Women, and Clerical Marriage (Albany, NY: SUNY, 2022): 157–180. 

“Ven. Pomnyun’s Jungto Society: A Buddhist Activist Society in South Korea,” Sallie B. King ed., Buddhist Visions of the Good Life for All (London: Routledge, 2021): 135–153.  

“Frogs Looking Beyond a Pond: Shinra Myojin in the East Asian Mediterranean Network,” Fabio Rambelli ed., The Sea and the Sacred in Japan: Aspects of Maritime Religion (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2018):  79–87. 

Articles 

“Sacred Signs and Sacred Labor: Safe Childbirth Talismans in Choson Korea,” Anna Andreeva ed., Asian Medicine 19, 1 (2024, forthcoming).  

 “Pujok ul mannada: Choson Pulgyo e so ui ansan pujok,” (Seeing Talismans: Safe Childbirth Talismans in Choson Buddhism), Misulsa wa munhwa yusan 10 (2022): 69–93. (in Korean) 

“A Star God is Born: Chintaku Reifujin Talismans in Japanese Religions,” Religions (special issue on various aspects of medieval Japanese religion), Bernard Faure and Andrea Castiglioni eds., 13, No. 5 (2002): https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13050431 

“Skanda, The Multifaceted God: Skanda in Korean Buddhism and Beyond,” Korea Journal of Buddhist Studies 66, 3 (March, 2021): 49–94. *Award-winning paper selected by the Korean Association of Buddhist Studies*  

“Tendai Jimon kara mitta Tendai bukkyo: Shinra Myojin to Tendai Jimon [Tendai Buddhism seen from the history of the Tendai Jimon school: Shinra Myojin and Tendai Jimon],” Tendai gakuho (Journal of Tendai Buddhism), Special issue No. 2 (December, 2018): 29–41. (in Japanese) 

“Miguk Pulgyo hakgye ui ch’oegun yon’gu tonghyang gwa kwaje (2010-2017) [The State of the Field of Buddhist Studies in the United States, 2010–2017],” Pojo Sasang 49 (November, 2017): 1–54. (in Korean) 

Encyclopedia/Handbook Entries 

“Buddhist Talismans” in Oxford Bibliographies (2023), DOI: 10.1093/OBO/9780195393521-0286 

“Choson Buddhism” in Oxford Bibliographies (forthcoming) 

“Korea I: 372-935,” in Brill’s Encyclopedia of Buddhism, Vol. 4: History, (Leiden: Brill, 2023): 297–313. 

“Sea,” in The New Nanzan Guide to Japanese Religions, Matthew D. McMullen and Jolyon B.  Thomas eds., Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press (forthcoming)