An Inclusive Bodhisattva Path: The Taiwanese Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation and their Global Trans-Faith Humanitarianism (British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship, 2024-2025)

The Taiwanese Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation has proposed a new model of humanitarianism, and has become a global trans-faith humanitarian foundation where differences of belief do not undermine but enhance charity missions. This project unveils the reinvention of religion and Buddhism that are the bases of the “Tzu Chi model” of humanitarian action, analyzes Tzu Chi tactics of women’s empowerment in non-Asian and non-Buddhist communities, and reflects on the potential of Tzu Chi trans-faith humanitarianism in informing charity work worldwide.

Religion in Modern Sichuan (CCKF grant, 2017-2023)

A multi-year and interdisciplinary project that explores patterns of religious diversity in Sichuan from the 1800 to today, and relocates Sichuan from the periphery to the centre of the study of Chinese religions. Co-directed with Elena Valussi (Loyola University Chicago).

Framing the Study of Religions in Modern China and Taiwan (CCKF and KNAW grant, 2015)

What is the state of the field in the study of religion in modern China and Taiwan? How to study this subject? What are the methodologies and critical concepts that are used, how can we improve or even replace them with more suitable ones? And how can this discussion on the study of religion in modern China and Taiwan participate in the global academic discourse on the study of religion? The conference addressed all these questions. 

Religious Texts in Context (KNAW grant, 2014-2015)

This Academy Colloquium, which was organized under the auspices of the KNAW, gathered scholars in different fields and working on texts and with texts, in order to provoke a debate on textuality that goes across religious traditions and academic disciplines.