Dr. Jiang Wu is currently a professor in the Department of East Asian Studies, director of Center for Buddhist Studies. He received his Master's degree from Nankai University (1994) and Ph.D. from Harvard University (2002). His research interests include seventeenth-century Chinese Buddhism, especially Chan/Zen Buddhism, the role of Buddhist canons in the formation of East Asian Buddhist culture, and the historical exchanges between Chinese Buddhism and Japanese Buddhism. Other interests include Confucianism, Chinese intellectual history and social history, and the application of electronic cultural atlas tools in the study of Chinese culture and religion. He has published articles in Asia Major, Journal of East Asian History, Journal of Chinese Philosophy, and Monumenta Serica on a variety of topics. His first book Enlightenment in Dispute: The Reinvention of Chan Buddhism in Seventeenth-century China was published by Oxford University Press in 2008. His Leaving for the Rising Sun: Chinese Zen Master Yinyuan and the Authenticity Crisis in Early Modern East Asia (Oxford, 2016; 384 pages) won the inaugural Tianzhu Best Book in Chan Studies Award. He was awarded the Certificate of Congressional Recognition by U.S. Congressional Representative Judy Chu (27th District of California) and the City of Rosemead, California’s Award of Recognition (November 10, 2018). He received the Guggenheim Fellowship in 2023. He was one of the Academic Consultants for the BBC’s series Earth’s Sacred Wonders, first aired on August 7, 2019. Recent publications include
- Leaving for the Rising Sun: Chinese Zen Master Yinyuan and the Authenticity Crisis in Early Modern East Asia (Oxford 2015)
- Spreading Buddha’s Word in East Asia: The Formation and Transformation of the Chinese Buddhist Canon(Columbia 2016)
- Reinventing the Tripitaka: Transformation of the Buddhist Canon in Modern East Asia (Lexington 2017)
- The Formation of Regional Religious Systems in Greater China (Routledge 2022)
- The Digital World in an Age of Uncertainty: Humanizing Technology for Wellness, Resilience, and Creativity (IEEE 2022)