Mapping East Asian Religions: Local Traditions, Global Transformations

This talk will present the visualization of the religious landscapes of East Asian societies and discuss the rich religious traditions of East Asia and their modern transformations in a global context. The goal is to show how East Asian religions are not just rooted in local cultures but also reshape, and are reshaped by, the wider world.

***following the public talk, students are invited to stay for a seminar discussion with Professor Yang***

About the speaker

Fenggang Yang is a Professor of Sociology and the Founding Director of the Center on Religion and the Global East at Purdue University. His research focuses on the social dynamics of religious change in the Global East—East Asian societies, East Asian diasporas, and East Asian cultures practiced by both Asian and non-Asian individuals worldwide. 

He was elected as the first non-white president of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion (2014–2015) and served as the founding president of the East Asian Society for the Scientific Study of Religion from 2017 to 2020. 

As an award-winning author, his book Religion in China: Survival and Revival under Communist Rule has been translated into multiple languages, and his media interviews have appeared on National Public Radio, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, USA Today, Time, The Economist, CNN, BBC, and others.