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Faculty - William F. Powell, Ph.D.

  
 

Ph.D. in History of Religions (China) - University of California at Berkeley

bpowell@religion.ucsb.edu

 

Statement:

William Powell is an active member of two departments, Religious Studies and East Asian Languages and Cultures. He was trained in the philological methods of Buddhist studies, which was the basis for his translation and study of the prominent 9th century Chan (Zen) monk, Dong shan. This will be followed by a study of Dong shan's disciple, Cao shan. His present work focuses on the relationship between Chinese Buddhism, pilgrimage and sacred space, particularly mountains.

This work places emphasis on modes of spatial perception rooted in religious understandings, and the role of those modes of perception in economic, social, and ecological systems. This work has led to an involvement in digital simulations of sacred geography and topography, both as a means of scholarly analysis and as a pedagogic device for teaching about the relatively complex notions that emerge from such analysis at the undergraduate level.

He is an active member of an international consortium of scholars engaged in the production of digital archives of spatial and religious data, and is on the board of The New Media Studio, a non-profit foundation created to assist in the production and distribution of digital multi-media instructional material on earth science.

Selected Publications

  • “Martial Arts”, Encyclopedia of Buddhism, Macmillan, 2004
  • “Pilgrimage”, Encyclopedia of Contemporary Chinese Culture, Routledge, 2004
  • “Sacred Mountains”, Encyclopedia of Contemporary Chinese Culture, Routledge, 2004
  • “Religion, Recent History of”, Encyclopedia of Contemporary Chinese Culture, Routledge, 2004
  • "The Martial Arts," Encyclopedia of American Religion, 1999
  • "Literati Diversions on Jiuhua Shan,” The Sacred Mountains of Asia, Shambala Press, 1997
  • The Silk Road: The Oxford Companion to Archeology. London: Oxford University Press, 1996.
  • Silk Road Interactive Data Base UCSB Instructional Development, 1993.
  • Sacred Mountains in Chinese Buddhism The Ten Directions. Los Angeles: The Koroda Institute, 1990.
  • Jiuhua Mountain--the Nine Florate Realm of Dicang Bodhisattva. Asian Cultural Studies 16, Tokyo: Inter-Christian University, 1987.
  • The Record of Tung-shan. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1987.

Curriculum Vitae:

http://www.religion.ucsb.edu/faculty/William_Powell_CV.pdf

Department of Religious Studies | University of California | Santa Barbara, CA 93106-3130
telephone: (805) 893-7136 | fax: (805) 893-2059 | http://www.religion.ucsb.edu
       
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