Wake Forest University (1998-present) Department of Religion, 119 Wingate Hall P.O. Box Reynolda Station 7212 Winston-Salem, NC 27109-7212 E-mail: fordj@wfu.edu Phone: 336-758-4191 CURRICULUM VITAE JAMES (Jay) L. FORD Professor, East Asian Religions EDUCATION Ph.D., Princeton University (East Asian Religions), 1993-98 M.A., Princeton University (Religion), 1996 Research Fellow, Tokyo University, 1997-98 Inter-University Center for Japanese Language Studies, Yokohama, Japan, 1992-93 M.T.S., Vanderbilt Divinity School (History of Religions), 1989-91 B.A., University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (Mathematics), 1979 APPOINTMENTS Professor, East Asian Religions, Wake Forest University, 2015-present Associate Professor, East Asian Religions, Wake Forest University, 2004-2015 (Z. Smith Reynolds Fellow, 05-08) Assistant Professor, East Asian Religions, Wake Forest University, 1998-2004 RESEARCH INTERESTS Early/Medieval Japanese Buddhism; Hossō/Yogācāra doctrine; Buddhist-Christian Dialogue; comparative study of conceptions of Ultimate Reality ACADEMIC HONORS Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation Fellow (three-year appointment), 2005-08 FELLOWSHIPS/GRANTS RECEIVED WFU Aspiring Leaders Program, 2010-11. Sponsored by the Professional Development Center, this program involves six full-day sessions throughout the academic year. Participants include ten tenured faculty, selected from over 60 nominations, who have shown leadership potential. Summer Seminars on Theologies of Religious Pluralism and Comparative Theology sponsored by the American Academy of Religion and the Luce Foundation. Summer 2010 and 2011. Reynolds Leave. Wake Forest University, academic year 2009-2010. Center for International Studies CIEE International Faculty Development Seminar Award, Summer 2007. William C. Archie Fund for Faculty Excellence award to attend CIEE Faculty Development Seminar. Exploring China's Southwest: Culture, Society, and Ethnicity on the Frontier, Summer, 2007.
Center for International Studies CIEE International Faculty Development Seminar Award, Summer, 2006. Ping Fellowship Award to attend CIEE Faculty Development Seminar. Contemporary and Popular Japanese Culture and Society June 24-July 2, 2006. William C. Archie Fund for Faculty Excellence award. Kannon Devotion in Contemporary Japanese Temples. Summer, 2006. Japan Foundation Research Fellowship [Research Fellow at the Nanzan Center for Religious Studies (Nagoya, Japan)], Spring, 2003. Archie Grant, Spring 2003; awarded but declined in favor of the Japan Foundation Fellowship Reynolds Leave, Wake Forest University, Spring, 2003 Charles E. Culpepper Foundation Grant, Summer 2003; developing technology in the classroom James Liu Traveling Fellowship in East Asian Studies, Princeton University, 1997-98 Harold W. Dodds Honorific Fellowship, Princeton University Graduate School, 1997-98 Ora J. Bretall Fellowship in Religion, Princeton University, 1993-97 Japan Foundation Fellowship for Advanced Japanese-Language Study, 1992-93 PUBLICATIONS Books The Divine Quest East and West: A Comparative Study of Ultimate Realities. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2016. Jōkei and Buddhist Devotion in Early Medieval Japan. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. Articles/Chapters Introduction. Special issue on kōshiki in Medieval Japan for the Japanese Journal of Religious Studies, schedule for publication Spring 2016. Co-editors Barbara Ambros (UNC, Chapel Hill), James Ford (WFU), and Michaela Moss (UC, Berkeley). Spring, 2016. The Geography of Practice: Reflections on Multiple Religious Participation East and West. Project for the Summer Seminars on Theologies of Religious Pluralism and Comparative Theology. Forthcoming. Jōkei: Revisioning Hossō Doctrine in Early Medieval Japan. Dao Companion to Japanese Buddhist Philosophy [Dao Companions to Chinese Philosophy] Ed. Gereon Kopf. Springer, forthcoming June, 2016. Japanese Buddhists. Encyclopedia of Religious Controversy, 2 nd Ed. Bill Leonard and Jill Crainshaw, eds. ABC-CLIO: Santa Barbara, CA, 2013. Japanese Internments in WW II. Encyclopedia of Religious Controversy, 2 nd Ed. Bill Leonard and Jill Crainshaw, eds. ABC-CLIO: Santa Barbara, CA, 2013. Exploring the Esoteric in Nara Buddhism. In Esoteric Buddhism and the Tantras in East Asia. Eds. Charles D. Orzech, Richard K. Payne and Henrik H. Sørensen. Leiden: Koninklijke Brill, 2010, pp. 776-793. The Religions of Japan Shinto. In Introduction to World Religions: Communities and Cultures. Ed. Jacob Neusner. Abingdon Press, 2009, 267-83. Jōkei and Kannon: Defending Buddhist Pluralism in Medieval Japan. The Eastern Buddhist, (39/1), 2008, 11-28. Buddhist Ceremonials (kōshiki) and the Ideological Discourse of Established Buddhism in Early 2
Medieval Japan. In Discourse and Ideology in Medieval Japanese Buddhism. Eds. Richard Payne and Taigen Daniel Leighton. New York: RoutledgeCurzon, 2006, pp. 97-125. Competing With Amida: A Study and Translation of Jōkei s Miroku kōshiki. Monumenta Nipponica (60/1), Spring 2005, pp. 43-79. Buddhism, Mythology, and The Matrix in Taking the Red Pill: Science, Philosophy, and Religion in The Matrix. Ed. Glenn Yeffeth. Dallas: BenBella Books, 2003, pp. 125-44. Jōkei and the Rhetoric of Other-Power and Easy Practice in Medieval Japanese Buddhism. Japanese Journal of Religious Studies, 28, 1-2, Spring, 2002, pp. 67-106. Jōkei and Hōnen: Debating Buddhist Liberation in Medieval Japan Then and Now. Pacific World: Journal of the Institute of Buddhist Studies, Third Series, no. 3, Fall, 2001, pp. 199-217. Buddhism, Christianity, and The Matrix: The Dialectic of Myth-Making in Contemporary Cinema. The Journal of Religion and Film, vol. 4, no. 2, 2000. Book Reviews Book Review of Jinhua Chen s Legend and Legitimation: The Formation of Tendai Esoteric Buddhism in Japan. (Bruxxelles: Insitut Belge Des Hautes Études Chinoises, 2009). Monumenta Nipponica, 2012. Book Review of Mark Unno s Shingon Refractions: Myoe and the Mantra of Light. H-Buddhism, H-Net Reviews. March, 2010. Book Review of Fabio Rambelli s Buddhist Materiality: A Cultural History of Objects in Japanese Buddhism (Stanford University Press, 2007). Journal of Japanese Studies (35:2), Summer, 2009, pp. 370-74. Book Review of Michael Como s Shōtoku: Ethnicity, Ritual, and Violence in the Japanese Buddhist Tradition (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008). Journal of the American Oriental Society (128/4), Fall 2009, pp. 12-14. Book Review of Richard Bowring s The Religious Traditions of Japan 500-1600 (Cambridge University Press, 2005). Monumenta Nipponica (62/1), Spring 2007, pp. 14-17. Book Review of Approaching the Land of Bliss: Religious Praxis in the Cult of Amitābha. Edited by Richard K. Payne and Kenneth K. Tanaka (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2004). Philosophy East and West (57/2), April, 2007, pp. 287-281. Book Review of Engendering Faith: Women and Buddhism in Premodern Japan (Center for Japanese Studies, The University of Michigan, 2002). Ed. Barbara Ruch. The Journal of Japanese Studies (30/2), Summer, 2004, pp. 449-53. Book Review of Mark Blum s The Origins and Development of Pure Land Buddhism: A Study and Translation of Gyōnen s Jōdo Hōmon Genrushō (Oxford University Press, 2002), Monumenta Nipponica, Winter, 2002. Book Review of Jacqueline Stone s Original Enlightenment and the Transformation of Medieval Japanese Buddhism. (University of Hawaii Press Kuroda Series, 1999). Journal of the American Academy of Religion (69/3), September, 2001. Book Review of Machida Soho s Renegade Monk: Hōnen and Japanese Pure Land Buddhism (University of California Press, 1999). Journal of the American Academy of Religion (68/2), Summer, 2000. 3
CONFERENCE PAPERS AND SELECTED PRESENTATIONS Baccalaureate for Forsyth Country Day School, May 29, 2014. Altering Perspective, Confronting Challenges, and Nurturing Grit. Is Jesus the Only Way? Being Christian in a Pluralistic Kingdom. St. Stephens Episcopal Church, Richmond, VA. March 3, 2013. Being Christian in a Pluralistic Kingdom. Two-part lecture series, Christ Church, Raleigh, NC. February 13 & 19, 2012 Old Trends in New Religions, New Trends in Old: Demographics, Doctrines, and Death in Contemporary Japanese Religious Practice. Panel Respondent. Southeast Conference/Association of Asian Studies, Chapel Hill, N.C. January 15, 2011. Reflections on the Interdisciplinarity of Kōshiki. American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting, Montreal, Canada. November, 8, 2009. Imagining God in the Judeo-Christian Tradition. Three-part lecture series, Centenary Methodist Church. Winston Salem, NC. December 6, 13, & 20, 2009 The Buddhist Doctrine of No-Self. The Teaching Company. August 15, 2008. Buddhism and the Challenges of Religious Pluralism: Reflections on the Doctrine of Skillful Means. Z. Smith Reynolds Library Lecture Series. Winston Salem, NC. April 16, 2008. Interfaith Dialogue: Discourse in a Diverse World. Centenary Methodist Church. Winston Salem, NC. September 23, 2007. Buddhist-Christian Dialogue History and Outcome. Centenary Methodist Church. Winston Salem, NC. October 14, 2007. Jōkei and Kannon: Defending Buddhist Pluralism in Medieval Japan. Visiting lecture at the Reischauer Institute, Harvard University. April 13, 2007. Jōkei and Buddhist Devotion in Medieval Japan. New Horizons Lecture Series, Wake Forest University. March 7, 2007. Exploring Religious Pluralism through Asian Religions. Presentation to the North Carolina Young President s Organization. Greensboro, NC. November 13, 2006. Conceptions of the Afterlife in Asian Religions. Two-part lecture series, Centenary Methodist Church. Winston Salem, NC. May 14 and 21, 2006. Confronting the Challenges of Religious Pluralism. Four-part lecture series, Centenary Methodist Church. Winston Salem, NC. October 16-November 6, 2005 The Aesthetics of Kōshiki (Buddhist Ceremonials): Fostering Karmic Connections with Miroku and Kannon in Medieval Japan. The Annual Meeting of the Southern Japan Seminar (The Aesthetics of Nirvāna)at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC. November 8, 2003. Jōkei and Established Buddhism in Medieval Japan. Colloquium presentation at the Nanzan Center for Religion and Culture, Nanzan University, Nagoya, Japan, April 9, 2003. Jōkei and the Place of Devotion in Medieval Japanese Buddhism. Delivered at the American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting (Denver, CO), November, 2001. Theism, Time, and Upāya in Buddhist-Christian Dialogue. Delivered at the Sixth International Conference of the Society for Buddhist-Christian Studies (Tacoma, WA), August, 2000. Jōkei and Hōnen: Debating the Universal and Particular in Medieval Japanese Buddhism. Delivered at the American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting (Boston), November, 1999. Enlightened Nuns? The Paradoxical Status of Women in Early Buddhism. Interfaith 4
Symposium on Women in Religion, Lenoir-Rhyne College, February, 1999. UNIVERSITY SERVICE Faculty Senate (elected), 2015-2019 Ad-hoc Review Committee for Promotion of Teaching Professors and Professors of the Practice, 2013-15 University Strategic Resources Committee, 2012-14 Chair of Chairs (elected), WFU, 2012-13 Chair, Department of Religion, 2010-present Committee on Academic Planning, 2010-2014 (elected Spring 2010); Committee Chair 2013-14 Ad-hoc Committee on Evaluation; Co-Chair, Subcommittee on Evaluating Service, 2010-11 Curriculum Committee, 2010-present. Chair, 2011-12 Member, Department of Religion Undergraduate Committee, 2010-11 Member, Department of Religion Executive Committee, 2010-present Member, Department of Religion Graduate Committee, 2009-10 Chair, Committee on Orientation and Lower Division Advising, 2006-2009 Member, Committee on Orientation and Lower Division Advising, 2003-2009 University QEP Planning Committee, 2005-06 Reynolds Leave Selection Committee, 2004-2007 Chair, Undergraduate Committee, Department of Religion, 2004-2009. Chair, Department of Religion Search Committee, 2004, 2006, & 2008; search committee member 2013 PROFESSIONAL SERVICE Co-Chair, Japanese Religions Group, American Academy of Religion (AAR), 2004-2010; served on Steering Committee 2000-2010. Section Editor, Chinese and Japanese Traditions. Religion Compass (Blackwell Publishing), an on-line, peer-review journal, 2007-2013 Research Grant Jury Committee, 2008-2012. AAR Vision and Strategic Planning Participant, 2007. Executive Secretary, Society for the Study of Japanese Religions, 1999-2005. PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS American Academy of Religion Association for Asian Studies International Association for Buddhist Studies Society for the Study of Japanese Religions Society for Buddhist-Christian Studies 5