Teaching
University of British Columbia (UBC)
For a complete list of courses at UBC Vancouver, see the UBC Course Schedule.
Courses: AY 2024-5
In AY 2024-25, I will be teaching two courses at UBC in Term 1:
Term 1: PHIL 371 / ASIA 371 “Foundations of Chinese Thought”
Provides a thorough introduction to early (pre 221 BCE) Chinese thought and the role of philosophy and religion in human flourishing. We will also explore parallels with Western philosophical and religious traditions, the relevance of early Chinese thought for contemporary debates in ethics, moral education, and political philosophy, and the manner in which early Chinese models of the self anticipate recent developments in the evolutionary and cognitive sciences.
Term 1: PHIL 470 “Comparative Conceptions of the Self”
This course is intended to introduce students to the various ways in which the “self” has been portrayed (implicitly or explicitly) in both Eastern and Western religious traditions, as well as how these differing conceptions of the self have resulted in quite disparate manners of understanding ethics, the relation of the self to society, and the valuation of particular human abilities. The main theme will be the history of the construction of the modern western, liberal conception of the self, some of the problems endemic to this conception, and how western conceptions of the self compare with those from the Warring States period of early China.
The idea is to help the student see: 1) that he or she has a conception of him-/herself, whether he or she was previously aware of it or not; 2) where this conception of the self came from, and what some of its tensions are; 3) how any conception of the self is inextricably tied up with theories about human nature and some sort of religious worldview; and 4) how pairing particular thinkers from the West and from early China can highlight both important similarities and deep differences. Thinkers to be treated include Kant, Nietzsche, Freud, Iris Murdoch, Confucius and Zhuangzi
MOOCs on edX
In addition to my teaching at UBC, I have created two Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) on the edX platform. Neither will be running in the near future, but you can check out the archived versions of the courses on the edX platform, or access individual lectures on Youtube.
Feel free to use lectures in your own classes, just please drop me a note if you do, we like to keep track of how much these lectures are being used elsewhere.
The Science of Religion
What is religion? Are we wired to believe? Does science have the answers?
Join us on a journey to the origins of religion and spirituality.
Chinese Thought: Ancient Wisdom Meets Modern Science - Part 1
An introduction to early Chinese thought, exploring connections with Western philosophy, spirituality, mindfulness, modern science and everyday life.
Academic Training
On Sabbatical Fall term 2025
Because of grant administration responsibilities, as well as the fact that I will be reducing my UBC appointment to 50% in AY2025-6, I am currently not actively recruiting new graduate students.
Areas of Research Supervision
Historically, I have supervised or co-supervised several loose categories of graduate students and postdocs, with some overlap between the categories:
1) Those interested in exploring Warring States Chinese thought (often from an embodied cognition or empirically-informed standpoint).
This is one of my areas of core expertise, and students working in this area will generally apply to the Departments of Philosophy or Asian Studies (where I am an Associate Member), identifying me as their primary or co-advisor. The Philosophy department has excellent strengths in non-Western philosophy, which would create excellent synergies for students being co-supervised by myself.
2) Those interested in the cognitive science of religion.
This is also one of my areas of core expertise. Unfortunately, UBC currently lacks a freestanding Religious Studies department (which was eliminated decades ago and merged into Classical and Near Eastern Studies, forming the current CNERS Department), which means that students interested in the cognitive science of religion but without sinological or classical Near Eastern expertise or interest would have to apply through the Department of Psychology, where I am an Associate Member and where there are faculty members (Ara Norenzayan, Azim Shariff, Kristin Laurin) and graduate students for whom the cognitive science of religion is a core interest. UBC has a new undergraduate Program in Religious Studies up and running, and we are hoping to eventually add graduate degrees to a freestanding RS program.
3) Those interested in large-scale cultural evolutionary and religious studies databases.
As Director of the Database of Religious History (DRH), I supervise several postdocs who serve as editors for their areas of historical expertise and work to create complete areas of coverage for the DRH, through a combination of expert recruitment and creation of their own entries. Please see our website for details and follow us on twitter or Facebook for updates and postdoc hiring calls.
4) Those interested in exploring subjects unrelated to early China, but employing methods in which I have some expertise, such as cognitive linguistics, embodied cognition, or large-scale corpus surveys.
These are primarily Ph.D. students in unrelated discipline departments (English, Environmental Studies, Education) who wish to pursue a “vertically integrated” approach to their topics of research, and for whom I serve as an outside committee member and methodological advisor.
CURRENT GRAD STUDENTS
I am not currently supervising graduate students.
Post Docs
Matthew Hamm
Matthew Hamm received a PhD in Chinese history from Harvard University in 2018. His research focuses on early Chinese environmental thought from the 4th century BCE to the 3rd century CE. In particular, he investigates how early Chinese theory can be placed in dialogue with contemporary discussions of the “Anthropocene.” At the Database of Religious History (DRH), Matt serves as the Early China editor.
Caroline Arbuckle MacLeod
Caroline Arbuckle MacLeod received a PhD in Archaeology from the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA. Her research focuses on the history of craft technology in pharaonic ancient Egypt and the adaptations of craftspeople to shifts in religion, politics, and the environment. Currently she is focused on the history of wooden coffin construction to illustrate these developments. She is also involved in digital pedagogy projects, and the study of women in archaeology. At the Database of Religious History, Caroline is the regional editor for Ancient Egypt, and is working on digital pedagogy applications.