Dominic Steavu, Ph.D.
(Asst. Prof. of Chinese Religious Studies, UCSB)
FEATURED IN:
5.13 – The Power of Three (9.30.13)
5.16 – Magic of the Gods (10.21.13)
6.3 – Aliens & Mysterious Mountains (12.13.13)
6.9 – The Shamans (2.28.14)
6.11 – Alien Breeders (3.14.14)
7.5 – Secrets of the Mummies (11.28.14)
7.7 – Alien Messages (12.19.14)
7.11 – The Vanishings (4.24.15)
8.1 – Aliens BC (7.24.15)
8.5 – The Alien Evolution (8.21.15)
8.6 – The Other Earth (9.28.15)
8.7 – Creatures of the Deep (9.4.15)
9.4 – The New Evidence (5.27.16)
9.6 – Decoding the Cosmic Egg (6.17.16)
9.8 – The Mysterious Nine (7.8.16)
9.9 – The Hidden Empire (7.15.16)
ABOUT:
“My area of specialization is premodern (second to ninth cent.) Chinese Buddhism and Chinese religions. Broadly speaking, I am interested in how trends in material culture and intellectual history were reflected in the discourse of various religious Buddhist and Daoist traditions. More pointedly, I aim to uncover the ways in which soteriological narratives or techniques, especially those of therapeutic or bio-spiritual disciplines, mirror evolving sociopolitical contexts, scientific discoveries, and medical achievements. As these often involve the use of concrete substances or tangible ritual objects such as talismans, cosmographs, or elixirs, materiality is an important facet of my work. One of the recurring themes in my research and teaching is the circulation of knowledge across what are often imposed or constructed analytical boundaries, between, for instance, statecraft and religion, science and belief, medicine and ritual, and Daoism and Buddhism. Many of these distinctions are vestiges of Enlightenment and post-Enlightenment anti-clericalism, classificatory frenzies, and political theory; as a result, some of my work examines early modern representations of China and the central role of religion in the formulation of Orientalist discourses and their subsequent re-appropriation in East Asia.” [1]
[1] https://www.eastasian.ucsb.edu/people/faculty/dominic-steavu/
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