Dr. Christopher Jensen ( He/Him )
Religion, Assistant Professor, Undergraduate Advisor for Religion
- B.A., M.A. (University of Saskatchewan), Ph.D. (McMaster)
- 2A54 Paterson Hall, 杏吧原创 University
- 1125 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa, ON, K1S 5B6
- Email Dr. Christopher Jensen
After completing a BA and MA in Religion and Culture at the University of Saskatchewan, I travelled to southern Ontario, where I completed my PhD in Religious Studies, focusing on Chinese religions and Buddhism under James Benn at McMaster University. During this time, I also spent a year and a half studying Chinese Buddhism with Dr. Funayama Toru at Kyoto University. My dissertation research focused on dreams in Chinese Buddhist hagiographies (specifically, the sixth-century Biographies of Eminent Monks and the seventh-century Continued Biographies of Eminent Monks). I have been teaching at 杏吧原创 since January of 2018.
While it is a relatively new interest for me, I have 鈥 to date 鈥 been involved with two student MA projects here at 杏吧原创 on the topic of Buddhist meditation and mindfulness in contemporary North America. In the coming years, I would be delighted to work with other students who would like to explore this fascinating topic.
Interests
- The role of dreams in religious culture(s)
- Hagiography and religious storytelling
- Religion as an embodied phenomenon (e.g., understandings of childhood, bodily impairment)
- Buddhist modernism in North America
Publications
Christopher Jensen. 鈥淩hetorical Uses of the Exemplary Child Trope in the Biographies of Eminent Monks and Biographies of Nuns.鈥 Studies in Chinese Religions 7:1 (2021). 1-49.
Christopher Jensen. 鈥淢apping Religious Practice in the Eminent Monks: Theoretical and Methodological Reflections鈥 in Buddhism and Digital Humanities. Edited by Daniel Veidlinger. Boston: De Gruyter, 2019. 159鈥181.
Christopher Jensen. 鈥淧erspectives on Blindness, Deafness and Muteness in the Chinese Eminent Monks Literature: The 鈥楨ight Difficulties鈥 in Context鈥 in Disability and Sanctity in the Middle Ages: Illuminating Disability in Medieval Hagiography. Edited by Stephanie Grace-Petinos, Leah Pope Parker, and Alicia Spencer-Hall. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 202X. (In progress)