James Robson Assistant Professor Ph.D. Stanford University, 2002 U of M Affiliation(s) Institute for Humanities (2006-2007) Center for Chinese Studies Center for Japanese Studies Contact Information University of Michigan 202 South Thayer Building - 1608 Phone: 734-647-9842 Email: robsonj@umich.edu
Fields of Study Chinese Buddhism About James Robson Professor Robson specializes in the history of Medieval Chinese Buddhism and Daoism and is particularly interested in issues of sacred geography, local religious history, talismans, and the historical development of Chan/Zen Buddhism.  He is the author of Buddhism and the Chinese Marchmount System [Wuyue]: A Case Study of the Southern Marchmount (Mt. Nanyue) in John Lagerwey, ed. Religion and Chinese Society: Ancient and Medieval China (Hong Kong: The Chinese UP and École Française d’Extrême-Orient, 2004) and A Tang Dynasty Chan Mummy [roushen] and a Modern Case of Furta Sacra?  Investigating the Contested Bones of Shitou Xiqian, in Bernard Faure, ed. Chan Buddhism in Ritual Context (London: Routledge Curzon, 2003).  He is presently completing a book manuscript entitled Power of Place: The Religious Landscape of the Southern Sacred Peak [Nanyue 南嶽] in Medieval China (forthcoming, Harvard Asia Center).  He has also been engaged in a collaborative research project with the Beijing bureau of the École Française d’Extrême-Orient studying local religious statuary from Hunan province.