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JEAN DeBERNARDI

Curriculum Vitae

July 2009

Department of Anthropology

University of Alberta

Edmonton, Alberta Canada

Education                                                                                                    

1986       Ph.D. in Anthropology, The University of Chicago (supervisor: Paul Friedrich)

1979       M.A. in Anthropology, The University of Chicago (supervisor: Paul Friedrich)

1974       Diploma in Social Anthropology, Oxford University (tutor: Maurice Freedman)

1973       B.A. in Anthropology, with Honors and Departmental Distinction, Stanford University

(honors thesis supervisor: G. William Skinner)

Areas of Specialization

Social/cultural anthropology; Chinese religion; Chinese in Southeast Asia; anthropology of religion; ethnicity, nationalism, and transnationalism; historical anthropology; contemporary social and cultural theory.

Present Position

Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of Alberta, 2002–present; Acting Director, Program in Religious Studies, Term II 2008

Theses

1986       Ph.D. Thesis: Heaven, Earth, and Man: A Study of Malaysian Chinese Spirit Mediums

1979       M.A. Thesis: Objections and Exemplifications: A Cultural Analysis of Metaphor

Language Proficiencies

Mandarin Chinese [S, R]; Hokkien Chinese [basic speaking ability]; Literary Chinese [basic reading ability]; French [R] [S=Speak; R=Read; W=Write]

Fellowships and Research Support, 1997 - present

 2009    

University of Alberta Faculty of Arts and Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (Beijing) Mobility Program Grant and China Institute Travel Grant for a pilot study "On the Fujian Tea Trade: An Ethnographic Study of Commerce and Culture"

2004-2007 [extended to 2008]        

Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada for a three year research program of “Remaking Daoist Practice in Transnational Networks: Religious and Cultural Pilgrimage to Wudang Mountain, Hubei Province, PRC” ($44,960)

2003-2005 [extended to 2008]        

Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for two year research program on “Remaking Daoist Practice in Transnational Networks: Religious and Cultural Pilgrimage to Wudang Mountain, Hubei Province, PRC” (US $36,333)

2005 & 2006

University of Alberta Humanities, Fine Arts, and Social Sciences Research Operating Grants for archival research in England on the history of the Brethren Movement in Singapore and Penang, Malaysia

2004-2005

Researcher, collaborative project on "Religious Diversity and Harmony in Singapore" at the Singapore Institute of Policy Studies. Project Director: Dr. Lai Ah Eng. ($5,736)

2004-2005

McCalla Research Professorship, Faculty of Arts, University of Alberta.

2003      

Office of the Vice-President (Research): project support for “Remaking Daoist Practice in Transnational Networks: Religious and Cultural Pilgrimage to Wudang Mountain, Hubei Province, PRC” ($5,000)

2003      

Faculty of Arts Support for the Advancement of Scholarship (SAS) grant for course release, Winter Term 2004 ($6,000)

2002      

Humanities, Fine Arts and Social Sciences Committee operating grant for pilot study for “Remaking Daoist Practice in Transnational Networks: Religious and Cultural Pilgrimage to Wudang Mountain, Hubei Province, PRC” ($6,000)

1997-2000            

Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada Grant for three year research program on “Chinese Christian Syncretism in Singapore and Penang, Malaysia” ($39,000)

1997-2000

Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research Small Grant for research project on “Chinese Christian Syncretism in Singapore and Penang, Malaysia” (U.S. $7,000)

Ethnographic and Archival Research

June 2009

Beijing and Fujian (pilot study "On the Fujian Tea Trade: An Ethnographic Study of Commerce and Culture")

April-June 2004; August 2005; January & December 2007

Singapore, Malaysia, and Hong Kong (“Remaking Daoist Practice in Transnational Networks: Religious and Cultural Pilgrimage to Wudang Mountain, Hubei Province, PRC”)

October 2002; October 2004; March-May 2007

Wudang Mountain Daoist temple complex, Hubei Province, People's Republic of China and Beijing (“Remaking Daoist Practice in Transnational Networks: Religious and Cultural Pilgrimage to Wudang Mountain, Hubei Province, PRC”)

April-May 2005; May 2006

Archival research on the history of the London Missionary Society and Brethren missions in Penang, Malaysia, at the School of Oriental and African Studies (London), the John Rylands Library Christian Brethren Collection (Manchester), Müller House (Bristol), Echoes of Service (Bath), and University of Birmingham

April-June 2004; August 2005

Singapore ("Religious Diversity and Harmony in Singapore")

July-August 2000

Echoes of Service missionary archive in Bath, England (“The Indigenization of the Brethren Movement in Singapore and Malaysia, 1872-1960")

January-May 1999

Singapore and Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur and Penang) (“The Contemporary Brethren and Independent Church Movements in Singapore and Malaysia”)

June-August 1997

Singapore and Penang, Malaysia (“Spiritual Warfare and the Ministry of Deliverance”)

July-August 1995

Singapore and Penang, Malaysia (pilot study for project on “Chinese Christian Syncretism in Singapore and Penang, Malaysia”)

May-June 1993

Singapore, Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur & Penang), and Bangkok, Thailand (“Managing Multicultural Societies: The Status of Minority Groups in Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand”)

June-August 1992

Edmonton, Alberta (“Asian Ethnicity and Culture in Edmonton”)

June-November 1991

Cornell University (Wason Collection), London (Public Records Office), and Singapore (National Archives; National University of Singapore) “Empire Over Imagination: Chinese Popular Religion in Colonial and Postcolonial Malaysia”)

May-August 1987

Tainan, Taiwan; Xiamen, People's Republic of China (“Bilingualism and Discourse Style in Two Chinese Communities”)

March 1979-March 1981

Penang, Malaysia (“Ritual and Change in a Malaysian Chinese Community”) 

Publications

 

Book

Rites of Belonging: Memory, Modernity and Identity in a Malaysian Chinese Community. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2004. [R]

Reviewed in the Journal of Chinese Religions (Somers Heidhues, 2004); American Historical Review (McKeown 2004), Pacific Affairs (Tan Chee Beng, 2004-2005); Religious Studies Review (Kirkland, 2004); Journal of Southeast Asian Studies (Goh Beng Lan, 2005), Journal of Asian Studies (Carstens, 2005), International History Review (Hefner, 2005), Journal of Anthropological Research (Scoggin, 2005), Journal of Chinese Political Science (Yeoh Seng Guan, 2005); Canadian Journal of History (Metzger, 2006); Journal of Interdisciplinary History (Dennerline, 2007), Sojourn (Lee Hock Guan, 2007).

The Way that Lives in the Heart: Chinese Popular Religion and Spirit Mediums in Penang, Malaysia. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2006 [R]

Reviewed in Journal of Southeast Asian Studies (Dubois, 2007); Pacific Affairs (Sinha, 2007); Journal of Asian Folklore Studies (Tan Chee Beng, 2007); Religious Studies Review (Clart, 2007), hnet-ASIA (Elizabeth Collins, 2007); Archives de sciences sociales des religion (Gooseart, 2008); L'Homme: Revue francaise d'anthropologie (Formoso, 2009); Bijdragen: tot de Taal-, Land-, en Volkenkunde (Wessing, 2009)

Reprints

Penang: Rites of Belonging in a Malaysian Chinese Community. Singapore: National University of Singapore Press, 2009. Reprint of Rites of Belonging: Memory, Modernity and Identity in a Malaysian Chinese Community. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2004. [R]

Book Manuscripts in Progress

“If the Lord be not Come...”: Evangelical Christianity and the Brethren Movement in Singapore and Malaysia. Unpublished manuscript. 547 pages

Editor for “Gender, Religion, and Medical Practice in Singapore, Hong Kong, and Guangdong, 1951 – 1978: The Collected Papers of Marjorie Topley.” Under contract with Hong Kong University Press. Manuscript submitted June 2009. 686 pp.

Articles and Book Chapters[R=Refereed; I=Invited; C=Conference proceedings]

2009 

Zai Shunxi Wanbiande Shijieli Zhongjian Chuantong—Tanqiu Quanquihua he Zongjiao ji Chuantong Wenhua Xiandaixingde Lilun ("Remaking Tradition in a World in Motion: Towards a Theory of Globalization and Religous Modernity"), translated by Leilei Chen. In Zongguo Shehiu Kexue Jikan (Chinese Journal of Social Sciences) June 2009, Volume 16.

"Wudang Mountain and Mount Zion in Taiwan: Syncretic Processes in Space, Ritual Performance, and Imagination." Published in a special issue of the Asian Journal of Social Science on religious syncretism edited by Daniel Goh. Vol. 37 (2009): 138-162. [R]

2008      

 "Wudang Mountain: Staging Charisma and the Modernization of Daoism." Chenghuang Xinyang [City God Belief], edited by Ning Ngui Ngi, pp. 273-280. Singapore: Lorong Koo Chye Sheng Hong Temple Association. [C;I]

 “Asia’s Antioch: Prayer and Proselytism in Singapore.” In Proselytization Revisited: Rights Talk, Free Markets, and Culture Wars, edited by Rosalind Hackett, pp. 155-184. London: Equinox Publishers. [I]

"Global Christian Culture and the Antioch of Asia.” In Religious Diversity and Harmony in Singapore, edited by Lai Ah Eng, pp. 116-41. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. [I,R]

 “Commodifying Blessings: Celebrating the Double-Yang Festival in Penang, Malaysia and Wudang Mountain, China." In Marketing Gods: Rethinking Religious Commodifications in Asia, edited by Pattana Kitiarsa, pp. 49-67. London: Routledge. [R]

2005      

 “Chinese Polytropes.” In Language, Culture and the Individual: A Tribute to Paul Friedrich, edited by Catherine O’Neil, Mary Scoggin, Kevin Tuite. Munich: LINCOM Europa. [I]

 “Christianity and Chinese Religious Culture in Singapore: Anthropological Perspectives.” In Facing Faiths, Crossing Cultures: Key Trends and Issues in a Multicultural World. Dialogues with Chandra Muzaffar, Ibrahim Abu-Rabi’ and Jean DeBernardi, edited by Lai Ah Eng, pp. 178-225. Singapore: Institute of Policy Studies and SNP-reference. [I]

2002      

“Epilogue.” Invited contribution to a special issue of Culture and Religion focussed on the Charismatic Christian Faith Movement 3(1): 125-28. [I]

“Chinese Religious Culture in Malaysia: Past and Present,” in Ethnic Chinese in Singapore and Malaysia: A Dialog Between Tradition and Modernity, edited by Leo Suryadinata. Singapore: Times Academic Press: 301-322. [I,C]

2001      

“The Localization of Christianity among Chinese in Singapore and Malaysia,” in Chinese Populations in Contemporary Southeast Asian Societies: Regional Interdependence and International Influence, edited by Jocelyn Armstrong, Warwick Armstrong, and Kent Mulliner. London: Curzon Press: 171-208. [C]

“'If the Lord Be Not Come. . .': End-Time Teachings and Evangelical Practice in the Brethren Movement in Singapore,” in Journal of Ritual Studies 15(1): 4-16. [I]

1999      

“Spiritual Warfare and Territorial Spirits: The Globalization and Localization of a ‘Practical Theology’,” in Religious Studies and Theology 18(2): 66‑96. [R]

1998      

“Towards a Chinese Christian Hymnody: Processes of Musical and Cultural Synthesis,” in Asian Music 29(2): 83-113, coauthored with Vernon Charter (JED 50%/ VC 50%). [R]

“Ritual, Language, and Social Memory in a Nineteenth Century Chinese Secret Sworn Brotherhood,” in a special issue of Michigan Discussions in Anthropology on “Linguistic Form and Social Action” 13: 103-125. [R]

1996 

 “Teachings of a Spirit Medium,” in Religions of China in Practice, edited by Donald Lopez. Princeton: Princeton University Press: 273-86. [R]

“Language in Society,” in The Teaching of Anthropology: Problems, Issues and Decisions, edited by Conrad Kottak, Jane White, Richard Furlow & Patricia Rice. Mayfield Publishing Company and the American Anthropological Association: 173-78. [I]

1995      

“Managing Multicultural Societies: The Status of Minority Groups in Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand.” Coauthored with Christopher Tarnowski (JED 70%/CT 30%), in New Policy Challenges for ASEAN, edited by Amitav Acharya and Richard Stubbs. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press: 73-114. [R]

“Tasting the Water,” in The Dialogic Emergence of Culture, edited by Dennis Tedlock and Bruce Mannheim. Urbana: The University of Illinois Press: 234-59. [R]

“Lim Boon Keng and the Invention of Cosmopolitanism in the Straits Settlements,” in Managing Change in Southeast Asia: Local Identities, Global Connections, edited by Jean DeBernardi, Gregory Forth, and Sandra Niessen. Proceedings of the 21st Annual Conference of the Canadian Council for Southeast Asian Studies. Edmonton: CCSEAS: 173-87. [C]

1994 

“Social Aspects of Language Use,” in Companion Encyclopedia of Anthropology, edited by Tim Ingold. London: Routledge: 861-90. [I]

“Historical Allusion and the Defense of Identity: Malaysian Chinese Popular Religion,” in Asian Visions of Authority: Religion and the Modern States of East and Southeast Asia, edited by Helen Hardacre, Charles Keyes, and Laurel Kendall. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press: 117-140 [C].

“On Trance and Temptation: Images of the Body in Malaysian Chinese Popular Religion,” in Religious Reflections on the Human Body, edited by Jane Marie Law. Bloomington: University of Indiana Press: 151-165 [R].

1993

“Epilogue: Ritual Process Reconsidered,” in 'Secret Societies' Reconsidered: Perspectives on the Social History of Early Modern China and Southeast Asia, edited by David Ownby and Mary Somers Heidhues. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe Press: 212-233 [I].

Report

1994      

 “Managing Multicultural Societies: The Status of Minority Groups in Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand,” coauthored with Christopher Tarnowski. Summary of Canada ASEAN Centre policy paper prepared for distribution to public and private sector policy makers at a conference in Ottawa, March 1994 (10 pp.)

Articles and Book Chapters in Progress

 “'Ascend to Heaven and Stand on a Cloud': Daoist Teachings and Practice at Penang's Taishang Laojun Temple." Forthcoming in The People and the Dao: New Studies of Chinese Religions in Honour of Prof. Daniel L. Overmyer. Edited by Philip Clart and Paul Crowe, pp. 143-184. Sankt Augustin: Institut Monumenta Serica [R]

"Moses' Rod: The Bible as a Commodity in Southeast Asia and China." Forthcoming in Chinese Circulations: Capital, Commodities and Networks in Southeast Asia, edited by Eric Tagliacozzo and Wen-chin Chang. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press. 31 ms. pages. [C;R]

"On Women and Chinese Festival Foods in Penang, Malaysia and Singapore." Forthcoming in Journal of Chinese Ritual, Theatre and Folklore in a special issue on Women and Chinese Religion edited by Daniel Overmyer. [R]

Book Reviews, 1998-present

2006      

Donald S. Sutton. Steps of Perfection: Exorcistic Performers and Chinese Religion in Twentieth-Century Taiwan. In American Historical Review, April 2006 Vol. 111 (2): 448-49.

2005      

John Lagerwey, editor.  Taoism and Local Religion in Modern China. In Journal of Asian Studies, November 2005. Vol. 64 (4): 1009-1010.

Kenneth J. Guest, God in Chinatown: Religion and Survival in New York’s Evolving Immigrant Community. In The Journal of Chinese Religion.

2003      

Bernard Formoso, Identités en regard: Destins chinois en milieu bouddhiste thai, in Sojourn, October 2003.

2001      

Norman Kutcher, Mourning in Late Imperial China: Filial Piety and the State, for The Journal of Chinese Religion 29:314-315.

Roy Rappaport, Ritual and Religion in the Making of Humanity, for The Journal of Religion 81(2): 347-348

1999      

Angelo Zito, Of Body and Brush: Grand Sacrifice as Text/Performance in Eighteenth Century China, for The Journal of Chinese Religion 27: 188-189.

Webb Keane, Signs of Recognition, for Linguistic Anthropology 28 (1): 53-55.

Raymond L. M. Lee and Susan Ackerman, Sacred Tensions: Modernity and Religious Transformation in Malaysia, for Pacific Affairs.

1998      

Elizabeth Collins, Pierced by Murugan's Lance, for Crossroads 12(2): 137-140.

Cornelia Kammerer and Nicola Tannenbaum, editors, Merit and Blessing in Mainland Southeast Asia in Comparative Perspective, for History of Religion 38(4)

Papers Read and Roundtable Participation, 1998-present

2009      

"On Daoism and Religious Networks in a Digital Age." Prepared for "Place/No Place: Spatial Aspects of Urban Asian Religiosity." Syracuse University, 2-3 October 2009.

"Wudang Mountain and Daoist Tea Culture." Prepared for the International Conference on East Asia Food and Foodways in Globalization, Seoul National University, Korea. Co-organized by the Institute of Cross-Cultural Studies at Seoul National University and the Foundations of Chinese Dietary Culture, Taipei, Taiwan. 13-14 October 2009.

 "Wudang Mountain and the Modernization of Daoism." Presented at the Fifth International Conference on Daoist Studies," Wudang Mountain, Hubei Province, 18-21 June 2009.

2008      

"Remaking Tradition in a World in Motion: Towards a Theory of Globalization and Religious Modernity." Presented at a conference on "Chinese Social Science in a Global Age" at the National Institute for Advanced Study in the Social Sciences, Fudan University, December 5-8, 2008.

 “Painting Lightning with Charcoal: A Consideration of Religious Goods,” presented at an invited international conference on “Asian Religions and the Public Good” organized by Julia Huang and Robert Weller at National Tsinghua University (Hsinchu, Taiwan), June 1-2, 2008.

 “Festival, Pilgrimage, Conference and Website: On the Modernization of Daoism in Singapore and China.” Presented at research seminars at the Asia Research Institute of the National University of Singpore; National Taiwan University (Taipei); and Chinan University (Puli, Taiwan), May 2008.

"Remaking Anthropological Practice in Transnational Networks: A Reflection on the Study of Religious Modernity in China and Southeast Asia." To be presented at a meeting-in-conjunction sponsored by the Society for the Study of Chinese Religions the Annual Meeting of the Association for Asian Studies. Atlanta, 3-6 April 2008.

2007      

 "Wudang Shan yu Daojiao Xiandaihua" ["Wudang Mountain and the Modernization of Daoism"]. Presented at a conference on Daojia yu Daojiao [Daoist Philosophy and Daoist Religion] as part of Lorong Koo Chye Sheng Hong Temple's 90th anniversary celebrations, Singapore. 11 December 2007.

"Asia's Antioch: Prayer and Proselytism in Singapore." Presented at the annual meetings of the American Anthropological Association, Washington D.C., 28 November - 2 December 2007.

"Wudang Mountain: Staging Charisma and the Modernization of Daoism." Presented at the annual meetings of the American Academy of Religion (Sacred Space in Asia Group), San Diego, 18–21 November 2007.

"Daodejing he Hexie Shehuide Quanjiuhua" ["The Daodejing and the Globalization of a Culture of Harmony"]. Presented at the "International Forum on the Daodejing," Xi'an and Hong Kong, April 22 – 27, 2007.

 "On Religion, Money, and Value." Seminar at the Centre for Theoretical and Methodological Studies, Zhongyang Minzu Daxue [Central University for Nationalities], Beijing, PRC, April 5th, 2007.

"Moses' Rod: The Bible as a Commodity in China." International workshop on “Chinese Traders in the Nanyang: Capital, Commodities and Networks” at the Center for Asia-Pacific Area Studies (CAPAS), Academia Sinica. 18-19 January 2007.

2006       

“Landscape, History, and Social Memory: Religious and Cultural Pilgrimage to Wudang Mountain,” Vilnius Conference on “Asian Cultural Memory and Cultures in Transition,” at Vilnius University, Vilnius, Lithuania, 11-13 May 2006.

2005       

“Commodifying Blessings: Celebrating the Double-Yang Festival in Penang, Malaysia and Wudang Mountain, China,” presented at a “Workshop on Religious Commodifications in Asia: The Re-enchantment of a Globalising World?” at the Asia Research Institute, Singapore, 24-25 November 2005.

“Evangelical Christianity and Proselytism in Contemporary Singapore,” presented at a workshop on “Religious Diversity and Harmony” at the Institute of Policy Studies, Singapore, 1-2 September 2005.

“The Daoist Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism,” presented on an invited plenary session at the meetings of the Society for the Anthropology of Religion, Vancouver, 10 April 2005.

“Religious and Cultural Pilgrimage to a Daoist Sacred Mountain,” presented at a panel on “"The Mapping of Sacred Space in the Context of Contested Modernities” at the meetings of the Society for the Anthropology of Religion, Vancouver, 9 April 2005.

“Towards a Rhetoric of Syncretism: Chinese Genesis,” presented at an invited international conference on “Rhetoric in Social Relations and Religion” at Johannes Gutenberg-Universität, Mainz, Germany, 13-17 February 2005.

2004      

“The Open Door: Chinese Christian Evangelists in the Straits Settlements and Malaya,” presented on a panel on “Asian Travelers: Narratives of Asian Voyages in Southeast Asia, Historically and Today” at the meetings of the International Association of Historians of Asia, Taipei, Taiwan, 6-10 December 2004.

“The Brethren Movement in the Straits Settlements and Colonial Malaya: Emplacing a Network Religion in a World in Motion,” presented at an invited conference on “Transnational Religion, Migration, and Diversity” organized by the Social Science Research Council Conference, Kuala Lumpur, 2-4 December 2004.

“Christianity and Chinese Religious Culture in Singapore: Anthropological Perspectives.” Inter-cultural Dialog at the Institute of Policy Studies, Singapore, 24 November 2004.

"Genesis and the Chinese,” presented at a symposium on the theme “Always East and West? Christianity and the “Eastern” Experience,” for the Association for Research in Religious Studies and Theology Annual General Meeting, Edmonton, 6 November 2004.

“The Poetics and Performance of Sacred Space in Chinese Popular Religious Culture,” presented at a Mellon Graduate Research Workshop on “Sacred Geographies: Space, Place, & Network in Asian Religions & Cultures,” Stanford University Center for Buddhist Studies and in the Anthropology Department Seminar Series, Lethbridge University.

2003      

“Singapore and Malaysia: The Charismatic Movement and Spiritual Gifts,” presented on a panel on “Recent Patterns of Pentecostalism and the Charismatic Movement in Asia” at the meetings of the American Society for Church History, Chicago, January 2003.

2002      

“Daojiao Quanzhouhua"(“The Globalization of Daoism”) Presentation of research plans at the Department of Ethnology, South-Central China University for Nationalities (September 2002) and the Department of Religious Studies at Wuhan University (October 2002).

“Expanding the Boundaries of Europe and China: European Freemasons and Chinese Sworn Brotherhoods in Penang,” presented at “The Penang Story: A Celebration of Cultural Diversity,” an international conference organized by the Penang Heritage Trust [in preparation for Penang and Malacca's application to UNESCO for World Heritage Status]. Penang, Malaysia, April 2002.

“Operation World: Singaporean and Malaysian Christian Evangelists at the Millennium, presented at a panel on “Beyond Ethnicity: Identity and Culture in Contemporary Malaysia and Singapore,” at the meetings of the Association for Asian Studies, Washington, D.C., April 2002.

2001      

“Modernity and Tradition in a Chinese Diaspora Community,” presented at an “International Conference on Chinese Transnationalism in the Age of Migration and Immigration,” University of Alberta, Edmonton, October 2001.

“Chinese Religious Culture in Malaysia: Past and Present,” presented at an invited international conference on “Ethnic Chinese in Singapore and Malaysia: A Dialogue between Tradition and Modernity,” jointly sponsored by the Singapore Society of Asian Studies, the Centre for Chinese Language and Culture, and Nanyang University Graduates Association, Singapore, June 2001.

“Possessed by the Past: Chinese Spirit Mediums and the Trance Performance of Chinese Saints,” presented at a panel on "Saint Veneration" at the meetings of the American Academy of Religion, Pacific Northwest Region, Edmonton, May 2001.

2000      

“Chinese Genesis,” presented at a panel on “Anthropology and Philology” at the meetings of the American Anthropological Association, San Francisco, November 2000.

1999      

 “ ‘The Great Shaking That is to Come’: Modernity and the Millennium in a Singaporean Evangelical Movement,” presented at a panel on “Millennial Visions: Pentecostal and Evangelical Perspectives on Time at the Millennium,” at the meetings of the American Anthropological Association, Chicago, November 1999.

“The Globalization (and Localization) of a Millennial Vision: Evangelical Christianity in Singapore,” presented at a seminar in the Department of Anthropology, University of Alberta. November 1999.

“Memory, Modernity, and Identity: Inventions of Tradition in a Chinese Diaspora Community,” presented at a seminar organized by the Centre for Advanced Studies, National University of Singapore, April 1999.

“The Globalization (and Localization) of a Millennial Vision: Evangelical Christianity in Singapore,” presented at a seminar organized by the Institute for Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore, May 1999.

1998      

 “Possessed by the Past,” presented on a panel on “The Poetics of Spirit Possession,” American Anthropological Association, Philadelphia, December 1998

“Mapping Spiritual Territories: Syncretism and Anti-syncretism in Chinese Christian Practice,” Canadian Anthropology Society and American Ethnological Society joint conference, Toronto, May 1998.

Chair/Discussant/Panel Organization, 1998 - present

2008       

Discussant, Panel on Women in Chinese Religions: Women as Goddesses, Vengeful Revenants, Caretakers, and Spirit Mediums, at the Annual Meetings of the American Academy of Religion, 1-3 November 2008.

2005       

Co-organizer with Alina Tanasescu, panel on "The Mapping of Sacred Space in the Context of Contested Modernities” at the meetings of the Society for the Anthropology of Religion, Vancouver, 9 April 2005.

2001      

Discussant, panel on “New Perspectives on Chinese Spirit Mediums,” at the meetings of the Association for Asian Studies, Chicago, 2001.

2000      

Chair, panel on “Anthropology and Philology,” at the meetings of the American Anthropological Association, San Francisco, November 2000.

1998      

 Organizer and Chair, panel on “Rituals at Risk: Syncretism and Anti‑Syncretism in the New World Disorder,” at the Canadian Anthropology Society and American Ethnological Society joint conference, Toronto, May 1998.

Discussant, panel on “Asidiwal at Fifty,” at the Canadian Anthropology Society and American Ethnological Society joint conference, Toronto, May 1998.