Charles Orzech
Title
Professor of Religious Studies, Emeritus
Department
Religious Studies; Art
Information
Education
- Ph.D. Divinity / History of Religions, University of Chicago, 1986
- M.A. Divinity, University of Chicago, 1975
- B.A. Independent Concentration Religion / East Asian Languages, University of Massachusetts, 1974
- Yale-China International Asian Studies Program at Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1981-1982
- Middlebury College Chinese Summer Language Institute (Elem. & Adv. Mandarin), 1973, 1975
Areas of Expertise
- Buddhism, Daoism, Chinese religion
- Critical theory in the study of religion
- Religion, semiotics, and visual culture
- Religion and Museums
Research interests:
My primary interests are in cultural contact and interaction and in the fundamental hybridity of human cultural activity. I explore these interests primarily through research on the appropriation and transformation of late Indian Mahāyāna Buddhism in eighth- through thirteenth-century China, through examining images of Buddhism in the modern West, through studying religious objects in museums and the material expressions of religion.
Teaching at Colby:
I came to Colby in 2017 as Professor of Religious Studies and I also served as Chair of the Art Department from fall 2018 through spring 2021. I taught a variety of courses including:
- RE114 Introduction to Religious Studies: Religion, Ritual and the Body
- RE231 The Religious Life of Things
- EA263 / RE263 East Asian Studies: Buddhism Across East Asia: Chan and Zen Traditions
- RE265 Buddhism: An Introduction
- RE331 Mysticism, Spirituality and Religious Experience
Before coming to Colby I was Reader in Religion, Conflict, and Transition at the University of Glasgow, and Professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina Greensboro.
Publications
Museums of World Religions: Displaying the Divine, Shaping Cultures (Bloomsbury Academic Press) was published in 2020. I am the author of Politics and Transcendent Wisdom: The Scripture for Humane Kings in the Creation of Chinese Buddhism (Pennsylvania State University Press, 1998) and I was the general editor of and contributor to Esoteric Buddhism and the Tantras in East Asia (1200 pages, E. J. Brill, 2011).
A full list of my publications is available on my Academia site at: https://uncg.academia.edu/CharlesDOrzech