Williams, Duncan Ryuken

Williams, Duncan Ryûken. PhD, Harvard, 2000.

http://dornsife.usc.edu/cf/faculty-and-staff/faculty.cfm?pid=1038110

Biographical Sketch

Duncan Ryûken Williams was born in Tokyo, Japan to a Japanese mother and British father. After growing up in Japan and England until age 17, he moved to the U.S. to attend college (Reed College) and graduate school (Harvard University, where he received a Ph.D. in Religion). Williams is currently the Chair of the University of Southern California’s School of Religion and the Co-Director of the USC Center for Japanese Religions and Culture. Previously, he held the Shinjo Ito Distinguished Chair of Japanese Buddhism at University of California at Berkeley and served as the Director of Berkeley's Center for Japanese Studies for four years. He has also been ordained since 1993 as a Buddhist priest in the Sôtô Zen tradition and served as the Buddhist chaplain at Harvard University from 1994-96. He is the author of a monograph entitled The Other Side of Zen: A Social History of Sôtô Zen Buddhism in Tokugawa Japan (Princeton University Press, 2005) and co-editor of five volumes including Issei Buddhism in the Americas (U-Illinois Press, 2010), American Buddhism (Routledge/Curzon Press, 1998), and Buddhism and Ecology (Harvard University Press, 1997). He has also translated four books from Japanese into English including Putting Buddhism to Work: A New Theory of Economics and Business Management (Kodansha, 1997). He is also the founder of the world's first online Western-language bibliographical database on Buddhism, the Mugen Project (www.mugenproject.com) and a database on mixed-race/ethnicity Japanese people (www.hapajapan.com). He is currently completing a monograph titled, Camp Dharma: Buddhism and the Japanese American Incarceration During World War II (forthcoming, University of California Press), a monograph titled Hot Water Buddha on Buddhist healing/purification and the history of bathing in Japan, and writing a manifesto for Japan in the 21st-century titled Hybrid Japan (in Japanese). He has previously received research grants from the American Academy of Religion, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Lilly Endowment, the Japan Foundation, the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, the Numata Foundation/Society for the Promotion of Buddhism. In 2011, Williams received a commendation from the Japanese government for deepening the mutual understanding between the peoples of Japan and California.

Education

Ph.D. Religion (Japanese Religions), Harvard University, 2000

M.Div. Buddhist Studies, Harvard Divinity School, 1993

B.A. Religious Studies, Reed College, 1991

USC Welcomes New Director for School of Religion

Dr. Duncan Ryuken Williams will be the new Director of the USC School of Religion. Dr. Williams was born in Tokyo to a Japanese Buddhist mother and a British Christian father. He believes his destiny is to serve as a bridge between the religions and cultures of his upbringing.

He will be the co-director of the USC Center for Japanese Religions and Culture with Dr. Lori Meeks who is an associate professor of religion and East Asian languages and cultures at USC Dornsife.

Dr. Williams received a Ph.D. from Harvard after being ordained as a Buddhist priest. He served as the university's Buddhist chaplain. He founded the Mugen Project, the world's first online Western language bibliographical database on Buddhism. He has also authored books on Japanese history and Buddhism. He comes to SC from the Univ. of California at Berkeley where he held the Shinjo Ito Distinguished Chair of Japanese Buddhism and served as Director of the Center for Japanese Studies. Williams is the first Buddhist to chair a department of religious studies in the United States.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan and the Consulate-General of Japan have given Dr. Williams an offical commendation for deepening the bilateral relationship between Japan and the U.S.

Dr. Williams will begin teaching in the 2012-2013 academic year. He said,"Religion is so relevant to understanding our incrasingly globalized and multireligious world. It's so important to understanding how to orient our identities and values in an age of uncertainty."

These are highlights from an article on Dr. Williams written by Laurie Moore.