July 1, 2024

Associate Professor Jack Meng-Tat Chia has been appointed as the inaugural Foo Hai Ch’an Monastery Fellow in Buddhist Studies, effective July 1, 2024. This prestigious appointment recognizes his significant contributions to the field of Buddhist studies and religious history.

A/Prof Chia is a distinguished historian of religion at the National University of Singapore, specializing in Buddhism and Chinese popular religion. His research focuses on Buddhism in maritime Southeast Asia, with broader interests encompassing migration, diasporas, transnationalism, pilgrimage, and religious diplomacy.

A/Prof Chia’s scholarly work has garnered international recognition. His first book, Monks in Motion: Buddhism and Modernity Across the South China Sea (Oxford University Press, 2020), was awarded the prestigious 2021 EuroSEAS Humanities Book Prize. This work offers a comprehensive exploration of the interconnected history of Buddhist communities in China and Southeast Asia during the twentieth century.

Throughout his career, A/Prof Chia has made significant contributions to academic research, with publications in leading journals such as Critical Asian Studies, History of Religions, and the Journal of Chinese Religions. He has been awarded the 2020 Social Science and Humanities Research Fellowship by the Social Science Research Council (SSRC) for his project “Diplomatic Dharma: Buddhist Diplomacy in Modern Asia, 1950s–Present,” as part of SSRC’s efforts to nurture promising local social science and humanities researchers.

A/Prof Chia’s academic journey includes a Ph.D. from Cornell University, where his dissertation won the Lauriston Sharp Prize. He also holds degrees from the National University of Singapore and Harvard University, where he was a Harvard-Yenching Fellow. In 2022, he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

A/Prof Chia hopes that this new appointment will enable him to introduce more students at NUS and across Singapore to further research and scholarship in Buddhist studies, potentially fostering new insights into the historical and contemporary roles of Buddhism in Southeast Asia and beyond. “In my previous research, I studied the connected history of Buddhist communities in China and maritime Southeast Asia. I hope more students will be inspired to explore the transregional circulation and local developments of Buddhist traditions, as well as the diversity of Buddhist practices across Asian contexts and beyond,” he said.

For more information on A/Prof Chia’s research, visit: https://discovery.nus.edu.sg/6833-jack-mengtat-chia