University of Lethbridge

About Me

Professor of East Asian Religions

Chair, Religious Studies 2010-2013, 2015, 2018, July 2022 until RELS merged with History July 1, 2023. Following the merger, we continue to offer both a major and a minor in Religious Studies (and in History) as well as a minor in Asian Studies within this newly merged departmental structure.

Founding Coordinator, Asian Studies (2013-2017, 2022)

From 2019-22, initiated and coordinated a new theme on "Challenging Worldviews" for the Global Citizen Cohort (GCC) Program

I will be on research leave from July 2023 - June 2024 including as a visiting scholar at Aarhus University, Denmark in April 2024

Biography

See bio with links at http://scholar.ulethbridge.ca/jsh/content/john-s-harding-bio

John Harding received his BA in Asian Studies with a minor in Religion from the University of Puget Sound in 1994. He pursued his graduate work in Religious Studies at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia along with research in Japan and one year at the University of Cambridge in England. John received his Ph.D. from Penn in 2003 under the supervision of William R. LaFleur shortly before joining the Religious Studies Department at the University of Lethbridge.

He was awarded tenure and promotion to Associate Professor in spring 2009 and served as department chair from 2010-2013. He was promoted to Professor in 2023 and served as chair several other times, most recently in 2022-2023. Additionally, he founded the minor in Asian Studies, and coordinated the Asian Studies program for a number of years. Harding also served as the coordinator for the "Challenging Worldviews" theme of the Global Citizenship Cohort program (GCC). He initiated this theme in 2019 and and coordinated it for three years.

Harding worked closely with Victor Sogen Hori (McGill) and Alexander Soucy (Saint Mary's University) for more than 15 years including their collaborative research project, "The Modernization of Buddhism in Global Perspective," which was funded by a SSHRC Insight Grant. Their third collaborative book, Buddhism in the Global Eye: Beyond East and West was published in spring 2020.

Selected Publications

John Harding, "Voices from Asia and the Attic" in American Religion Journal Supplement as part of Retelling U.S. Religious History: A Roundtable Retrospective both in the journal AR and originally at the 2023 American Academy of Religion (AAR) annual meeting. https://www.american-religion.org/retelling/voicesfromasia (American Religion, 2024)

Hillary P. Rodrigues and John S. Harding, Introduction to the Study of Religion, 2nd ed. (NY & London: Routledge, 2024).

John S. Harding, Victor Sōgen Hori, and Alexander Soucy, co-edited special issue of the Journal of Global Buddhism entitled "Alternate Buddhist Modernities." DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.4030971 www.globalbuddhism.org

John S. Harding, Victor Sōgen Hori, and Alexander Soucy, eds. Buddhism in the Global Eye: Beyond East and West (Bloomsbury Academic, 2020).

John S. Harding, "Mapping Buddhism beyond East and West," chapter in Harding, Hori, and Soucy, eds., Buddhism in the Global Eye: Beyond East and West (Bloomsbury Academic, 2020).

John S. Harding, Victor Sōgen Hori, and Alexander Soucy, "Introduction," chapter in Harding, Hori, and Soucy, eds., Buddhism in the Global Eye: Beyond East and West (Bloomsbury Academic, 2020).

John S. Harding, "Trailblazers of Global Buddhist Networks," Contemporary Buddhism 17:2 (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14639947.2016.1205764

John S. Harding, Victor Sōgen Hori, and Alexander Soucy, Flowers on the Rock: Global and Local Buddhisms in Canada (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2014).

John Harding, "Poets and Pilgrims: From Saigyō to Shikoku," chapter in Hans-Georg Moeller and Andrew Whitehead, eds., Landscape and Travelling East and West: A Philosophical Journey (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2014).

John S. Harding and Hillary P. Rodrigues, The Study of Religion: A Reader (London: Routledge, 2013).

John Harding, "Secularization and Study of Religion at North American Universities," Ethique, Politique, Religions 1:2 (2013): 163-182.

John S. Harding, Victor Sōgen Hori, and Alexander Soucy, "Buddhism in Canada" chapter in Oliver Abenayaka and Asanga Tilakaratne, eds., 2600 Years of Sambuddhatva: Global Journey of Awakening (The Ministry of Buddhasasana and Religious Affairs, Government of Sri Lanka, 2012).

John S. Harding, Studying Buddhism in Practice (London: Routledge, 2012).

John S. Harding, Victor Sōgen Hori, and Alexander Soucy, Wild Geese: Buddhism in Canada (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2010).

Hillary P. Rodrigues and John S. Harding, Introduction to the Study of Religion (London: Routledge, 2009).

John Harding, Mahayana Phoenix: Japan's Buddhists at the 1893 World's Parliament of Religions (NY: Peter Lang, 2008).

John S. Harding, "Bodily crisis and religious conviction: Implications of Kiyozawa Manshi's illness," Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses 37/2 (2008): 211-233.

John Harding, "Expanding Notions of Buddhism: Influences Beyond Meiji Japan,"
Pacific World Journal, Third Series Number 9, Fall 2007, Special Issue: Essays Celebrating the Twentieth Anniversary of the Numata Chair in Buddhist Studies at the University of Calgary; full issue available at http://www.shin-ibs.edu/academics/_pwj/three.nine.php

John Harding, "Japanese Religions" in Robinson and Rodrigues, World Religions: a guide to the essentials (Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson Publishers, 2006).

John Harding, "D.T. Suzuki's Pervasive Influence," Matsugaoka Bunka Annual Bulletin, Spring 2006 (also published in Japanese in the same 2006 issue).

Research Interests

Primary areas of interest include Japanese Buddhism and the cross-cultural exchange between Asia and the West that has shaped the development of modern Buddhism worldwide in the past century and a half. This has included research on Buddhism in Canada, such as Jodo Shinshu in southern Alberta, as well as research in Asia, Europe, and the United States.

Secondary areas of interest include Scholarly Approaches to the Study and Teaching of Religion (see sastor.com) as well as the co-authored (both with Hillary Rodrigues) Introduction to the Study of Religion (Routledge 2009, 2nd Edition 2024) and The Study of Religion: A Reader (2013).

Recent projects include: guest edited special issue of the Journal of Global Buddhism Vol.21 (2020) focused on "Alternate Buddhist Modernities"; editing the volume, Studying Buddhism in Practice (2012), for a new Routledge series, Studying Religions in Practice (Hillary Rodrigues, series editor); and serving as one of the authors and one of three editors (with Victor Sogen Hori and Alexander Soucy) for Buddhism in the Global Eye: Beyond East and West (Bloomsbury Academic, 2020), Flowers on the Rock: Global and Local Buddhisms in Canada (McGill-Queens University Press in 2014), and Wild Geese: Studies of Buddhism in Canada (MQUP, 2010). The 2014-2020 publications arose in connection with our collaborative SSHRC research project, "The Modernization of Buddhism in Global Perspective."

Current Research and Creative Activity

Title	Location	Grant Information	Principal Investigator	Co Researchers
The Modernization of Buddhism in Global Perspective		SSHRC Insight, $258,659.	John Harding	Victor Hori at McGill University and Alexander Soucy at Saint Mary's University

Previous Research

Title	Grant Agency	Completion Date
Cultural Responses to Contested Claims of Sacred Place: Case Study of Pilgrimage Sites in Shikoku, Japan	University of Lethbridge Research Fund ($8, 500)	2005
CREDO (Community of Research Excellence Development Opportunities): Buddhist Developments of the Western Frontier	University of Lethbridge Research Fund, $17, 300, August 2009 - July 2011.	Jan 2012

Internet Links

Religious Studies Program at the University of Lethbridge
The University of Lethbridge
Scholarly Approaches to the Study and Teaching of Religion
Mahayana Phoenix: Japan's Buddhists at the 1893 World's Parliament of Religions (2008)
Introduction to the Study of Religion, 1st ed. (2009)
Wild Geese: Buddhism in Canada (MQUP, 2010)
Academia.edu (page for John S. Harding)
Studying Buddhism in Practice (2012)
Asian Studies
The Study of Religion: A Reader (Routledge, 2013)
Nikka Yuko Japanese Garden (Past President and current member of the Board of Directors)
Global Buddha (website for our SSHRC project "The Modernization of Buddhism in Global Perspective"
Flowers on the Rock: Global and Local Buddhisms in Canada (MQUP, 2014)
PUBlic Professor Series talk by John Harding on "Buddha's World Tour: Global Buddhism in the Modern Era" (Nov. 2015)
Journal of Global Buddhism Vol 21 (2020) special focus "Alternate Buddhist Modernities"
Buddhism in the Global Eye: Beyond East and West (Bloomsbury Academic, 2020)
"Trailblazers of Global Buddhist Networks," Contemporary Buddhism, 17:2, (2016)
Department of History and Religion at the University of Lethbridge
Introduction to the Study of Religion, 2nd ed. (2024)
"Voices from Asia and the Attic" American Religion Journal Supplement part of Retelling U.S. Religious History: A Roundtable Retrospective