Christopher Jensen
Assistant Professor
| Degrees: | B.A., M.A. (University of Saskatchewan), Ph.D. (McMaster) |
| Phone: | 613-520-2600 x 8425 |
| Email: | christopher.jensen@carleton.ca |
| Office: | 2A54 Paterson Hall |
Biography
After completing a BA and MA in Religion and Culture at the University of Saskatchewan, I travelled to southern Ontario, where I completed my PhD in Religious Studies, focusing on Chinese religions and Buddhism under James Benn at McMaster University. During this time, I also spent a year and a half studying Chinese Buddhism with Dr. Funayama Toru at Kyoto University. My dissertation research focused on dreams in Chinese Buddhist hagiographies (specifically, the sixth-century Biographies of Eminent Monks and the seventh-century Continued Biographies of Eminent Monks). I have been teaching at Carleton since January of 2018.
While it is a relatively new interest for me, I have – to date – been involved with two student MA projects here at Carleton on the topic of Buddhist meditation and mindfulness in contemporary North America. In the coming years, I would be delighted to work with other students who would like to explore this fascinating topic.
Interests
The role of dreams in religious culture(s)
Hagiography and religious storytelling
Religion as an embodied phenomenon (e.g., understandings of childhood, bodily impairment)
Buddhist modernism in North America
Winter 2023 Courses
RELI 2732: Death and Afterlife
RELI 3741: Classic Approach to Religion
Publications
Christopher Jensen. “Rhetorical Uses of the Exemplary Child Trope in the Biographies of Eminent Monks and Biographies of Nuns.” Studies in Chinese Religions 7:1 (2021). 1-49.
Christopher Jensen. “Mapping Religious Practice in the Eminent Monks: Theoretical and Methodological Reflections” in Buddhism and Digital Humanities. Edited by Daniel Veidlinger. Boston: De Gruyter, 2019. 159–181.
Christopher Jensen. “Perspectives on Blindness, Deafness and Muteness in the Chinese Eminent Monks Literature: The ‘Eight Difficulties’ in Context” in Disability and Sanctity in the Middle Ages: Illuminating Disability in Medieval Hagiography. Edited by Stephanie Grace-Petinos, Leah Pope Parker, and Alicia Spencer-Hall. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 202X. (In progress)