Asian Studies Faculty
Core Faculty
Zeff Bjerken, Associate Professor, Religious Studies. Prof. Bjerken specializes in Tibetan Buddhism. Among the primary sources for his research comparing Buddhism and the Bon religion in Tibet are sacred narratives. He also works on identifying the interplay between Buddhist and western categories of Buddhism as an object of study. He teaches a range of courses on Buddhism and on sacred pilgrimage in Asia, and has developed a new course for Asian Studies, Value and Tradition in Asian Civilization.
Matthew Canepa, Assistant Professor, Art History. A specialist in the art and cultures of the late Roman Empire and Pre-Islamic Iran, Prof. Canepa's research focuses on cross-cultural interaction in the ancient world. His forthcoming book entitled The Two Eyes of the Earth (University of California Press) will be the first to analyze the artistic, ritual and ideological interactions between the Roman and Sasanian empires in a comprehensive and theoretically rigorous manner. His current projects include an exploration of Middle Iranian art and the global idea of Iranian Kingship, organization of a panel on cross-cultural interaction for the 2008 College Art Association meeting, and the publication of C of C's Joel Handshu collection of Classical and Near Eastern coins. Prof. Canepa has been the recipient of numerous research grants including a fellowship from the Council of American Overseas Research Centers.
Yoshiki Chikuma, Assistant Professor, Japanese. Yoshiki Chikuma, Ph.D., coordinates the Japanese Studies Program and teaches courses in Japanese language and literature at the College of Charleston. He is also the faculty advisor to the Japanese Club. His academic interests include Japanese language pedagogy, modern Japanese literature, and technology-enhanced learning and instruction.
Christian Coseru, Assistant Professor, Philosophy. Prof. Coseru's research interests range from Indian and Buddhist Philosophy to Hellenistic philosophy, cross-cultural hermeneutics, consciousness studies, and naturalized epistemology. His teaching interests are mainly in the area of Buddhist and Indian Philosophy, Hermeneutics, and Continental Philosophy as well as the theory and practice of the Mandala. His publications include: "The Continuity Between Madhyamaka and Yogacara Schools of Mahayana Buddhism in India," Journal of the Asiatic Society (1996) 37, 2: 48-83; and "Hermeneutics in a Buddhist Perspective," Origins 2002, 1: 145-50.
Jeffrey Diamond, Assistant Professor, History. Prof. Diamond received his PhD from the University of London in 2002. His research examines modern South Asian social and intellectual history, including religious reform and Indian responses to imperialism. He is currently working on a book manuscript about print, Islamic education, and religious identity in British India during the later nineteenth century.Professor Diamond has previously held a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship at Cornell University and he was awarded a grant from the Fulbright Foundation for research in Pakistan. He also is a Fellow at the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland.
Mary Beth Coffman Heston, Associate Professor, Art History. Prof. Heston is Director of Asian Studies. Her current research explores the ways in which architecture, sculpture and painting of the Kerala region communicate and shape notions of kingship, authority, and power that are distinctly regional. Her current book compares royal architecture of two Princely State in that region over the pre-colonial and Colonial eras. She teaches courses in Asian Studies and Asian Art History, including several on the art of South Asia. Her publications include: "Powerful Bodies: "Kerala Style" Bronzes and Thinking about a Regional Style," Archives of Asian Art, vol. 54 (2004), 63-93; and "The Nexus of Divine and Earthly Rule: Padmanabhapuram Palace and Traditions of Architecture and Kingship in South Asia," Ars Orientalis XXVI (1996), 81-106. Prof. Heston's current project is entitled: Building a Polity: Royal Architecture in Colonial Kerala (book manuscript).
Guoli Liu, Professor, Political Science. Guoli Liu is Professor of Political Science at the College of Charleston. He received his B.A. and M.A. degrees from Peking University, and his Ph.D. from the State University of New York at Buffalo. His teaching and research interests are comparative politics and international relations. The following classes are offered regularly: World Politics, Politics of East Asia, Russian Politics, International Law and Organization, Case Studies of Foreign Policy, and the United States in World Affairs. Dr. Liu is the author of States and Markets: Comparing Japan and Russia (Boulder: Westview Press, 1994). His edited books include (with Weixing Chen) New Directions in Chinese Politics for the New Millennium (Lewiston: Edwin Mellen Press, 2002), Chinese Foreign Policy in Transition (New York: Aldine, 2004), and (with Lowell Dittmer) China's Deep Reform: Domestic Politics in Transition (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2006).
June McDaniel, Professor, Religious Studies. June McDaniel is a Professor of Religious Studies at the College. Her research focuses upon mysticism, Hindu bhakti and tantra, women's religious rituals, and the study of holy people. She has spent two years doing fieldwork in India, most recently from 1993-1994 on a Fulbright Senior Scholar grant, and earlier on a grant from the American Insitute of Indian Studies, from 1983-1984. Her Ph.D. is in the History of Religions from the Divinity School at the University of Chicago, specializing in South Asian devotional religions; her Master of Theological Studies is from Candler Seminary at Emory University, where she focused on Christianity and Psychology of Religion; her BA is from SUNY Albany in Studio Art. Dr. McDaniel specializes in the study of religious experience, especially in the Hindu tradition.
Elijah Siegler, Assistant Professor, Religious Studies. Prof. Sielger is a specialist in contemporary American Religions, and in particular American Daoism. In addition to his research specialty of Asian religions in America he teaches courses in Asian religions. His recent research has focused on Daoism in North America and the globalization of Daoist practices. He most recently pursued fieldwork at the Healing Tao Center in Chiang Mai Thailand, on Hua Shan, an important Daoist sacred mountain in Shaanxi province China, and in Asheville, North Carolina. Prof. Siegler is on the Steering Committee of the Daoist Studies Consultation of the American Academy of Religion.
Jung-fang Tsai, Professor, History. Jung-fang Tsai Ph.D. is a specialist in Chinese social, political and intellectual history. Born and raised in Taiwan, he was educated in a Japanese grade school and then in Taiwanese-Chinese middle and high schools and college. With a B.A. from Tunghai University in Taiwan, he came to America for graduate studies, and received his M.A. from the University of Maryland and a Ph.D. from the University of California at Los Angeles. is current research includes "Hongkongese and Taiwanese in Quest of Identity"; and on "A Comparative Study of Japanese Colonialism in Taiwan and British Colonialism in Hong Kong." He has published scholarly articles and book-reviews in various academic journals, including Modern China; Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars; Asian Profile; China Quarterly; Journal of Oriental Studies; The China Review; China Review International, etc. He is the author of two books: Hong Kong in Chinese History: Community and Social Unrest in the British Colony, 1842-1913 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1993; paperback edition, 1995); and Xianggang ren zi Xianggang shi (The Hong Kong People's History of Hong Kong, 1841-1945) ( Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 2001).
Contributing Faculty
Tim Coates, Associate Professor, History. Prof. Coates' research focuses on the early modern Portuguese Empire as well as nineteenth- and twentieth-century Portuguese enterprises in Africa. Among his recent publications are: Convicts and Orphans: Forced and State-Sponsored Colonizers in the Portuguese Empire, 1550-1755. Stanford University Press, 2001. Degredados e ????s: colonizacio dirigida pela coroa no impario portugues, 1550-1755. Lisbon: National Commission for the Commemoration of the Portuguese Discoveries/National Press of Portugal, 1998; "The Convent of Santa Monica of Goa and Single Women in the Estado da India, 1550-1700," in Faces de Eva: Revista de Estudos Sobre a Mulher Vol. 8 (2002): 67-82; "The Evolution of Portuguese Asia, 1498-1998," Portuguese Studies Review, 9:1-2 (2001), pp. 11-18.
George Hopkins, Professor, History. Prof. Hopkins received his Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1976 and joined the College of Charleston that fall. Co-editor of South Atlantic Urban Studies, Vols. III-V, 1979-81, he has published in American urban, labor, and social history. His most recent publication is "Historians and the Vietnam War: The Conflict Over Interpretations Continues," Studies in American Culture, Vol. XXIII:2, October 2000, which won the Jerome Stern Award for best article published in the journal in 2000. He is currently completing a study of "The Miners For Democracy: Insurgency and Reform in the United Mine Workers of America, 1970-1981."
Lee Irwin, Professor Religious Studies. Prof. Irwin's area of specialization is comparative religions of Native North American and shamanism of Asia and Siberia. He also has a very strong interest in eastern religions. and Islamic Sufism. Some of his most recent publications include: "Sending a Voice, Seeking a Place: Visionary Traditions Among Native Women of the Plains." In Dreams: A Reader on the Religious, Cultural, and Psychological Dimensions of Dreaming, edited by Kelly Bulkeley. Palgrave Press, 2001: 93-110; "Western Esotericism, Eastern Spirituality, and the Global Future," Esoterica Vol. 3 (2001): 1-47; "Native American Spirituality: History, Theory, and Reformulation." In A Companion to Native American History edited by Phil Deloria and Neal Salibury. Blackwell Publishers, 2002: 103-120; "Daoist Alchemy in the West: The Esoteric Paradigms." Esoterica Vol. VI (2004): 31-51; "World and Soul: An Alchemy of Conjoined Loves." Elixir: The Journal of Consciousness, Conscience, and Culture Vol. 1. Issue 2 (2006) 17-22, 117.
Simon Lewis, Associate Professor, English. Professor Lewis completed his doctorate at the University of Florida in 1996 and has been teaching African and Third World Literature at the College of Charleston since then. Lewis edits the literary journal Illuminations: An International Magazine of Contemporary Writing and directs the program in the Carolina Lowcountry and Atlantic World. Prof. Lewis contributes his expertise in Colonial and Postcolonial Literature to the Asian Studies Curriculum.
Ellen Klempner, Senior Instructor, Chinese. Ellen Klempner has taught Chinese (Mandarin) at the College of Charleston since 1989. She received her Master's Degree in Chinese from St. John's University in Jamaica, N. Y. and has studied at Middlebury College and Taiwan Normal University. Her publications include translations of contemporary Chinese fiction in The New Realism--Writings from after the Cultural Revolution (Hippocrene Books. N.Y.C.) and The Mud Man and Other Stories (The Commercial Press, Hong Kong). In addition, her translation of "Memoirs of the Chinese Imperial Examanination System" by Shang Yanliu appeared in the American Asian Review (Institute of Asian Studies--St. John's U.).