Juliane Schober

Juliane Schober (PhD., Anthropology, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign) is Director of the Center for Asian Research and Professor of Religious Studies at Arizona State University where she also directed the graduate program in Religious Studies (2009–2012) and developed a doctoral track in the Anthropology of Religion. She is an anthropologist of religion who works on Theravada Buddhist practice in Southeast Asia, especially Burma/Myanmar. 

In 2013, Juliane participated in the first IAPP delegation of U.S. universities to Myanmar, organized by the International Institute of Education. She has held leadership positions in the Association for Asian Studies, the American Academy of Religion, the American Anthropological Association, and serves on various editorial boards.

Also in 2013, Juliane founded the Theravada Studies Group, an academic organization affiliated with the Association for Asian Studies. The group promotes comparative and scholarly exchanges among social scientists and humanists who work on aspects of Theravada Buddhism in India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Burma, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Southwest China and globally though pilgrimage and diaspora networks.

Her most recent book, Modern Buddhist Conjunctures in Myanmar: Cultural Narratives, Colonial Legacies and Civil Society, was published in 2011 (University of Hawai’i Press). She co-edited Buddhist Manuscript Cultures (1997, University of Hawai'i Press). In addition, she authored book chapters, journal articles, and essays in encyclopedias, including The Encyclopedia of Religion, The Encyclopedia of Buddhism (edited by Buswell, Lopez and Strong, 2003), and The Encyclopedia of Buddhism (edited by Prebish and Keown, 2007). Many of these can be accessed at http://asu.academia.edu/JulianeSchober.  

Professor Schober is affiliated with the Center for the Study of Religion and Conflict at Arizona State University and can be reached at J.Schober@asu.edu.