Dr. Alison Marshall

Areas of research and teaching expertise are Chinese religion, including Confucianism, Buddhism, Daoism,  new religious movements in both China and Taiwan, and Chinese Canadian History and Gender.

B.A. (Political Science), M.A. (Chinese Literature, East Asian Studies), Ph.D. (East Asian Studies, University of Toronto)
Email: marshalla@brandonu.ca

Current CV: http://brandonu.academia.edu/AlisonMarshall

Radio Canada International Interview about Manitoba Day Award 2011 winner, The Way of the Bachelor, by Alison Marshall http://www.rcinet.ca/english/column/the-link—culture-corner/15-04_2011-05-02-culture-corner-the-way-of-the-bachelor-by-alison-marshall/

CKLQ:  Prairie Chinese history: sept 13 author professor allison marshall

NPR “Talk of the Nation”
Getting That Online Religion
December 25, 2007

Winnipeg Free Press
Religious Diversity: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/brandon-shines-light-on-religious-diversity-62314702.html

Winnipeg Chinatown:  http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/westview/chinatown-steeped-in-130-years-of-history-164115356.html

 
I am a Professor at Brandon University, having received my doctorate from University of Toronto’s East Asian Studies Department in 2000 under the supervision of Drs. Julia Ching and Richard John Lynn.  While my courses focus on the religious dimensions of Chinese ritual practice, culture and customs, I am also interested in larger theoretical issues related to gender, diversity and welcoming communities, the historical understanding of modern western identity, as well as those about the implications of post-secular existence.
I am very active  in the Canadian Academic Community as Program Co-Director for the Canadian Society for the Study of Religion.
My current  SSHRC funded research  as principal investigator ($287,000) (with Pauline Greenhill, University of Winnipeg) inventories the history of racism in five Canadian provinces through sport participation and performance.  Previous research explored the relationship between religion and migration as the principal investigator leading a team of research assistants in a SSHRC Standard Research Grant, Understanding the Chinese presence through foodways in rural Manitoba and Saskatchewan, (2008-2011) ($62,348). The first part of this research has been published in a book (The Way of the Bachelor: Early Chinese Settlement in Manitoba).  The second part of the research will appear in a second book under contract with University of British Columbia Press:  Good Fellows:  Confucianism and the Making of Chinese-Canadian Identity.

Other funded research programs include a project to examine the way people “do” religion in the 21st Century as principal investigator of the SSHRC funded Virtual Ritual Theatre of Lingji performance (2002-2006) (experienced at http://lingji.brandonu.ca).  In 2002, I directed a research and educational project that raised $21,000 to build a labyrinth representing the 10 symbols of diverse religious groups in the City of Brandon.  The labyrinth rebuilt in 2008 was dedicated on August 10, 2002 and still exists today. It is a short walk from the Discovery Centre in the Assiniboine River Corridor, across from Kircaldy school in Brandon, Manitoba.  For more information about the project see: http://www.brandonu.ca/Academic/Arts/programs/religion/labyrinth.asp

Course rotation (see links above):
Introduction to East Asian Religions
Anthropology of Religion
Chinese Canadian Experience
Chinese Civilization
Chinese Literature in Translation
Chinese Masculinities in Religion and Culture
Daoism
Ecstatic Religion in East Asian Traditions
East Asian Religions in Practice
Gender, Religion and Food
Gender Themes in Asian Literature
Introduction to Classical Chinese
Religions of China – Past and Present
Religion & Politics in Chinese Cultural Sphere
Women in Chinese Religions