Edward Slingerland (born May 25, 1968) is a Canadian-American
sinologist
Sinology, also referred to as China studies, is a subfield of area studies or East Asian studies involved in social sciences and humanities research on China. It is an academic discipline that focuses on the study of the Chinese civilizatio ...
and philosopher. He is Distinguished University Scholar and Professor of Philosophy at the
University of British Columbia
The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a Public university, public research university with campuses near University of British Columbia Vancouver, Vancouver and University of British Columbia Okanagan, Kelowna, in British Columbia, Canada ...
, where he also holds appointments in the Departments of Psychology and Asian Studies. His research interests include
early Chinese thought,
comparative religion
Comparative religion is the branch of the study of religions with the systematic comparison of the doctrines and practices, themes and impacts (including human migration, migration) of the world's religions. In general the comparative study ...
and
cognitive science of religion,
big data
Big data primarily refers to data sets that are too large or complex to be dealt with by traditional data processing, data-processing application software, software. Data with many entries (rows) offer greater statistical power, while data with ...
approaches to cultural analysis,
cognitive linguistics
Cognitive linguistics is an interdisciplinary branch of linguistics, combining knowledge and research from cognitive science, cognitive psychology, neuropsychology and linguistics. Models and theoretical accounts of cognitive linguistics are cons ...
, digital humanities, and humanities-science integration.
Early life and education
As an undergraduate, Slingerland attended
Stanford University
Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...
, where he earned a
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...
in Asian Languages (with distinction) in 1991. After earning a
Masters of Arts in East Asian Languages (
Classical Chinese
Classical Chinese is the language in which the classics of Chinese literature were written, from . For millennia thereafter, the written Chinese used in these works was imitated and iterated upon by scholars in a form now called Literary ...
) at the
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...
, he returned to Stanford, where he completed his
doctorate
A doctorate (from Latin ''doctor'', meaning "teacher") or doctoral degree is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism '' licentia docendi'' ("licence to teach ...
in Religious Studies under the supervision of
Philip J. Ivanhoe.
Career
From 1998 to 1999, Slingerland taught in the Religious Studies department of
University of Colorado, Boulder.
From 1999 to 2005, he held a post at the
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in ...
with a joint appointment in the School of Religion and Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures.
Since 2005, he has been a professor at the
University of British Columbia
The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a Public university, public research university with campuses near University of British Columbia Vancouver, Vancouver and University of British Columbia Okanagan, Kelowna, in British Columbia, Canada ...
, originally in the Asian Studies department until 2021, when he joined the Philosophy department.
Slingerland is the Director of the Database of Religious History (DRH), an online, quantitative and qualitative encyclopedia of religious cultural history. In 2021, the project received a $4.8 million grant from the
John Templeton Foundation
The John Templeton Foundation (Templeton Foundation) is a Philanthropy, philanthropic organization founded by John Templeton in 1987. Templeton became wealthy as a Contrarian investing, contrarian investor, and wanted to support progress in relig ...
.
Bibliography
Slingerland is the author of six academic books as well as two books written for a popular audience. He has also authored and co-authored numerous academic articles, which have appeared in publications such as ''
Nature
Nature is an inherent character or constitution, particularly of the Ecosphere (planetary), ecosphere or the universe as a whole. In this general sense nature refers to the Scientific law, laws, elements and phenomenon, phenomena of the physic ...
'', ''
Ethics
Ethics is the philosophy, philosophical study of Morality, moral phenomena. Also called moral philosophy, it investigates Normativity, normative questions about what people ought to do or which behavior is morally right. Its main branches inclu ...
'', the ''
Annual Review of Psychology
The ''Annual Review of Psychology'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal that publishes review articles about psychology. First published in 1950, its longest-serving editors have been Mark Rosenzweig (1969–1994) and Susan Fiske (2000&ndas ...
'', and the ''
Journal of the American Academy of Religion''.
His 2003 book ''Effortless Action: Wu-wei as Conceptual Metaphor and Spiritual Ideal in Early China'' was awarded "Best First Book in the History of Religions" by the
American Academy of Religion
The American Academy of Religion (AAR) is the world's largest association of scholarly method, scholars in the List of academic disciplines, field of religious studies and related topics. It is a nonprofit member association,
serving as a profess ...
.
Academic books
* Slingerland, E. (2018). ''Mind and Body in Early China: Beyond Orientalism and the Myth of Holism''. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
* Slingerland, E. (2011). ''Creating Consilience: Integrating the Sciences and the Humanities''. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
* Slingerland, E. (2008). ''What Science Offers the Humanities: Integrating Body and Culture''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
* Slingerland, E. (2006). ''The Essential Analects: Selected Passages with Traditional Commentary''. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company.
* Slingerland, E. (2003). ''Effortless Action: Wu-wei as Conceptual Metaphor and Spiritual Ideal in Early China''. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
* Slingerland, E. (2003). ''Analects: With Selections from Traditional Commentaries''. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company.
Popular books
* Slingerland, E. (2021). ''Drunk: How We Sipped, Danced, And Stumbled Our Way To Civilization''. Boston: Little, Brown And Company.
* Slingerland, E. (2014). ''Trying Not to Try: Ancient China, Modern Science, and the Power of Spontaneity''. New York: Crown Publishing Group.
[Hardcover 2014, ]
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Slingerland, Edward
Living people
1968 births