Erik J. Hammerstrom, who earned his Ph.D. in Religious Studies from Indiana University in 2010, just published his second book, The Huayan University Network: The Teaching and Practice of Avataṃsaka Buddhism in Twentieth-Century China, with Columbia University Press.
Hammerstrom traces the influence of Huayan University, the first Buddhist monastic school founded after the fall of the imperial system in China. Offering a wide range of insights into the teaching and practice of Huayan in Republican China, this book sheds new light on an essential but often overlooked element of the East Asian Buddhist tradition.
Erik is the acting Chair of the Department of Religion and an Associate Professor of East Asian and Comparative Religions at Pacific Lutheran University. He is also the author of The Science of Chinese Buddhism: Early Twentieth-Century Engagements (Columbia, 2015).
The College of Arts