Beiyin Deng
Assistant Professor of Religious Studies
310 Swallow Hall
Faculty
Education
  • Ph.D. Religious Studies, Arizona State University, United States, 2024
  • M.A. Religious Studies, New York University, United States, 2013
  • B.A. Philosophy, Fudan University, China, 2011
Research

Deng is an anthropologist of religion specializing in contemporary Buddhist material culture and economy, focusing particularly on the role of religious material and labor in the contexts of Theravada Buddhism in Myanmar, transnational Buddhism between China and Southeast Asia, and Buddhism and diplomacy in East and Southeast Asia. 

Her current book project, tentatively entitled Seeking Magnificence: Material, Labor, and Buddhist Economy across Myanmar-China Borders, investigates contemporary Buddhist craftsmanship in the trade of marble Buddhist images across the Myanmar-China border as a previously unexamined religious-economic entanglement that transcends multiple conventional academic boundaries between Myanmar and China, Southeast and East Asia, and Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism. It analyzes the processes of material sourcing, artisan recruitment, image carving and polishing, and transcultural marketing within this trade to explicate how a particular form of Buddhist magnificence derived from white marble, or white jade (C. baiyu) in vernacular Chinese, is religiously and economically cultivated, crafted, and promoted through the collaboration between Burmese artisans and Chinese workshop owners.

Currently, Deng is serving as the co-editor of the journal Contemporary Buddhism (https://www.tandfonline.com/journals/rcbh20). Before joining Mizzou, Deng also served as a Visiting Instructor on religions of East Asia at Grinnell College (AY 2023-2024).

 

Research Interests:

  • Buddhism and Labor; 
  • Buddhism and Economy; 
  • Buddhism and Gender; 
  • Buddhism and Politics in Modern Asia; 
  • Theravada Buddhism in Myanmar; 
  • Transnational Buddhism between China and Southeast Asia; 
  • Southeast Asian Buddhist diasporas in the US.
Teaching
  • Buddhism in East Asia (Fall 2024)
  • Global Religions (Spring 2025)
  • Buddhism, Money, and Capitalist Economy (Spring 2025)
  • Introduction to Religion (proposed for Fall 2025)
  • Religions of China and Japan (proposed for Fall 2025)
Select Publications