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 Myanmar Buddhist Diaspora in the U.S.

Her current book project investigates the circulation of marble Buddhist images from Myanmar to China 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.

Before joining Mizzou, Deng was a Visiting Instructor of Religions of East Asia at Grinnell College (AY 2023-2024), where she taught a variety of courses, including Studying Religion: East Asia, Buddhism and Politics in Modern Asia, and Buddhism, Money, and Capitalist Economy. 

Currently, Deng is serving as the co-editor of the journal Contemporary Buddhism (https://www.tandfonline.com/journals/rcbh20), the treasurer of the Burma Studies Group at the Association for Asian Studies (AAS), and a steering committee member of the Space, Place, and Religion Unit and the Religion in Southeast Asia Unit at the American Academy of Religion (AAR). 

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.