Peter Nickerson, Associate Professor

Contact Info:

Office Location:	116 Gray Bldg
Office Phone:	+1 919 660 3522, +1 919 660 3510
Email Address:
Web Page:

Education:

Ph.D.,

University of California, Berkeley,

1996

Specialties:

East Asian Religions

Research Interests: Religion in Chinese History and Society; Taoism; Chinese popular religion

Current projects: "Clouds of Unknowing: Theorizing the Incomprehensible in Ritual" (Book project), "Medieval Taoist Monasticism." (Review article; in progress), "Discourses on Popular Religion in Taiwan: The Evidence from a Fin de siècle Religious Scandal" (Under revision), "Walter Benjamin, Leo Fender, Lou Reed: Amplified Music and Poetic Language--Toward an Auditory Unconscious?" (Under consideration; alternate working title: "Rock and Roland Barthes")

Nickerson is the author of Taoism, Bureaucracy, and Popular Religion in Early Medieval China (Harvard University Asia Center, forthcoming) and other pieces concerning the early history of the Taoist religion (first centuries C.E.). His focus is social-historical and concerns in particular the interactions between organized Taoism and diffuse popular religion.  In addition to historical/textual research, Nickerson frequently does field research in Tainan, Taiwan, where he studies the vernacular Taoism of the "red-head Ritual Masters" and related popular practices, especially in the contexts of social/cultural and ritual theory.

Current Ph.D. Students   (Former Students)

• Yuan Yuan

Recent Publications   (More Publications)

1.  "Taoism and Popular Religion" (2000 words), "Demons and Spirits" (1700 words), "Death and Afterlife" (1500 words), "Taoism and Ancestor Worship" (1000 words), "Taoism, Shamanism and Medium Cults" (1000 words)." Encyclopedia of Taoism. Ed. Fabrizio Pregadio. RoutledgeCurzon, Spring, forthcoming, Spring, 2006.
2.  "'Let Living and Dead Take Separate Paths': Bureaucratisation and Textualisation in Early Chinese Mortuary Ritual." Daoism in History: Essays in Honour of Liu Ts’un-yan. Ed. Benjamin Penny. Routledge, January, forthcoming, January, 2006.
3.  Taoism, Bureaucracy, and Popular Religion in Early Medieval China..  Harvard University Asia Center, Forthcoming, 2006-7.
4. "Discourses on Popular Religion in Taiwan: The Evidence from a Fin de siècle Religious Scandal." Journal of Chinese Religions  (Submitted, Under revision.).
5.  "Attacking the Fortress: Prolegomenon to the Study of Ritual Efficacy in Vernacular Taoism." Scriptures, Schools and Forms of Practice in Daoism: A Berlin Symposium. Ed. Poul Andersen and Florian Reiter. Harrassowitz, 2005, 117-183.