Gwendolyn Gillson researches at the intersection of anthropology of religion, East Asian studies and gender studies. Her work at Illinois College broadly examines how women craft their experiences of Buddhism to deal with the loneliness endemic to the dissolution of traditional Japanese social structures brought about by urbanization and globalization.

Kaitlyn Ugoretz is an anthropologist of religion and the associate editor of publications at the Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture, including the Japanese Journal of Religious Studies. Ugoretz specializes in contemporary Japanese religion, globalization, technology and media. Her digital ethnographic research focuses on the globalization of Shinto and the development of transnational online Shinto communities.

Matthew Hayes is the librarian for Japanese studies and Asian American studies at Duke University. He is co-creator of the website “Collecting Religion.”

Matthew J. Moore is a political scientist at Cal Poly University in Pomona, California. He has published a series of works on Buddhism in political perspective, including Buddhism and Political Theory; “Buddhism, Mindfulness, and Transformative Politics,” New Political Science; and “Buddhism and International Law” in Comparative Political Theory in Time and Place.

Throughout 2024 — and, really, any time politics are in the news, which is always — we will see familiar narratives about what religious voters are doing. Pundits will ask who they are backing and why, what messaging and issues mobilize them. What will emerge is a version of events that conflates political conservatism with […]

Holly Walters is an anthropologist at Wellesley College whose work focuses on pilgrimage and politics in the Nepal Himalayas, as well as material culture, divine personhood and ritual practice in South Asia. Her current research addresses the roles of sacred landscapes and digital religious revival in the relationships between Hindus, Buddhists and Bonpos who venerate […]

This Reporting Guide provides extensive background on Hindu nationalism, what it is, where it comes from, what advocacy organizations and human rights groups are saying about it and what the future might hold for Hindutva.

Douglas Penick is a widely published author and opera-writer who has written on the theme of aging and Buddhist principles for Tricycle magazine. Contact through webpage.

Mario I Aguilar is professor of religion and politics at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland. His research focuses on Buddhist traditions, Marxist religion, vegetarianism, religion and labor and Indian religions.