Edwin Zehner's c.v.
(a record of scholarly experience)
Education | Editing | Languages |Teaching | Publications | Articles | Presentations
EDWIN ROY ZEHNER
CURRICULUM VITAE
3516 Seward Avenue, Rockford IL 61108
Phone: (815) 399-2135 | Fax: (815) 399-2154 | zehner1234@aol.com
Ph.D. Anthropology: Cornell University, August 2003
Dissertation Title: Unavoidably Hybrid: Thai Buddhist Conversions to Evangelical Christianity
M.A. Anthropology: Cornell University, May 1984
Graduate Minors in Linguistics and in Southeast Asian History
B.A. History: Houghton (N.Y.) College, May 1981
Minor in Political Science, and nearly a minor in Economics
Other graduate studies in theology and missiology through Fuller Theological Seminary (Pasadena, California) and Grand Rapids Baptist Seminary. Also graduate coursework in counseling at Northern Illinois University.
PRIMARY RESEARCH INTERESTS
Religion, especially religious conversion, Theravada Buddhism, and Protestant Christianity.
Anthropology and sociology of Thailand and other parts of Southeast Asia (especially urban and contemporary society); cultural and intellectual interactions between Asia and the West.
History and religious history of Southeast Asia; Christian missions, especially in Southeast Asia.
Dynamics of social change in late twentieth and early twenty-first century.
Contemporary Islam, including Muslim communities in North America.
Proprietor and Editor, Expressitwell.com - 2004-present
Editor, Southeast Asia Publications - 1995-2002
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Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Northern Illinois University
Editor, Crossroads: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Southeast Asian Studies - 1995-2002
Production Editor, The Journal of Burma Studies - 1996-2002
LANGUAGE
SKILLS
Fluent
English, Thai
Can Read and Converse
Some
French, Spanish
Also Studied
Hebrew, Greek,
Lao, Arabic, some Esperanto
In Anthropology:
Central College, 812 University, Campus Box 085, Pella, Iowa 50219
Visiting Assistant Professor of Anthropology, 2006-2007, teaching “Cultures of the Middle East,” “Ethnicity and Nationalism,” “Minority Groups,” and “Ethnographic Field Methods.”
University of St. Francis, Joliet, Illinois 60435
Adjunct Instructor, Summer 2006, teaching "SOCI 347 Cultural Anthropology," a required upper division course in the B.Sc. degree completion program in Health Care Arts (a program designed for certified health care professionals).
Wheaton College, Wheaton, Illinois 60187
Adjunct Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Fall 2005. Taught "Anthropology of the Modern World," an upper-level undergraduate course.
Assistant Professor of Anthropology (sabbatical replacement position), Spring 1992. Taught "Introduction to Cultural Anthropology," "Biculturalism," "Field Research Methods," and "Anthropology of Southeast Asia"
Houghton College, Houghton, New York 14744
Adjunct Instructor in Anthropology, Jan. 1989-May 1991. Taught "Cultural Anthropology" each semester. Also supervised an independent study on "Aztec and Maya Religion" and taught a semester each of the following: "Special Topics: People, Places, and Things: Anthropological Study of Four Cultures," "Race, Ethnicity, and Gender," and "Special Topics: Cultural Impacts of Modernization"
Other related experience:
Ministry Support Coordinator, First Lutheran Church, 324 N. Third Street, DeKalb Illinois 60115, December 2004-June 2006 (part-time). Among other things, coordinated the church’s educational programming for adult members, its “small groups” ministry, and portions of its publicity.
Workshop on Short-term
Missions with Robert Priest and Robert Wuthnow, March 22-24, 2007.
(Only 12 scholars worldwide have been invited for this event. Participants’
travel expenses are being paid from a grant obtained by the workshop
organizers.)
PUBLICATIONS, PRESENTATIONS, AND RESEARCH
Ph.D. Dissertation:
Unavoidably Hybrid: Thai Buddhist Conversions to Evangelical Christianity. Department of Anthropology, Cornell University. August 2003.
Under Development
Brian Howell and Edwin Zehner, eds. Power and Identity in the Global Church: Six Contemporary Cases (under review).
Beyond anti-syncretism: gospel, context, and authority in the New Testament and on the modern mission field. In Power and Identity in the Global Church: Six Contemporary Cases. Brian Howell and Edwin Zehner, eds. (under review).
Syncretism, Acculturation, and the C-Scale: Insights from Thai Conversion Material. In Contextualization and Syncretism: Navigating Cultural Currents. Gailyn Van Rheenen, ed. (to be published Summer/Fall 2006 by the Evangelical Missiological Society).
Short-term Missions: Toward a More Field-Oriented Model. To be published in late 2006 in a special theme issue of Missiology on short-term missions edited by anthropologist Robert Priest (most contributors to this issue are sociologists and anthropologists).
Orthodox Hybridities: Anti-Syncretism and Localization in the Evangelical Christianity of Thailand. Anthropological Quarterly 78 (3): 585-617 (Summer 2005).
Dhammakaya [Thailand] Movement. In The Encyclopedia of Religion, 2nd edition. Lindsay Jones, editor in chief (first edition was edited by Mircea Eliade). Volume 4, pp. 2324-2326. New York: MacMillan (2005).
A Typology of Thai Conversions to Evangelical Christianity. HeRB: Herb’s Research Bulletin, Volume 10, pp. 18-34 (June 2004). HeRB is published by the former director of the Office of History, Church of Christ in Thailand (a position he still held at the time of publication). This particular article available on-line at http://herbswanson.com/herb/herb10/4.php.
Thai Protestants and Local Supernaturalism: Changing Configurations. Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 27 (2): 293-319 (September 1996).
Merit, Man, and Ministry: Traditional Thai Hierarchies in a Contemporary Church. Social Compass, 38 (2): 155-175 (July 1991).
Reform Symbolism of a Thai Middle-Class Sect: The Growth and Appeal of the Thammakai Movement. Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 21 (2): 402-426 (September 1990).
Published Comment:
Comment on Joel Robbins, Continuity Thinking and the Problem of Christian Culture: Belief, Time and the Anthropology of Christianity. Current Anthropology (February 2007).
Book Reviews:
Review of Radical Conservatism: Buddhism in the Contemporary World: Articles in Honour of Bhikkhu Buddhadasa's 84th Birthday Anniversary. Sulak Sivaraksa, et al., eds. Crossroads, 7 (1): 120-123 (1992).
Review of Buddhism and Asian History, Joseph M. Kitagawa and Mark D. Cummings, eds. Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 21(1): 190-192 (March 1990).
Conference Report:
Report on the 1995 “Council On Thai Studies” conference held at Madison, Wisconsin. Crossroads: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 9(1): 75-80 (1995).
Talks and Conference Presentations:
“Short-Term Missions and New Paradigms of Mission-Church Rlationships: An Exploratory Journey.” Paper to be presented to the invited workshop on short-term missions, Deerfield, Illinois, March 22-24, 2007.
“On the Rhetoric of Short-Term Missions Appeals.” Paper to be presented at the North Central Regional Meeting of the Evangelical Missiological Society, Deerfield, Illinois, February 2, 2007.
“Short-term Missions and the Decentering of Mission-Church Relationships: A (Re)-Composition in Five Movements.” Paper presented at the 105th annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association, San José, California, November 15-19, 2006.
"Pain-free Songs in the Evangelical Approach to Suffering (and the Implications for an Anthropology of Christianity)." Talk presented to the Geography/Anthropology Department at Eastern Washington University, Cheney, Washington, April 13, 2006.
"Pain-free Songs in the Evangelical Approach to Suffering." Paper presented at the North Central Regional Meeting of the Evangelical Missiological Society, Deerfield, Illinois, April 8, 2006.
"Short-term Missions: Two Views from the Field." Presentation at the North Central Regional Meeting of the Evangelical Missiological Society, Deerfield, Illinois, April 9, 2005.
“Styles of Acculturation: Examples from the Thai Church.” Presentation at the Triennial Joint Meeting of the Interdenominational Foreign Mission Association of North America (IFMA), the Evangelical Fellowship of Mission Agencies (EFMA), and the Evangelical Missiological Society (EMS), St. Louis, Missouri, September 23-25, 2004.
“Thailand: History, Missions, Churches.” Presentation delivered to the First Lutheran Women’s Society, DeKalb, Illinois, May 6, 2003.
“Styles of Acculturation: Examples from the Thai Church.” Presentation at the North Central Regional Meeting of the Evangelical Mission Society, Deerfield, Illinois, March 27, 2004.
“The Dhammakaya Movement.” Talk delivered to the DeKalb Area Toastmasters, November 2003.
“Conversion to Christianity in Thailand.” Talk delivered to the DeKalb Area Toastmasters, August 2003.
"Dhammakaya: contexts of the controversy." Presentation at the annual meeting of the Council On Thai Studies (COTS), University of Wisconsin, October 1999.
"Writing for scholarly publication." Panel member at the Student Conference on Southeast Asian Studies, Northern Illinois University, April, 1999.
“Thai middle class culture through the lens of contemporary religious movements.” Lecture series on Religion and Economy in East Asia, Harvard University, October 1997.
“Thai New Religious Movements and middle class culture.” Talk presented at the Southeast Asia Lecture series, Northern Illinois University, November 1996.
“How to write for scholarly publication.” Workshop presented at the Student Conference on Southeast Asian Studies, Northern Illinois University, April 20, 1996.
"Christian conversions in contrasting cultures." Panel organized and chaired at the annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association, Chicago, Illinois, 20-24 November 1991.
"Deoxymoronizing 'Thai Christian' while converting." Paper presented as part of the panel, "Christian conversions in contrasting cultures," at the annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association, Chicago, Illinois, 20-24 November 1991.
"Thai Buddhist debates on authentic traditions." Paper presented as part of the panel, "The Problem of Authenticity in Religious Traditions, Institutions, and Experience," at the annual meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion and the Religious Research Association, Pittsburgh, 8-10 November 1991.
"The anthropology of conversion in Thailand." Talk delivered to the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Wheaton (Ill.) College, 10 June 1991.
"Historical development of the Pentecostal/charismatic movement in Thailand's Protestant community." Paper presented as part of the panel, "Historical studies of religious movements," at the annual meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, Virginia Beach, Virginia, 11–13 November, 1990.
"Divisive politics of religious unity: the illuminating suppression of a Thai Buddhist 'monk.'" Paper presented as part of the panel, "Conflict and change in world religions," at the annual meeting of the Association for the Sociology of Religion and the American Sociological Association, Washington, D.C., 11 August 1990.
"Thai Christian converts and traditional supernaturalism: the conflict of intersecting worldviews." Paper presented as part of the panel, "The reinterpretation of tradition among Southeast Asian Christians," at the annual meeting of the Association for Asian Studies, Chicago, Illinois, April 1990.
"Mechanisms for conformity in 'self-referential' religious sects in Thailand." Paper presented as part of the panel, "Evolving belief and unbelief in modern Thai religion," at the annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association, Washington, D. C., November 1989.
"Recent Thai religious movements and trends." Panel organized for the annual meeting of the Association for Asian Studies, Washington, D. C., March 1989.
"Charisma, culture, and structure in Thai new religious movements." Paper presented as part of the panel, "Recent Thai religious movements and trends," at the annual meeting of the Association for Asian Studies, Washington, D. C., March 1989.
"The impact of Western education on the Thai Buddhist world view." Paper presented at the New York State Conference on Asian Studies, Albany, New York, October 1988.
Other Research and Relevant Experience:
Bibliography of Asian Studies, compiler of Southeast Asia entries, January - December 1990. A project of the Association for Asian Studies administered through the Cornell University Libraries, Echols Collection.
Church growth survey, Asbury Assemblies of God, Lansing, New York, Fall 1988.
Adjustment patterns of Lao Refugees in Central New York. John Van Esterik and Edwin Zehner, 1982-83. Federally funded project for department of refugee services.