Below we develop a method to determine whether the use of grammatical particles in Chinese Buddhist scriptures is characteristic for the period of their translation. The corpus consists of three different Chinese translations of an early Indian Mahāyāna text from two different periods. We use the results of Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to d…[Read more]

Hidden in the Buddhist biographical literature on eminent monks is a large amount of information about who knew whom. It is especially rich for the time between 300 and 1000 CE, when the four major collections of “Biographies of Eminent Monks” (gaoseng zhuan) allow us to date and locate the relationships of individuals to a degree unimaginable for…[Read more]

Hidden in the Buddhist biographical literature on eminent monks is a large amount of information about who knew whom. It is especially rich for the time between 300 and 1000 CE, when the four major collections of “Biographies of Eminent Monks” (gaoseng zhuan) allow us to date and locate the relationships of individuals to a degree unimaginable for…[Read more]

While the amount of digitally available data on the worlds’ languages is steadily increasing, with more and more languages being documented, only a small proportion of the language resources produced are sustainable. Data reuse is often difficult due to idiosyncratic formats and a negligence of standards that could help to increase the…[Read more]

By reviewing a recent quantitative study of rhyme patterns in Mandarin Chinese, this study shows how data handling and data analysis in the study of rhyme patterns can be improved. Suggestions for improvement include (a) a consistent annotation of rhyme data, which is exhaustive and facilitates data reuse, and (b) emphasizes the importance of…[Read more]

Powerpoint presentation for the MLA2020 collaborative roundtable “Digital Humanities in Japan and Korea: Approaches and Challenges,” organized by the LLC Korean and LLC Japanese since 1900 Forums. This brief introduction to “Re-Envisioning Japan: Japan as Destination in 20th Century Visual and Material Culture” was one of seven presentations by…[Read more]

In this seminar we will examine representations of health and accounts of disease in a variety of Chinese religions. We will explore the various vectors of disease, including the so-called “winds” and various types of demonic infestation. We will identify modes of
healing that employ therapies such as mineral, animal, and vegetable drugs, exo…[Read more]

The author did in situ research for an MA in Asian Religions on Japan’s greatest saint, Kūkai, in his birthplace of Zentsūji, along the Pilgrimage of Shikoku that symbolically recapitulates his career, and at Kōya-san, the mountaintop monastery south of Kyōto that Kūkai founded in the early 9th Century. Kūkai was a key figure igniting the golde…[Read more]

The author did in situ research for an MA in Asian Religions on Japan’s greatest saint, Kūkai, in his birthplace of Zentsūji, along the Pilgrimage of Shikoku that symbolically recapitulates his career, and at Kōya-san, the mountaintop monastery south of Kyōto that Kūkai founded in the early 9th Century. Kūkai was a key figure igniting the golde…[Read more]

“The Other Close at Hand: Gerald of Wales and the ‘Marvels of the West,’” in The Monstrous Middle Ages, eds. Robert Mills and Bettina Bildhauer (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2003), 97-112

“Inconceivable Beasts: The Wonders of the East in the Beowulf Manuscript,” with Susan Kim, in Dark Reflections, Monstrous Reflections: Essays on the Monster in Culture, ed. Sorcha Ní Fhlainn (Oxford: Inter-Disciplinary Press E-Book, 2008)

“The Exposed Body and the Gendered Blemmye: Reading the Wonders of the East,” with Susan Kim, Fundamentals of Medieval and Early Modern Culture, v. 3, The History of Sexuality in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, ed. by Albrecht Classen and Marilyn Sandidge (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2008)

“Ungefraegelicu deor: Monsters and Truth in the Wonders of the East,” Different Visions: A Journal of New Perspectives on Medieval Art, vol. 2 (2009), with Susan Kim

The dominant literate culture of early medieval England – male, European, and Christian – often represented itself through comparison to exotic beings and mon- sters, in traditions developed from native mythologies, and Classical and Biblical sources. So pervasive was this reflexive identification that the language of the mon- strous occurs not…[Read more]

Efforts on language documentation have been increasing in the past. While the amount of digital data of the world’s languages is increasing, only a small amount of the data is sustainable, since data reuse is often exacerbated by idiosyncratic formats and a negligence of standards that could help to increase the comparability of linguistic data.…[Read more]

This is a summary of 12 contributions made by me for the blog “The Genealogical World of Phylogenetic Networks” in 2018. The contributions are shared in form of a PDF document with a table of contents that allows for a quick search of the contributions and offers also the direct links to the blog.

The dominant literate culture of early medieval England – male, European, and Christian – often represented itself through comparison to exotic beings and monsters, in traditions developed from native mythologies, and Classical and Biblical sources. So pervasive was this reflexive identification that the language of the monstrous occurs not onl…[Read more]

“Answering the Call of the Severed Head,” Heads Will Roll: Decapitation Motifs in Medieval Literature, ed. Larissa Tracy (Leiden: Brill, 2012)

“Introduction: The Impact of Monsters and Monster Studies,” in Research Companion to Monsters and the Monstrous, ed. Asa Simon Mittman, with Peter Dendle (London: Ashgate, 2012), 1-14