- MW 10-11 am
- TR 12-1 pm or by appointment MTWR
- AST 135 (Mon/Wed: 8:00 am – 9:50 am)
- GSTR 410 E (Tue/Thur: 1:00 pm – 2:50 pm)
- GSTR 410 F (Mon/Wed: 12:40 pm – 2:30 pm)
Jeffrey L. Richey is Professor of Asian Studies at Berea College, where he has taught about China and Japan since 2002. Initially trained in early Chinese studies, he has since become more focused on early Japan and its cultural exchanges with China. Educated at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (B.A., 1994), Harvard University (M.T.S., 1997), and the Graduate Theological Union’s cooperative program with the University of California at Berkeley (Ph.D., 2000), he has authored and edited numerous scholarly works in the field of East Asian studies.
Dr. Richey’s publications include Daoism in Japan: Chinese Traditions and Their Influence on Japanese Religious Culture (Routledge, 2015), The Sage Returns: Confucian Revival in Contemporary China (SUNY Press, 2015), Confucius in East Asia: Confucianism’s History in China, Korea, Japan, and Viet Nam (Association for Asian Studies, 2013), and Teaching Confucianism (Oxford University Press, 2008), as well as many articles in academic journals and encyclopedias.
His teaching and research interests include classical Japan, early Chinese thought, East Asian spirituality, and the dynamics of tradition and modernity in contemporary East Asia. He is particularly interested in how cultural continuity and transformation in East Asia are reflected in popular culture, religious practice, and social values.
- B.A., Religious Studies with coursework in Anthropology and Classical Studies, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 1994
- M.T.S., East Asian Religions, Harvard University, 1997
- Ph.D., Historical & Cultural Studies of Religion, The Graduate Theological Union (cooperative program with The University of California at Berkeley), 2000
- Japanese studies, The University of Pennsylvania Japan Seminar (2005-06) and Eastern Kentucky University Dept. of Language & Cultural Studies (2009-10)
BOOKS AND SPECIAL ISSUES OF JOURNALS
Confucius in East Asia: Confucianism's History in China, Korea, Japan, and Viet Nam, revised and expanded 2nd edition (New York: Columbia University Press for the Association for Asian Studies, 2022).
Chinese Influences on Japanese Religious Traditions (guest editor), special issue of Religions, vol. 12 (2021).
Daoism in Japan: Chinese Traditions and Their Influence on Japanese Religious Culture (editor and contributor) (London and New York: Routledge, 2015).
The Sage Returns: Confucian Revival in Contemporary China (co-editor and contributor with Kenneth J. Hammond) (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2015).
Confucius in East Asia: Confucianism's History in China, Korea, Japan, and Viet Nam (Ann Arbor, MI: Association for Asian Studies, 2013).
The Patheos Guide to Confucianism (Denver, CO: Patheos Press, 2012). Teaching Confucianism (editor and contributor) (New York: Oxford University Press,
2008)
SELECTED BOOK CHAPTERS AND JOURNAL ARTICLES
"Daoism in Japan." In James Miller and Robin R. Wang, eds., Oxford Handbook of Daoism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, forthcoming).
"Confucianism and ‘Confucianism’: Overview and Problematik." In Jennifer Oldstone-Moore, ed., Oxford Handbook of Confucianism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2023), 3-21.
"Using Film to Teach about Compressed Modernity in East Asian Religions." Journal of Religion and Film 26/2 (2022).
"Daoist Cosmogony in the Kojiki Preface." Religions 12/9 (2021): 761.
"The Comma at the End of the Silk Road: Tracing the Development of an Early Eastern Eurasian Ornamental Motif." Sino-Platonic Papers 299 (March 2020): 1-33.
“The Power of Fan: Reversal, Rebellion, and Return in the Star Wars Saga." Unbound: A Journal of Digital Scholarship 1/1 (2019).
“My Students and Asia: Then and Now.” Education About Asia 23/3 (Winter 2018): 16-20.
“‘Honor the Power Within’: Daoist Wizards, Popular Culture, and Contemporary Japan’s Spiritual Crisis.” In Ken Koltun-Fromm and Assaf Gamzou, eds., Comics and Sacred Texts: Reimagining Religion and Graphic Narratives (Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 2018), 172-192.
"Confucius." In Tim Wright, ed., Oxford Bibliographies in Chinese Studies (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018).
"Society and Culture: Confucianism in East Asia Today." In Anne Prescott, ed., East Asia in the World: An Introduction (London and New York: Routledge, 2015), 174-184.
"Death and New Life in (the Study of) East Asian Religions." Religious Studies Review 40/4 (December 2014): 187-190.
"Jackie Chan as Confucian Critic: Contemporary Popular Confucianism in China." In John M. Thompson, ed., Sacred Matters, Stately Concerns: Essays on Faith and Politics in Asia (New York: Peter Lang Publishing Group, 2014), 169-180.
"Confucius." In Kerry Brown, ed., Berkshire Dictionary of Chinese Biography (Great Barrington, MA: Berkshire Publishing Group, 2014), 1: 44-58.
"New Views of Early Japanese Religions." Religious Studies Review 37/2 (June 2011): 93-96.
"I, Robot: Self as Machine in the Liezi." In Jeffrey Dippmann and Ronnie Littlejohn, eds., Riding the Wind with Liezi: New Scholarship on the Daoist Classic (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2011), 193-208.
"Teaching East Asian Religions through Literature and Film." Education About Asia 15/2 (Fall 2010): 26-30.
"Teaching Early China and Ancient Rome Comparatively." Education About Asia 13/2 (Fall 2008): 38-43.
"Master and Disciple in the Analects." In David Jones, ed., Confucius Now: Contemporary Encounters with the Analects (Chicago: Open Court Publishing Company, 2008), 243-251.
"The Sage and the South: Teaching Confucianism in Dixie." Teaching Theology and Religion 11/2 (April 2008): 82-86.
"Lost and Found Theories of Law in Early China." Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 49/3 (2006): 329-343.
"China, Bureau of Religious Affairs." In David Levinson and Karen Christensen, et al., eds., Enyclopedia of Modern Asia (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2002) I: 380-381.
"A Confucian Pluralist Ethic? Some Clues from the Analects." International Review of Chinese Religion and Philosophy 6 (March 2001): 39-48.
"Enduring Myths and Emerging Trends in the Study of Early Chinese Philosophy and Religion." Asian Studies Newsletter 46/1 (February 2001): 13.
"Ascetics and Aesthetics in the Analects." Numen 47 (May 2000): 161-174.