Benjamin Penny BA (Sydney), MPhil (Cambridge), PhD (ANU)
Research Fellow, Division of Pacific and Asian History

Email: Benjamin.Penny@anu.edu.au

Biographical Statement

After studying at the Universities of Sydney, Cambridge, Peking and the ANU, I held a post-doctoral fellowship also at the ANU before moving to the Humanities Research Centre. Between 1999 and 2005, I worked as the first Executive Officer of the Herbert and Valmae Freilich Foundation, and in 2003 and 2004 also held a research fellowship at the Centre for Cross-Cultural Research. I was appointed to the Division of Pacific and Asian History in October 2005.

Research Interests

Religious and spiritual movements in modern and contemporary China, in particular Falun Gong and the qigong boom; the interpretation of Chinese religions by westerners; Medieval Religious Daoism; the history of the religions of the Australian Chinese.

Key Publications

• (ed.) 2002. Biography and Religion in China and Tibet. London: Curzon Press
• (ed.) 2006. Daoism in History: Essays in Honour of Liu Ts’un-yan. London: Routledge
• 1995. "Buddhism and Daoism in The 180 Precepts Spoken by Lord Lao", Taoist Resources, 6, 2, 1-16.
• 1996. "The Text and Authorship of Shenxian zhuan", Journal of Oriental Studies, 34, 2, 165-209.
• 2003. "The Life and Times of Li Hongzhi: Falun Gong and Religious Biography," China Quarterly 175, September
• Forthcoming 2007. "Animal Spirits, Karmic Retribution, Falun Gong and the State" in Mayfair Yang (ed.), Religion and Modernity and the State in China and Taiwan. Berkeley: University of California Press

Career Highlights

Foundation editor, Humanities Research; Board Member, Herbert and Valmae Freilich Foundation; Harold White Research Fellow, National Library of Australia; The Charles Strong Memorial Trust Annual Lecturer for the Australian Association of Religious Studies; appointment to the Division of Pacific and Asian History, RSPAS.