CURRENT FOCUS<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cambodian Buddhism; Buddhism and the Khmer Rouge; political appropriations of memory; religion and Cambodian activists; and pedagogy in Religious Studies<\/p>\n\n\n\n
BIOGRAPHY<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Erik Davis studies and teaches Buddhism, ritual, and the theory of religion. His scholarship is based on extensive fieldwork in Cambodia and examines religious life through relationships, material practices, imagination, and political authority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His newest book, Each Other\u2019s Destiny: Rebirth and Relationship in Cambodian Buddhism<\/a><\/em> (University of Hawai\u2018i Press, 2026), explores Cambodian accounts of past-life memory and develops a relational understanding of rebirth. His first monograph, Deathpower: Buddhism\u2019s Ritual Imagination in Cambodia<\/a><\/em>, examines Buddhist funeral ritual and the relations among monks, spirits, agriculture, hierarchy, and moral power. With Jason A. Carbine, he edited S\u012bm\u0101s: Foundations of Buddhist Religion<\/a><\/em>, a comparative study of the boundaries that establish Buddhist monastic communities. He also co-led New Khmer Folktales<\/a><\/em>, a four-volume Khmer-language project based on oral narratives collected across Cambodia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Teaching is a central part of Davis\u2019s academic work. He teaches Buddhist Studies and teaches about Cambodian and Southeast Asian religions, ritual, death and funerary studies, and religion and politics. He developed and teaches the department\u2019s required course RELI-235, \u201cTheorizing Religion.\u201d His courses make foundational academic practices explicit and develop them progressively, enabling students with different forms of preparation to undertake increasingly complex interpretive and research work. His current course-development project, How to Get to Nirvana, is supported by grants from the Khyentse Foundation and Macalester College.<\/p>\n\n\n\n His current research includes \u201cNuon Chea\u2019s New Buddhism,\u201d a project on Cambodia and hauntology, and \u201cThe Perfect Funeral of Norodom Sihanouk.\u201d He is the inaugural series editor of Bridwell Press\u2019s Cambodian Cultural Heritage Series<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n