PR-1942
August 30, 2019
Dr. Randall Nadeau is the New Executive Director of
the Foundation for Scholarly Exchange (Fulbright Taiwan)
In honor of September as the AIT@40 Education Month, AIT is pleased to welcome Dr. Randall Nadeau, new executive director of the Foundation for Scholarly Exchange (Fulbright Taiwan). The Fulbright Program is the State Department’s flagship academic exchange program. As executive director of one of the largest Fulbright Programs in the Indo-Pacific Region, Dr. Nadeau will facilitate hundreds of educational exchange opportunities every year between the United States and Taiwan.
The members of the board of directors of the Foundation for Scholarly Exchange (FSE), including representatives from the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), the Ministry of Education, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs congratulate Dr. Nadeau on his new role at Fulbright Taiwan and thank former Executive Director Dr. William Vocke for his contributions over the past eight years.
Dr. Nadeau took up his duties in Taipei on July 29, 2019. He has enjoyed an academic career as a Distinguished Professor of Religion at Trinity University spanning twenty-five years. His core courses included Cultural Perspectives on Asian Religions; Buddhist Ethics; Taoism and Personal Identity; Being Young in Asia; Japanese Literature of the Spirit World; and Approaches to the Study of Religion. He is the author of several books and articles on Asian religions, including research on religion in late imperial China, religious life in modern Taiwan, definitions of “religion” and religious concepts in East Asian traditions, and religion and identity. His publications include,
- “Ancient China,” in The History of Evil in Antiquity (2000 BCE – 450 CE), edited by Tom Angier (Routledge)
- “Visualizing the Pure Land: Images and Imagination in Buddhist Practice,” in Heavens and Hells: The Cosmology of Pure Land Buddhism, San Antonio Museum of Art, Exhibition Catalogue (co-authored with Asian Art Curator Emily Sano and contributor Alison Miller)
- Asian Religions: A Cultural Perspective (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell)
- The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Chinese Religions (editor) (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell)
- “Gods, Ghosts, and Ancestors: Patterns of Religious Organization and the Question of ‘Taiwanese Identity’” (with Chang Hsün), Religion in Modern Taiwan: Tradition and Innovation in a Changing Society, edited by Philip Clart and Charles B. Jones (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press)
- “The Harmonizing of Family and Cosmos: Shamanic Women in Chinese Religions,” in Unspoken Worlds: Women’s Religious Lives, edited by Nancy Falk and Rita Gross (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth)
He was a student of Daniel Overmyer at the University of British Columbia, earning a Ph.D. in Asian Studies in 1990, and has benefited from the tutelage of scholars including Leon Hurvitz, Frederick Streng, and Byron Earhart.
Dr. Nadeau was a Fulbright scholar hosted by the International College at Tunghai University (Taiwan, 2014-2015) and a faculty development consultant at Rikkyo University (Japan, 2018-2018). He has participated in faculty-led study abroad programs in Taiwan, Japan, Hong Kong, and China. He is devoted to international education, inter-cultural exchange, and multi-disciplinary research.
Dr. Nadeau enjoys music genres from Herbie Hancock to Tame Impala, wine from white to red, Japanese food made in Taiwan, and travel in Europe and Asia. He is a passionate believer in Fulbright’s values of internationalization, diversity, free inquiry, generosity, and service.
Dr. Nadeau’s full bio is available here: http://www.fulbright.org.tw/pdf/Nadeau%20bio%20Jul%202019.pdf
