Monograph
Critical Buddhism
Engaging with Modern Japanese Buddhist Thought
Ashgate Publishing · 2011
Details →
Utopian · Flâneur · Provocateur
James Mark Shields
Buddhist thought, zero waste, and the politics of dissent, pursued by way of Japan, waterfalls, poetry, and mad conversations with friends from afar.
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Books
Monograph
Against Harmony
Progressive and Radical Buddhism in Modern Japan
Oxford University Press · 2017
Details →Edited volumes & translations
Edited volume
Buddhist Responses to Globalization
With Leah Kalmanson. Lexington Books · 2014
Edited volume
The Oxford Handbook of Buddhist Ethics
With Dan Cozort. Oxford University Press · 2018
Russian translation
Гармонии вопреки
Against Harmony in Russian. Academic Studies Press · 2026
Forthcoming & in progress
Biography
Taking Buddha to the Streets
The first scholarly biography of Seno’o Girō (1889–1961), examining the emergence of Buddhist socialism, anarchism, and anti-imperialism in modern Japan.
Columbia University Press · forthcoming 2027
Introduction & sourcebook
Radical Buddhism
An introduction, primer, and sourcebook recovering radical Buddhist traditions across Asia, from the early canon to contemporary engaged Buddhism.
SUNY Press · advanced contract, manuscript under review
Theory
Red Lotus
A theoretical work bringing Buddhist philosophy into sustained dialogue with Marxism, anarchism, environmental humanities, and contemporary critical theory.
Draft manuscript nearing completion
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Research
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Modern Japanese Buddhism & Dissent
Sect and state, religion in public life, and the radical and progressive movements that dissented from both.
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Comparative Philosophy
Reading Buddhist, East Asian and European thought against one another.
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Ecology & Environmental Humanities
Ecological thought and practice, as a Fellow of the Bucknell Ecology Center.
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Utopia, Anarchism & Epicurus
Utopian thought, anarchist politics, and Epicurean readings of Buddhist philosophy.
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Projects
Online Research Encyclopedia
The Radical Buddhism Project
An international digital research initiative dedicated to recovering, translating, and interpreting radical Buddhist traditions through collaborative scholarship, open-access publishing, and public engagement. Launched July 2026.
Visit RBP →Substack · A Novel
Angel
A research-based historical novel tracing a Filipino mestizo family across seven generations (1782–1945), integrating archival, genealogical, and historical research into a work of literary public history. In progress.
Read on Substack →
Substack · Zero Waste
The OWL Project
A year-long zero-waste experiment in witness and practical wisdom: tracking everything that leaves my household as waste, tracing its political-economic backstory, and making the invisible visible through weekly essays and a public ledger.
Read on Substack →Teaching
I teach a range of courses in the interdisciplinary humanities, inspired by Confucius (“Is it not a joy to have friends come from afar?”), bell hooks (“The classroom remains the most radical space of possibility in the academy.”), and Rosa Luxemburg (“Freedom is always and exclusively freedom for the one who thinks differently.”).
