Anna Sun

Anna Sun is a scholar, writer, and teacher. A professor of religious studies, she conducts her research on Confucianism and traditional Chinese religious experiences. Her first scholarly book, "Confucianism as a World Religion: Contested Histories and Contemporary Realities" (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2013), received two book awards: the Distinguished Book Award of the Sociology of Religion Section of the American Sociological Association, and the Best First Book in the History of Religion Award of the American Academy of Religion. Her current book project is "The Social Life of Prayer."

She has co-edited a book volume, with Brian Steensland and Jaime Kucinskas, on the sociology of spirituality. "Eminently Social Spirituality: Context, Practice, Power" is forthcoming from Oxford University Press.

Anna Sun is also a writer of fiction and literary criticism. Her essays on both classical and contemporary Chinese literature have appeared in Paideuma, London Review of Books, and The Kenyon Review. Her short fiction has appeared in Harvard Review, and her novel in English, Dreamers of the Absolute, set at the Abbey of Gethsemani in Kentucky, was published in 2014 by Sylph Editions in London. It was a “Book of the Month” selection of the independent bookstore Brazos in Houston, Texas.