Fabian Graham

Dr Fabian Charles Graham is an alumnus of Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge. He joined the Religion and Globalisation research cluster at the Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore in December 2018 and left in December 2022. He holds a PhD in Social Anthropology from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London, and two master’s degrees, one in ‘Taiwan Studies’ from National Chengchi University in Taipei and the second in ‘Social Anthropological Analysis’ from the University of Cambridge.

Previously a research fellow at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity in Germany, based on research in Singapore, Malaysia and Taiwan, his first monograph 'Voices from the Underworld: Hell deity worship in contemporary Singapore and Malaysia' was published by Manchester University Press in 2020, an updated paperback edition retitled 'Chinese religion in contemporary Singapore, Malaysia and Taiwan' was released in 2022.

Working closely with lingji masters in Taiwan and tang-ki spirit mediums in Southeast Asia, and adopting a participatory approach to fieldwork where possible, his research interests include the anthropology of Chinese religion; spirit possession; temple ritual and material culture; the invention, inversion and reinterpretation of tradition; visual anthropology; and new ethnographic, narrational and analytical approaches to the study of religious phenomena.