Search Results for: michael como

Michael Como

Tōshū Fukami Associate Professor of Shinto Studies

Office: 307 80 Claremont
Office Hours: F 9:00-10:00am and by appointment
Phone: (212) 854-4144
Email: mc2575@columbia.edu

Educational Background

BA: Harvard University (’85)
PhD: Stanford University (’00)

Classes Taught

AHUM UN1400 Colloquium on Major Texts: East Asia
RELI UN2308 East Asian Buddhism
EARL 9335 Graduate Seminar in Japanese Religion

Research Interests

Transmission and diffusion of rituals and deities to Japan, local religious traditions, urbanization and theological innovation

Michael Como’s recent research has focused on the religious history of the Japanese islands from the Asuka through the early Heian periods, with a particular focus upon the Chinese and Korean deities, rites and technological systems that were transmitted to the Japanese islands during this time. He is the author of several articles on the ritual and political consequences of the introduction of literacy, sericulture and horse-culture from the Asian sub-continent into ancient Japan. He is currently working on a new monograph that focuses upon urbanization and the materiality of performance and interpretation in Japanese religion in the eighth and ninth centuries.

Selected Publications

Medieval Shintō (co-editor with Bernard Faure and Iyanaga Nobumi, 2010)

Weaving and Binding: Immigrant Gods and Female Immortals in Ancient Japan (University of Hawaii, 2009)

Shōtoku: Ethnicity, Ritual and Violence in the Formation of Japanese Buddhism (Oxford University, 2008)

Emily Ren

Field: East Asian Religion

Advisor: Michael Como
Email: yr2529@columbia.edu

Emily Yian Ren is a PhD student specializing in medieval Japanese religion. Her research focuses on children and sexuality, particularly on youthful acolytes known as chigo, adolescent boys who received accommodation, education, and material support in exchange for companionship and sexual relations with high ranking clerics or elite courtiers between the twelfth and sixteenth centuries. Her broader interests include female patronage, gendered perception, goddesses and demonesses, constructions of motherhood, and the negotiation of sexual taboos and transgression within religious contexts. Before joining EALAC, Emily received her B.A. in Art History from New York University (2023) and M.A. in East Asian Studies from Stanford University (2025).

Iris Zhang

Field: East Asian Religion
Advisor: Michael Como
Email: iris.zhang@columbia.edu

Iris Zhang is a PhD candidate in premodern Japanese religions. With an interest in the interplay between speech acts and religious rituals, her research project focuses on the use of chanting practices in late Heian Japan. In her dissertation, she analyzes how lay people perceived ritually formatted language as efficacious and how chanting practices were integrated in the quotidian life of the populace. Her second ongoing project is an extension of her M.A. thesis, which examines the deification of Murasaki Shikibu at Ishiyama Temple near Kyoto, Japan. Iris received her B.A. in Economics with a minor in East Asian Studies from University of California, Los Angeles and her M.A. in EALAC at Columbia before joining the PhD program.