Duncan Ryuken Williams

Duncan Ryuken Williams was born in Tokyo to a Japanese mother and British father. After growing up in Japan and England, he moved to the U.S. to attend Reed College and then Harvard, where he earned a Ph.D. in Religion. He is currently Professor of Religion and East Asian Languages & Cultures at the University of Southern California, and the Director of the USC Shinso Ito Center for Japanese Religions and Culture. He was ordained in 1993 as a Buddhist priest in the Soto Zen tradition and served as the Buddhist chaplain at Harvard from 1994-96. The editor or co-editor of many academic publications, he is the author of The Other Side of Zen: A Social History of Soto Zen Buddhism in Tokugawa Japan and most recently, American Sutra: A Story of Faith and Freedom in the Second World War. We spoke about Zen, his unusual background, the history of Buddhism in America, and the internment of Japanese Americans in World War II. Learn more about Duncan Williams here.