Dr. Emily B. Simpson

Dr. Emily B. Simpson is an assistant professor in the Department for the Study of Religions. She received her M.A. and Ph.D. from the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultural Studies at the University of California at Santa Barbara. Prior to her appointment as Assistant Professor at Wake Forest University, she taught Japanese religions at Dartmouth College and held a postdoctoral fellowship at the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies at Harvard University. Dr. Simpson specializes in medieval and early modern Japan and is interested in the creation and structure of Japanese deities, the intersection of religion and gender, and in the role of narratives in promoting and spreading religious discourses. Her current book project, Crafting a Goddess: Divinization and Womanhood in Late Medieval and Early Modern Narratives of Empress Jingū, explores how an ancient empress was divinized as a goddess both in imperial circles and regional, women-centered deity cults. 

Ph.D., University of California at Santa Barbara (East Asian Languages and Cultural Studies)

M.A., University of California at Santa Barbara (Asian Studies)

A.B., Vassar College (Asian Studies) 

“Ugly Navigators, Dragon Gods, and Awesome Women: The Uncanny Bodies of Maritime Deities in Narratives of Empress Jingū.” Journal of Religion in Japan, Special issue “Uncanny Bodies in Japanese Religions,” forthcoming Nov 2023.

“Like A Fierce God: Re-envisioning the Enemy in the Legend of Empress Jingū in the Wake of the Mongol Invasions.” Religions 13 (8), Special issue “Aspects of Medieval Japanese Religion,” July 2022: 695 (16 pages).  

“Unsightly Sea-Dweller or Beautiful Boy? The Many Faces (and Bodies) of the Deity Azumi no Isora.” Ningen bunka kenkyūjō nenpō 17, March 2022: 7-11.”Women.” In The Bloomsbury Handbook of Japanese Religions, eds. Erica Baffelli, Fabio Rambelli, and Andrea Castiglioni, 257-266. London: Bloomsbury, March 2021.

“An Empress at Sea: Sea Deities and Divine Union in the Legend of Empress Jingū.” In The Sea and the Sacred in Japan: Aspects of Maritime Religiosity, ed. Fabio Rambelli, 65-78. London: Bloomsbury, 2018.  

• REL 104C: Introduction to East Asian Religions
• REL 109: Introduction to Buddhist Traditions