Alison Denton Jones

Graduate Student in Sociology

Biographical Note

Alison's academic work spans the territories of religion, culture, and organization. Her primary individual research investigates the (re)construction of religion in contemporary Chinese societies, focusing on lay Buddhism. She is interested in how people "do" "modern" religion: how do individuals practice and make sense of their religious identities; how do religious leaders carve out cultural and institutional spaces, and how do different conceptual schema of religion's place in a "modern" society interact? She spent the 2007-2008 academic year conducting dissertation fieldwork on urban Buddhism in the PRC. While in China, she was a junior fellow of the Institute for International Research at the Hopkins - Nanjing Center for Chinese - American Studies at Nanjing University.

For her MA thesis, she completed a study of Buddhist groups in Taiwan that draws attention to the boundary work of these groups. Noting the contrast between these groups and the "strict churches" so often studied in sociology of religion, the paper builds a new conceptual framework for understanding the boundary work of religious organizations.

Alison has also been working on two related projects with Chris Winship and the Hauser Center for Nonprofits. She and Chris Winship have co-authored a paper that "takes the measure" of the research field of nonprofit and voluntary organizations in the US and proposes a new conceptual and methodological approach. She is also part of the research team for a new Hauser Center pilot study on nonprofit and voluntary organizations in the Boston area.

On a personal note:
In Alison's childhood, her family divided its time between Washington, DC and rural Maine, so both summer farm work and international affairs were a part of her life from age one. Undergraduate study took her to Pomona College in the Los Angeles area, where she focused on Chinese Studies with a minor in Sociology. After graduation in 1998, she spent a year living in Buddhist monasteries in Taiwan and Mainland China, pursuing a research project supported by a Freeman Asia Foundation Fellowship. In addition to learning more about Buddhism in general by trying to follow the daily lives of nuns, she focused on the trend towards "engaged" Buddhism.

After the Freeman fellowship year in China, Alison studied for a year at the Johns Hopkins - Nanjing Center for Chinese and American Studies at Nanjing University in the PRC. This unique program offers graduate-level courses on modern Chinese history, culture, and society taught entirely in Chinese by professors from Nanjing University.

She speaks Mandarin Chinese, and has additional interests that include gardening, Chinese folk art, photography, good food, and travel. Alison was married on September 3, 2005 to Matthew McKeon at her parents' farm in Hope, Maine.

10/19/2009

Curriculum Vitae

Research Interests

Sociology of Religion, Organizations, Culture, Social Movements, Political Sociology, Development, China and East Asia, research design and methods

Previous Degrees

2000, Certificate of Graduate Study: Hopkins-Nanjing Center for Chinese and American Studies, Nanjing, PRC
1998, B.A. Asian Studies, Pomona College, Claremont, CA

Qualifying Paper Title

"Zen and the Art of Boundary Maintenance: towards a Conceptual Framework of Boundary Work in Religious Organizations"

Committee

Marty White, Michele Lamont, Rob Weller (BU)

Abstract

Are "strong" religious groups necessarily "strict"? This paper examines a major but understudied religious movement – New Buddhist Organizations (NBOs) in Taiwan – in the light of three variants of Strictness theories: Theological Strictness, Deviant Strictness, and Subcultural Identity. These theories highlight some interesting aspects of the movement, but ultimately NBOs belie the proposition that a strong, growing religious organization is necessarily "strict." Rather than abandon the insights of Strictness theories altogether, the paper argues that they can contribute to understanding the success of religious groups as part of more broadly conceptualized strategies of boundary work. A multi-dimensional framework is proposed, separating three aspects of the content, structure, and mechanisms for religious groups' boundary work. This expanded framework is shown to provide better leverage on understanding Taiwanese NBOs' success than uni-dimensional Strictness theories. Further development of a more complex framework for understanding the boundary work of religious organizations should allow us to ask, not "are strict churches strong?" but "under what circumstances are certain strategies of boundary work more or less successful for religious organizations?"

Prospectus Title

"Constructing Modern Religion: Doing Buddhism in Urban China Today"

Committee

Marty Whyte, Chris Winship, Nancy Ammerman (BU)

Abstract

My dissertation will explore the ways that religion interacts with society in contemporary urban China by focusing on lay Buddhism. I plan to study Buddhists in and around the city of Nanjing in central China. My research aims to answer three questions about urban Buddhists in China: Who is participating in Buddhism? How do they practice and think about Buddhism? Finally, how does Buddhism affect their actions in economic, social, and moral aspects of their lives? This study will help us to flesh out our map of the contemporary Chinese religious landscape. It will also contribute to our understanding of the ongoing dialog between religion and modern life as it plays out in the lives of ordinary people – a dialog that is critical in China's effort to build a harmonious society, as well as that same effort in many other societies today.

Miscellaneous Additional Information

Research Assistantships

"Taking Measure of the US Nonprofit/Voluntary Sector" with Chris Winship and the KSG Hauser Center on Nonprofits (2004 to present)

Grants Received

Dissertation Research (2007-2008):
- J. William Fulbright Cultural Exchange Fellowship
- Harvard University Frederick Sheldon Traveling Fellowship
- Harvard University Fairbank Center Shum Fellowship for Social Science Research on Contemporary China (declined)
- Peking University-Harvard Yenching Institute Fellowship for Advanced Research in Chinese Studies (declined)

Misc. Small Research Grants:
- Hauser Center for Nonprofits Program on Religion and Public Life Small Research Grant
- Society for the Scientific Study of Religion (SSSR) Jack Shand Research Award

QP Research (Summer 2004):
- Harvard Asia Center's Republic of China Research Fellowship

House Tutor Position

2009-2010: Sociology Concentration Advisor for Adams, Quincy, and Winthrop Houses
2005-present: Non-resident Tutor at Quincy House (Sociology, East Asia)

Leshan Buddha, PRC, photo by Gwyneth Jones

Contact

617-496-3846 (Phone)
617-496-5794 (FAX)

609 William James Hall
33 Kirkland Street
Cambridge, MA 02138

Office Hours

by appointment

House Office Hours: Sundays 5:30 to 6:30 pm, rotating btw Quincy, Adams, and Winthrop