Congratulations to Dr. John Johnston, our Center’s Senior Fellow since 2021, on his new appointment as Assistant Professor in the College of Religious Studies at Mahidol University in Thailand. In this role, he will focus on Buddhist Studies, particularly art and material culture. He shared his deep gratitude for his years as a Senior Fellow at CBS, noting that the fellowship came at an important time in his life and career.
Dr. Johnston has been an integral part of our community, co-organizing the online exhibition True Image: Celebrating the Legacy of Yinyuan Longqi (Ingen Ryūki) and the Art of Ōbaku (ingen.arizona.edu), which became the catalyst for his research in Japan. In 2023, he presented “Manpukuji – Views from Inside the Main Temple of the Ōbaku School of Zen” as part of the CBS Ōbaku Ingen/Lingyin Lecture Series, where he shared insights from his ongoing research.
He is Associate Editor of the Journal of International Buddhist Studies (JIBS) and a curator and historian of East Asian art and Buddhist visual and material culture. Dr. Johnston received his PhD in the History of Art from SOAS, University of London, and his MA in Chinese Studies from the University of Hawaii. He has worked as a curator and professor internationally, including more than ten years in Asia (China, Hong Kong, Thailand, and Bhutan), visiting hundreds of Buddhist temples and monasteries in the course of extensive fieldwork.
In the U.S., he has held curatorial roles in museums and galleries, including Curator of Asian Art at the San Antonio Museum of Art, and was previously Assistant Professor of Art History at the Academy of Visual Arts in Hong Kong. He is author or co-author of several books and numerous articles on Asian art and Buddhist visual culture.