Jason Protass

Jason Protass is an Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Brown University, with affiliations in the Department of Religious Studies and Department of East Asian Studies. His research focuses on Chinese Buddhist history, literature, and society from the Northern Song (960-1127) through the Yuan period, emphasizing intersections between religious practice, poetry, and environmental history.

Protass holds a PhD (2016) and MA (2009) from Stanford University, and a BA (2004) from Yale University. He has conducted advanced studies at Academia Sinica (Taipei), Hanazono University (Kyoto), Ryūkoku University (Kyoto), and Peking University through prestigious fellowships including Fulbright Taiwan and ACLS.

His current projects include a Buddhist environmental history of China's rivers and an exploration of Northern Song Chan teachings for laypersons via the Quanhuawen text. He has published widely on Song-dynasty monastic poetry, Chan-Zen transnational exchanges, and Buddhist manuscript cultures.

Protass teaches courses such as Buddhism in Chinese History, Buddhist Poetry, and Chinese Buddhist Texts. His work bridges literary analysis, spatial history, and religious studies, with recent attention to translingual communication between Chinese and Japanese monks.