Raji C. Steineck

Raji C. Steineck is a Professor of Japanese Philology at the University of Zurich and Vice Dean of Research for the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. He also holds visiting professorships at Yamaguchi University’s Research Institute for Time Studies and has been actively involved in academic leadership as President of the International Society for the Study of Time (ISST) and board member of the Swiss Asia Society (SAG) and the Center for Medieval Studies Zurich.

• Education: M.A. in Japanese Studies (1993), Dr. phil. in Philosophy (1999), and venia legendi in Japanology (2006) from Bonn University.

His research spans Japanese philosophy, medieval mythologies, symbolic forms in Dōgen, and time in medieval culture. He has pioneered a transcultural theory of symbolic forms inspired by Cassirer, applied to Japanese studies, and led collaborations on topics like modern Japanese philosophy, authorship in East Asian literature, and Buddhist text analysis. His 2014 monograph Symbolische Form und Funktion critically engages with Cassirer’s work, while a monograph on ancient Japanese mythologies is in press.

Recent publications focus on Dōgen’s temporal philosophy, Marxist critique, and bioethical debates in Japan. He has organized interdisciplinary research on Japanese mummified remains (2021) and contributed to critical theory. His awards include the ERC Advanced Grant and fellowships from DAAD, MEXT, Humboldt Foundation, and JSPS.

• Scientific Awards:
  • ERC Advanced Grant (Project ‘Time in Medieval Japan’)
  • DAAD Scholarship
  • MEXT Scholarship (Japanese Ministry of Education)
  • Humboldt Foundation Fellowship
  • JSPS Fellowship

As a mentor for the Swiss Study Foundation and co-editor of Welten Ostasiens and Asiatische Studien/Études Asiatiques, he fosters academic exchange. His teaching at Zurich includes courses on Japanese intellectual history, theoretical philosophy, and classical Japanese literature.