Liu Yining was born in Taipei, Taiwan. She received BA and MA (in Sociology) degrees from National Taiwan University and started her PhD studies since 2014. Her current position is Ph.D. Candidate for the ongoing dissertation research about Modernity and Taiwan Humanistic Buddhism.

Her research interests, as being cultivated in the New Religious Movement research program at Academia Sinica, Taipei, involve three dimensions. First, she is interested in modernity and religious innovation, especially focusing on the cultural reproduction of traditional religions like the new Buddhism movement. Second, religious identity and religious practice in every-day life is also one of her research concerns. The concepts of the Hermeneutics of subject or the government of self by the French philosopher and social theorist Michel Foucault’s books would be integrated to better understand the cultural meaning of modern Buddhist practices in Taiwan. Third, she also follows the spatial turn of sociology to investigate the religious representations of social space in the trend of urbanization and also tries to investigate how religious organizations usually make great social spaces for their followers to keep their deep faith. From these three dimensions, she is going to connect the sociology of religion, sociology of everyday life and sociology of space to better understand the future of religions in the trend of modernization.

Journal Articles

Liu, Yining, 2013, “Heterotopias and Cultural Governance: The Case Study of Museum of World Religions.” New Century Religious Study,vol.11, no.4, pp.49-80。(in Chinese)

Conference Presentations

Liu, Yining, 2015, “Religious Education and Spiritual Practice for the Aged Society- the Case Study of the Humanistic Buddhism in Taiwan.” The Demographic Challenges in the Era of Global Ageing and Migration, August 1-3, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan.

Liu, Yining, 2015, “Doing Volunteer and Making the Reproduction of Spiritual Capital: The Religious Innovation of Global Tzu Chi Buddhism Movement.” Sociological Imagination and Alternative Futures, , Annual Meeting of the Taiwanese Sociological Association,  November 20-21, National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. (in Chinese)