Religion Department

Department News

An Interview with Professor Montrose

September 30, 2021

The Religion Department welcomed Dr. Victoria Montrose as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Religion this year. Religion Senior Benjamin Fung had an opportunity to ask her about her research and teaching interests. 

What got you interested in the study of religion?

I have been interested in religion from the time I was a child. I was always eager to attend religious services of all kinds with friends from various traditions. In college, I studied political science because I was interested in international human rights law, but my studies left me with a desire to understand the underlying beliefs and world views that motivated politics and the law. So after college and a two year stint teaching English in Japan, I turned to religious studies and found my intellectual home there. 

Do you have any interests in your particular field?

My interests center on the ways in which Buddhism, especially Japanese Buddhism, responded and contributed to modernizing and globalizing forces. That has led me to look at new Buddhist movements and Buddhist education as two lenses through which to examine these modernizing and globalizing forces.

What is your current research project? 

My current research project looks at the establishment of modern universities by Buddhist groups in 19th century Japan. I examine the ways in which the university as a novel institution radically transformed the way Japanese Buddhists envisioned their place within global Buddhism and the emerging framework of the "world religions." My research also illuminates the way Japanese Buddhist intellectuals actively contributed to the formation of the modern field of Buddhist Studies internationally. 

I know that you’ve only taught at Reed for a short time but how does it compare to the other places that you may have taught?

In my short time here, I have observed that Reedies are very hard working and curious. This combination makes for an educator's dream classroom environment. I'm frequently challenged and impressed by the types of questions and ideas students bring to conferences.   

Is there anything that you’d like to tell Religion students about the classes that you’re currently teaching? 

Alongside the material in every course, students in my classes are expected to do a lot of self reflection on the ideas and experiences they bring to the course. We interrogate our role as scholars in the study of religion and the ways in which the work we do in the classroom is itself a part of Buddhism's story.