Gwendolyn Gillson

Background

I am Associate Professor of Asian Studies in the History, Philosophy, Political Science, and Religion department at Illinois College. My research brings together anthropology of religion, religious studies, Japanese studies, and gender studies to trouble the “traditional” narratives of scholarship and society. My work focuses on otherness, however defined, within larger power structures and attempts to recover and ultimately highlight otherized experiences and ways of being. Please check out the rest of the website for more details!

My edited textbook, The Essential Guide to Buddhism, came out with Bloomsbury Academic in 2024. Purchase a copy here.

Before Illinois College, I worked as Visiting Assistant Professor of East Asian Religions at Oberlin College. I received my PhD in Religious Studies from the University of Iowa in 2018 and an MA from the same institution in 2015. In 2012, I received an MLIS in Archives from the University of Oklahoma and my BA in Religion from Gustavus Adolphus College in 2009. I now proudly serve on the Phi Beta Kappa Committee at IC after being inducted as an undergraduate.

Born in Oklahoma, I have moved all around the Midwest and love every second of it. I enjoy cooking, baking (and winning baking competitions), reading fiction, playing D&D, and spending time with my husband John, and my cat Herne.