Robert P. Weller took his doctorate from the Johns Hopkins University in 1980 for work on the role of religious variation in Taiwan's changing economy and society. He taught at Duke before coming to Boston, where he is a Professor of Anthropology as well as a member of Boston University's Institute on Culture, Religion and World Affairs. His most recent book is Discovering Nature: Globalization and Environmental Culture in China and Taiwan . Other books include Civil Life, Globalization, and Political Change in Asia: Organizing Between Family and State, Alternate Civilities: Chinese Culture and the Prospects for Democracy, Unities and Diversities in Chinese Religion and Resistance, Chaos and Control in China: Taiping Rebels, Taiwanese Ghosts and Tiananmen. He has also co-edited Power and Protest in the Countryside: Studies of Rural Unrest in Asia, Europe and Latin America and Unruly Gods: Divinity and Society in China.
Professor Weller's present research is concerned with the development of the environmental movement and nature tourism in China and Taiwan in the context of economic growth. He is also looking at the role of local voluntary organizations as mediators between state and society in Hong Kong, Taiwan and China, and he has consulted on poverty and unemployment relief in western China.
For some field photographs, click here.
For a short version of Robert Weller's curriculum vitae, click here.
For abstracts of some of his publications, click here.