John Grisafi

John is working in the intersection of the Asian Religions and the Religion and Modernity fields. His primary research interest is in the political and social history of religion in modern Korea and Japan. He is especially concerned with the concepts of religion and religious freedom and how their development and utilization is linked to the geopolitical history of Northeast Asia in the 19th and 20th centuries. John’s previous research has covered such topics as the religions policy of the U.S. military occupation of South Korea, Japanese Shinto in colonial Korea, the relationships between religious and national identity affiliations in colonial Korea, the post-WWII return of American Protestant missionaries to Korea, the political discourse on Korean shamanism in the 21st century, and more.