Steven Heine

Steven Heine, Ph.D., is a Professor of Religion and History as well as Director of the Institute for Asian Studies at Florida International University (FIU). He specializes in East Asian and comparative religions, Japanese Buddhism and medieval intellectual history, Buddhist studies, and religion and social sciences. His research interests include Zen Buddhism and Japanese culture. Heine teaches a variety of courses including Japanese Religion and Culture, Zen Buddhism, Asian Values in Business, and Religions of the Silk Road.

He has published 20 books and dozens of articles in refereed journals and collections such as Journal of Asian Studies, Philosophy East and West, The Eastern Buddhist, Japanese Journal of Religious Studies, Journal of Chinese Philosophy, and Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, among others.

Heine has received numerous grants to develop Asian Studies at FIU and has overseen well over $1.5 million in external funding, including projects awarded by the U.S. Department of Education, the Japan Foundation, and National Endowment for the Humanities.

In spring 2004, Heine received the Japan Ministry of Foreign Affairs Award. This was bestowed for lifetime achievement in service to the exchanges between Japan and America and contributing to the benefit of Japan-U.S. relations. He was the only non-Japanese or Japanese-American among the recipients of the award in the Florida state district.

In 2006, Heine was awarded the Kauffman Entrepreneurship Professors Award by the Florida International University’s Eugenio Pino and Family Global Entrepreneurship Center housed in the College of Business Administration that has led to research and a seminar on Asian cultural values in business. The project is based on Heine’s book (Oxford University Press, 2005).

On April 29, 2007 the Government of Japan conferred the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette to Steven Heine. This award is in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the advancement of the study of Japanese culture and the promotion of understanding of Japan.

Education and Career

Steven Heine received a B.A. in Religious Thought from the University of Pennsylvania in 1971. He then went on to study at Temple University where he received an M.A. (1976) and PhD (1980) in Religion. After obtaining his degrees, Heine received the Fulbright Fellowship for the study of Dogen’s collected Japanese poetry at Tokyo University and Komazawa University.

Heine lectured at Villanova University in Religious Studies from 1982-1987. In 1987 he became an Assistant Professor of Religion at LaSalle University and taught there until 1991 when he moved to Penn State University and became an Associate Professor of Religious Studies. He left Penn State University in 1997 to work as Director of Florida International University’s Institute of Asian Studies. Since his arrival at FIU, Steven Heine has expanded Asian Studies and helped facilitate its growth at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. The program also has an extensive outreach component. He is also editor of the Japan Studies Review and a review editor for Philosophy East and West.

In addition to his teaching career, Steven Heine is an accomplished author of various books and articles that discuss Japanese culture and religion, particularly Zen Buddhism and the life and teachings of the Zen Buddhist Dogen. He is a leading scholar of Dogen and has incorporated the latest studies from Japan into his research. His book "Did Dogen Go to China? What He Wrote and When He Wrote It" (Oxford University Press, 2006) is a comprehensive textual biography and study of the full extent of Dogen’s works. Furthermore, he is an innovative interpreter of Zen in both a traditional and modern context and has translated and edited works by Masao Abe, the eminent modern Japanese thinker. Heine has also helped promote outstanding scholarship on Japanese religion and society and has won two National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowships.

elected Publications

*"Zen Skin, Zen Marrow: Will the Real Zen Buddhism Please Stand Up" (Oxford University Press, 2007, ISBN 978-0195326772 )
*Co-Editor, "Zen Ritual: Studies of Zen Buddhist Theory in Practice" (Oxford University Press, 2007, ISBN 978-0195304688 )
*"Did Dogen Go to China? What He Wrote and When He Wrote It" (Oxford University Press, 2006, ISBN 978-0-19-530592-0)
*"The Zen Poetry of Dogen: Verses from the Mountain of Eternal Peace" (Dharma Communication, 2005, ISBN 978-1-882795-20-8)
* (Oxford University Press, 2005, ISBN 978-0-19-516003-1)
*Co-Editor, "Zen Classics: Formative Texts in the History of Zen Buddhism" (Oxford University Press, 2005, ISBN 978-0-19-517525-7)
*Co-Editor, "The Zen Canon: Understanding the Classic Texts" (Oxford University Press, 2004, ISBN 978-0-19-515068-1)
*"Opening a Mountain: Koans of the Zen Masters" (Oxford University Press, 2004, ISBN 978-0-19-517434-2)
*Editor, "Zen and the Modern World: A Third Sequel to Zen and Western Thought," by Masao Abe (University of Hawaii Press, 2003, ISBN 978-0-8248-2665-9)
*Co-Editor, "Buddhism in the Modern World: Adaptations of an Ancient Tradition" (Oxford University Press, 2003, ISBN 978-0-19-514698-1)
*Co-Editor, "The Koan: Texts and Contexts in Zen Buddhism" (Oxford University Press, 2000, ISBN 978-0-8248-2197-5)
*"Shifting Shape, Shaping Text: Philosophy and Folklore in Fox Koan" (University of Hawaii Press, 2000, ISBN 978-0-8248-2197-5)
*Editor, "Zen and Comparative Studies: Part Two of a Two-Volume Sequel to Zen and Western Thought," by Masao Abe (University of Hawaii Press, 1997, ISBN 978-0-8248-1832-6)
*"Dogen and the Koan Tradition: A Tale of Two Shobogenzo Texts" (SUNY Press, 1997, ISBN 978-0-7914-1773-7 )
*Editor, "Buddhism and Interfaith Dialogue, Part One of a Two-Volume Sequel to Zen and Western Thought," by Masao Abe (University of Hawaii Press, 1995, ISBN 978-0-8248-1752-7)
*Co-Editor, "Japan in Traditional and Postmodern Perspectives" (SUNY Press, 1995, ISBN 978-0-7914-2469-8)
*"A Dream Within a Dream: Studies in Japanese Thought" (Peter Lang Publishing Group, 1991, ISBN 978-0-8204-1350-1)
*Editor, "A Study of Dogen: His Philosophy and Religion," by Masao Abe (SUNY Press, 1991, ISBN 978-0-7914-0838-4)
*"A Blade of Grass: Japanese Poetry and Aesthetics in Dogen Zen" (Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., 1989, ISBN 978-0-8204-0627-5)
*"Existential and Ontological Dimensions in Heidegger and Dogen" (SUNY Press, 1985, ISBN 978-0-88706-000-7)

Awards and Grants

*Freeman Foundation, "National Consortium for Teaching about Asia" professional development and teacher training, 2007-continuous.
*Department of Education, in collaboration with Miami-Dade County Public Schools, Bilingual Education through Mandarin Instruction (BETMI) language development program, 2006-2009.
*National Endowment for the Humanities for “Miami-China Connection,” 2006-2008.
*Center for Global Entrepreneurship, “Asian Values in Business,” for graduate course and conference, 2006-2007.
*Japan Foundation, Center for Global Partnership for “JapaNet” professional development and teacher training, 2004-2007.
*Japan Foundation, Salary Assistance for language instruction, 2003-2006.
*Department of Education, Title VI International Undergraduate Programs and Foreign Languages grant, 2001-2004.
*National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship award for research on "Opening a Mountain," 2000-2001.
*Association for Asian Studies research award for “Opening a Mountain,” summer 2001.
*Department of Education Title VI International Undergraduate Programs and Foreign Languages grant award for "Asian Globalization and Latin America" Project, 1999-2001.
*Department of Education Title VI grant award for Asian Studies Initiative 1997-1999.
*National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship award for research on the "Wild Fox Koan" project, 1996-97.
*American Academy of Religion for research on the "Wild Fox Koan" project, 1996.
*Center for Japanese Studies, University of Michigan, research on "Tragedy and Salvation in the Floating World," 1993.
*Association for Asian Studies on Dogen's koan collection at Komazawa University in Tokyo, Summer 1992.
*Fulbright Senior Fellow for study of Dogen's collected Japanese poetry at Tokyo University and Komazawa University, 1981-1982.

External links

* [http://www.fiu.edu/~heines/ Steven Heine]
* [http://www.whitecollarzen.com/ White Collar Zen]