Nationality Australian Website Benjamin Penny at NLA | Name Benjamin Penny | |
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Occupation Associate ProfessorResearch Fellow,School of Culture, History & LanguageAustralian National UniversityCollege of Asia and the Pacific Books The Religion of Falun Gong | ||
Benjamin David Penny (born 27 October 1959) is an Australian academic specialising in religious and spiritual movements in modern and contemporary China. He is a Harold White Fellow at the National Library of Australia.
Contents
His area of specialty is Falun Gong as well as the interpretation of Chinese religions by westerners and the history of the religions of Chinese Australians. The Times Literary Supplement states that in 'The Religion of the Falun Gong' Penny “makes a good case for defining Falun Gong as a modern Chinese religion. . . . [He] provides an admirable guide to the short history of Falun Gong and the eclectic complexities of its doctrine, which he sets within the framework of indigenous religious belief over the centuries.”
Family and education
Penny is the younger brother of Professor Simon Penny (born 1955) who is a theorist, curator and teacher in the field of Interactive Media Art. Benjamin Penny was born in Melbourne and attended Newington College (1972–1977). He was awarded a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Sydney, a Master of Philosophy from University of Cambridge and a PhD from the Australian National University.
Career
After university study, Penny was a post-doctoral fellow at the ANU. From 1999 until 2005, he was the first Executive Officer of the Herbert and Valmae Freilich Foundation. During the years 2003 and 2004 he was a research fellow at the Centre for Cross-Cultural Research. Penny was appointed to the Division of Pacific and Asian History in October 2005. Since January 2010 he has been Deputy Director, and a Research Fellow, at the School of Culture, History & Language ANU College of Asia and the Pacific.
Awards
Harold White Fellow
The Religion of Falun Gong won Choice Magazine's Outstanding Academic Title Awards.