Julius Tsai

Branch Public Affairs Officer at the American Institute in Taiwan, Kaohsiung Branch Office

PhD, Stanford University

BA, Swarthmore College

MDiv, Harvard University

Graduation Year

2003

Dissertation Title

"In the Steps of Emperors and Immortals: Ritual Tours to the Mountains in Early Daoism"

Julius Tsai joined the U.S. Department of State in 2010 and became a Branch Public Affairs Officer at the American Institute in Taiwan's Kaohsiung Branch Office in 2020.

Prior to joining the State Department, Julius was an Assistant Professor of East Asian Religions at Texas Christian University. He studied the history of Daoism and Chinese religions, with particular interests in ritual action, religious identity and otherness, religious secrecy, biography, and religion and empire. His publications include “Reading the Inner Biography of the Perfected Person of Purple Solarity: Religion and Society in an Early Daoist Hagiography,” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Series 3, 18:2 (2008) (winner of the Professor Mary Boyce Award for an Article Relating to the Study of Religion in Asia); and “Opening Up the Ritual Casket: Patterns of Concealment and Disclosure in Chinese Religion,” Material Religion, 2:1 (2006).