Dr. Sung Ha Yun received her M.A. in Asian Studies from the University of California, Berkeley, in 2014 and her Ph.D. in Buddhist Studies from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 2021. She was ordained as a Won Buddhist kyomu (priest) in 2007 and was awarded the prestigious ACLS/Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Fellowship in Buddhist Studies in 2020.

Dr. Yun is currently preparing her book manuscript, Making a “Congregation of a Thousand Buddhas and a Million Bodhisattvas”: A Study of the Formation of Won Buddhism, a New Korean Buddhist Religion. The manuscript explores the dynamic interplay between indigenous Korean spirituality, East Asian Buddhist practices, modernity, and evolving interpretations of the concept of “religion.”

Since Fall 2021, Dr. Yun has served as an Assistant Professor of Religion and Asian Studies at St. Olaf College, where she teaches courses on Buddhism, Asian cultures and religions, and East Asian new religious movements. Her research interests include Korean Buddhism, gender and Buddhism, East Asian new religious movements, and Yogācāra Buddhist philosophy.