Jens Reinke holds the position of Assistant Professor of Buddhist Studies at the Buddhist Studies Seminary of the Vrije University Amsterdam in the Netherlands. His research primarily focuses on the development of contemporary Chinese Mahayana within today's global context.

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Centering on Taiwan, Jens Reinke explores contemporary Buddhist social engagements shaped by translocative entanglements, such as Western colonial legacies, Asian nation-state building, ethnic Chinese migration, dynamics of tension between nation-states, increased global integration, and the cross-border circulation of ideas and practices.

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Jens Reinke has extensively published on contemporary Taiwanese Buddhism. Notably, his book titled "Mapping Modern Mahayana: Chinese Buddhism and Migration in the Age of Global Modernity" presents a multi-sited ethnography centered around the Taiwanese Buddhist organization Fo Guang Shan. "Mapping Modern Mahayana" was recognized as a “Groundbreaking Work in the Study of Chinese Religions” by the Society for the Study of Chinese Religions. It is published in 2021 by De Gruyter.

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In his ongoing research, Jens Reinke examines the reception of Buddhist spiritual care in Taiwan, with a particular focus on practices and ideas related to disease, dying, and death.

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Research Interests

Taiwanese Buddhism social engagements, Buddhism in sinophone societies,  Buddhist transnationalism, multiple modern religiosities, Buddhism and global modernity, Buddhist spiritual care, Buddhist death and dying, multi-sited ethnography