1995 Award Recipient

Professor Julia Ching (Chinese philosophy and Religions)

Professor Julia Ching (University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario)
Professor Ching is cited for her significant contributions to the scholarship in the History of Chinese Thought and Religion. She is an internationally known and respected China Scholar, and her papers and writings have contributed to the understanding of Chinese Philosophy and religions all over the world.

Educational Background
Born in Shanghai, Professor Ching took her BA in History, Philosophy and Theology at the College of New Rochelle, New Jersey, her M.A. in European History at the Catholic University of America, Washington D.C., and finally her Ph.D. in Chinese Philosophy at the Australian National University, Canberra. She taught at the Australian National University, and Columbia University, New York before arriving in Toronto in 1978.

Career Development
Professor Ching is a Professor of Philosophy, Religion, and East Asian Studies, cross- appointed to 3 separate Departments of the University of Toronto: Philosophy, Religion, and East Asian Studies.

She has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada since 1990. In 1994, she was elected University Professor, the select group of top Professors in the University. She has the select group of top Professors in the University. She has received the Doctor of Humane Letters from St. Andrew’s College in North Carolina. She is a member of Phi Tau Phi Academic Honours Society.

Major Contributions
Professor Ching has an international reputation, and has been invited to teach at the following Universities: Chinese Social Science Academy in China (1981), the Tsing Hua University in Taiwan (1989), Tubingen in Germany (1984), Sorbonne in Paris (1992), Australian National University (1969-1974), Sophia in Tokyo (1970-1974), as well as at Rice University in Houston, Yale in Connecticut, Columbia in New York, Chicago in Illinois, etc.

She is a consultant for many boards, the most prestigious being the Research Council of Canada, the United Nations Non Governmental Organizations Board, the Canadian Pugwash Conference, Chiang Ching Kuo Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the TV Millennium Project, etc.

She is on the Editorial Board of many prestigious journals in Theology and Philosophy, such as Philosophy Wast and West, the International Theology Journal, etc.

She has written over a dozen books by herself, one of which, ‘Confucianism and Christianity’, won the award for Outstanding Book of the Year (1978). Being fluent in many languages, many of her books have been translated into French, German, Italian, Korean and Japanese. She has also written chapters in many textbooks, among which are Encyclopaedia of Religion and Oxford Campanion to World Religions. Her refereed papers and invited lecture number around 200. She has 13 doctoral students and 3 master students, and currently supervises a number of visiting Chinese scholars.

Her administrative abilities included serving as Assistant Dean at the Australian National University (1972), Co-Chair of the 33rd International Congress of Asian and North African Studies (1990), Co-Organizer of the following international conferences: Consilium / Princeton Seminary Conference (1994), Christianity and China at Rice University (1989), Chinese Philosophy at Toronto (1983), Association of Asian Studies at Chicago (1978), China and European Enlightenment at Yale (1976).

She has also been the external examiner and assessor for the following Universities: Columbia, La Trobe (Melbourne), Chicago, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Texas, Hawaii, Delaware, Kuala Lumpur, Colorado, Boston, Universite de Montreal, and Connecticut College.