Theo Stapleton

Theo is a social anthropology PhD student at Cambridge University. His research focuses on contemporary Chinese Buddhist organisations, particularly one charity foundation that has adopted a strategy of secular-sacred hybridity, manifest in its relationship to the state, hybrid institutions, and polysemic moral values. Theo has also written about the emergence of transcultural Humanistic Buddhism, and China’s emerging private educational sector. Prior to his PhD, Theo completed a masters degree at Oxford in Contemporary China Studies where he received the Ko Cheuk-hung Prize for best thesis, and most recently he took a second master's degree at Peking University as a Yenching scholar where he studied anthropology. Theo’s PhD is funded by the AHRC Open Oxford Cambridge Doctoral Training Program, the Cambridge Trust International Scholarship, and the St John’s Benefactor Scholarship.