Theo Stapleton

Theo’s PhD research was conducted at the first official Buddhist institution from the People’s Republic of China in East Africa. Based on 12 months of ethnographic research at Tanhua Temple as a Chinese-Swahili translator, he gained deep access into the mission’s orphanage, monastery and growing list of charitable projects in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. His dissertation explores the way religious, linguistic, political, ethnic and other differences shape the contours of social relations at Tanhua Temple, and what that might tell us about modalities of engagement across difference more broadly. 

Prior to his PhD, Theo studied philosophy at the University of Western Australia, but also spent two years on exchange in Beijing as a New Colombo Plan scholar (2015-2017). After completing an honours degree in Asian Studies (2018), he undertook a master's degree at Oxford in Contemporary China Studies where he received the Ko Cheuk-hung Prize for best thesis (2019), and most recently he finished a second master's degree at Peking University as a Yenching scholar where he studied anthropology (2020). 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.