Precious little of the experimental, empirical, and philosophical research I do would have been possible without the faith of the people and institutions named here. Retraining in statistics, psychology, and biological anthropology transformed my research and left me humbled and thankful. My collaborators taught me methods I did not have, and the errors that remain are mine.

Funders

  • Hanse-Wissenschaftskolleg Institute for Advanced Study. Fellowship for the book project What Made China Chinese? (2025–26). The book in progress.

  • California State University, Fullerton, Office of Research. Junior/Senior Award, “Understanding ancestor religion’s contribution to human cooperation” (2025–26). Work in progress.

  • John Templeton Foundation, through Hillsdale College (subaward #1003, JTF #61886). The Anatomy of Agency, with Daniel Lim as co-PI (2022–24). Articles in Review of Philosophy and Psychology (2025) and Digital Humanities Quarterly (2025).

  • John Templeton Foundation (#62377). Philosophy of Science for Cultural Evolution: Proposing a Research Network (2022–23). A review in Evolutionary Human Sciences (2024) and a paper in the Journal of Cognition and Culture (2022).

  • Albert and Elaine Borchard Foundation. Understanding Cultural Evolutionary Mechanisms of Human Knowledge Transmission (workshop, July 2022). A special issue of the Journal of Cognition and Culture, 22(5).

  • John Templeton Foundation (consulting agreement with CSUF). Grand Challenges in the Philosophy of Cultural Evolution (2021). A white paper for the Foundation.

  • Templeton World Charity Foundation (TWCF #0257). Understanding China’s Changing Moral Psychology (January 2019–June 2021). The Routledge International Handbook of Morality, Cognition, and Emotion in China (2022) and its Chinese edition (2023).

  • John Templeton Foundation (#60704). Academic Cross-Training Fellowship (2017–20). Retraining in statistics, psychology, and biological anthropology.

  • Templeton World Charity Foundation (TWCF #0020). Religion and Moral Development, part of “The Chinese Challenge” (2011–14). Experiments in China and the United States; quantitative research on ancient Chinese texts.

  • University of British Columbia, Centre for Human Evolution, Cognition and Culture. Research fellowship, “The Evolution of Religion” project (2012–13). Research on cultural evolution and religion in historical China.

  • John Templeton Foundation, administered by Oxford’s Centre for Anthropology and Mind. Two grants, on divine intentionality and morality and on Chinese religious belief and ancestor veneration (2009–10; 2011–13). Cognitive science of religion experiments.

  • University of Notre Dame, Center for Philosophy of Religion. Fellowships (2000–01; 2010–11). Philosophy of religion research.

  • National Endowment for the Humanities. Fellowship (2005–06). Research on Thomas Reid.

Smaller grants and travel awards from California State University, Fullerton, are listed in my CV.

Collaborators

Funder statements

This project was made possible through the support of a grant from Templeton World Charity Foundation, Inc. (funder DOI 501100011730) through grant 10.54224/20257. The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Templeton World Charity Foundation, Inc.

This work was made possible through the support of grants 60704, 61886 (through Hillsdale College), and 62377 from the John Templeton Foundation. The opinions expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the John Templeton Foundation.

Support

If you would like to support my interdisciplinary research, please get in touch with me by email about making a tax-deductible donation to my grant account at California State University, Fullerton.