Elizabeth Dugu

Thesis Supervisor: Marc des Jardins

Thesis title: From Altars to Ancestors: Daoist Movements, Ancestral Rituals, and Interethnic Exchange of Tujia Minority in the Bashu and Sino-Tibetan Borderland

Elizabeth Dugu is a PhD candidate at Concordia Unversity. She is a member of the Tujia minority in the Sino-Tibetan borderlands.

Elizabeth holds a B.A. in Management from China, an M.A. in Theology (Christianity) from South Korea, and an M.A. in Education from McGill University. She has also completed coursework in Psychology and earned professional certification in Sales Presentation. With extensive experience in teaching, research, management, and business development across Canada, China, and South Korea, Elizabeth brings a rich, cross-cultural perspective to her work. Her strong passion for education, scholarship, and intercultural engagement drives her to further research culture and religion, to contribute to a deeper understanding of the meaning of humanity and civilization.

Elizabeth's current research examines how Daoist movements, indigenous practices, and interethnic exchanges have shaped the religious and social identity of the Tujia people in the Sino-Tibetan borderlands. Her work addresses a gap in current scholarship by exploring the interaction between Daoism and indigenous Tujia beliefs. It reveals how Daoism is organically localized and integrated into Tujia ancestral traditions, and how Daoism, Buddhism, and indigenous practices coexist and evolve within a pluralistic environment. Her research aims to provide data on disappearing traditions and offer insights that help preserve the cultural heritage, as well as provide original resources for scholars of Chinese religions, borderland studies, and interethnic exchance and cultural fusion in contemporary China.

Publications:

• Academic Freedom in a Time of Globalization. European Association of International Education Magazine (EAIE). Online Forum, December 2014.
• Searching for a Mature Social Life: The Ultimate Goal of Deweyan Democracy. Kinesis Journal of Philosophy, Southern Illinois University. P. 58-69, Volume 41, Number 1, Spring 2016.
• The Decay of Academic Mentorship and Friendship Under Marketization of Higher Education. Encyclopedia of Teacher Education, Springer Publishing, 2017.
• Utilitarianism Captures the University - a study of marketization in contemporary higher education through an examination of the humanistic model and market model. McGill University, 2017
• Presented various research papers at McGill University, Concordia University, Canadian Society for the Study of Higher Education (CSSHE), Comparative and International Education Society (CIES), Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, Philosophy of Education Society of Australasia (PESA), and American Educational Research Association (AERA) between 2014 and 2018.

Professional websites:
hermitwarrior.com
taoacademyconsulting.com

Social media:
linkedin.com/in/elizabeth-d-a662b2b9