Franciscus Verellen

A historian of medieval China, Franciscus Verellen is Professor Emeritus in the History of Daoism and a former Director (2004-2014) of the École française d'Extrême-Orient (EFEO).

Verellen has published widely in the fields of regional cultural history and Daoism, including Imperiled Destinies: The Daoist Quest for Deliverance in Medieval China (Harvard University Press 2019), The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang (3 volumes, ed. with Kristofer Schipper, University of Chicago Press 2004), and Du Guangting (850-933): taoïste de cour à la fin de la Chine médiévale (Collège de France 1989).

After doctoral studies at Oxford and Paris, Franciscus Verellen taught at Columbia University, New York, and the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Paris, before joining the EFEO in 1991. He held visiting appointments at Princeton University, the University of California at Berkeley, and McMaster University, Ontario, and invitations as Alexander von Humboldt Fellow (Munich, Oxford, and Heidelberg), fellow-in-residence at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study (Wassenaar), Stewart Lecturer in the Humanities (Princeton), member and Edwin C. and Elisabeth A. Whitehead Fellow in the School of Historical Studies, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, distinguished adjunct researcher at Renmin University, Beijing, and Visiting Fellow at Clare Hall, University of Cambridge. He is currently a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Chinese Studies and Adjunct Professor in the Department of Cultural and Religious Studies, Chinese University of Hong Kong, and a Fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin. He is a Life Member of Clare Hall, University of Cambridge. 

Distinctions: member of the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles-Lettres, Institut de France; knight, French Legion of Honour; commander, Order of the Palmes Académiques; knight, Royal Order of Sahametrei; officer, Royal Order of Cambodia; Association of American Publishers Award for Excellence in Professional and Scholarly Publishing, American Academy of Religion Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion.