Guide to Living in the Halls

Faculty-in-Residence

Will Hansen

Dr. Hansen specializes in modern Japanese religions, and focuses on Shinto
and Buddhism.  He lectures on ethnography, folklore, and healing.  He
received his A.B. in East Asian Studies from Columbia College, his M.A.
in Religious Studies from the University of Colorado at Boulder, and his
Ph.D. in Religious Studies from Stanford University.  He taught at the
University of California Santa Barbara and most recently at Western
Kentucky University before accepting the post of assistant professor of
Japanese religions here at SDSU.

As part of the religion department's interdisciplinary mission, Dr. Hansen
teaches one class a year in the Department of Asia Pacific Studies.
Currently he teaches Asian Thought and Cultures for Asian Studies, as does
his wife Kelly, who also teaches another class in that department on Media
and Popular Culture in Japan.  She focuses on manga and anime, the Japanese
graphic novels and animated films that have become popular around the globe.
She also teaches a more general course on Asian Cinema.  Bailey the cat is
the latest addition to the Hansen family.  Bailey specializes in string
theory and can often be seen conducting experiments on the clumping
properties of sands and small gravels.