Chris was educated at Cambridge, Keio, and Oxford universities.  Before moving to the University of Victoria, Chris was chair professor of Comparative Philosophy & Political Thought and chair professor of Modern Japan Studies at Leiden University, where he was also a VICI laureate of the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO).   Chris has particular interests in the frontiers of philosophy and what happens when you cross them.  These frontiers might be sketched around Euro-centricity or textual-centricity.  He has published widely in the fields of ethical & political thought, comparative philosophy, philosophy of mind, performance philosophy, and Asian studies.  Recent work has been in the intersecting fields of contemplation, embodiment, and performance. Drawing on comparative philosophy, Chris runs an ongoing project about meditation, mindfulness, and being – including the popular MOOC, ‘De-Mystifying Mindfulness’ (Coursera, 2016-present).  Other recent projects explore the potentials of secular magic, martial arts, and videogames as sites of philosophical and ideological exploration and expression.

Recent works include:

• Political Philosophy in Japan: Nishida, the Kyoto School and Co-Prosperity (Routledge, 2005)
• Re-Politicising the Kyoto School as Philosophy (Routledge, 2008)
• Modern Japan, A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2009)
• De-Mystifying Mindfulness(Coursera, 2016-present)
• Conjuring Asia: Magic, Orientalism and the Making of the Modern World(Cambridge University Press, 2016)
• The Virtual Ninja Manifesto: Fighting Games, Martial Arts and Gamic Orientalism (Rowman & Littlefield, 2016).