Emmett Chan completed his BA at UBC in 2016, during which he majored in Asian Studies. In 2017 he began to pursue his MA focusing on Japanese New Religious Movements (NRM) in a North American context. He is interested in understanding why some NRMs formed exclusive communities, what attracts people to, and what ultimately repels people from an organized religion. Emmett is also involved with event planning and website curation for The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Program in Buddhism and Contemporary Society at UBC.