Ben Van Overmeire’s research focuses on Zen Buddhism, with particular emphasis on kōan practice, Buddhist autobiography, and the literary forms through which religious experience is narrated. His work explores the intersections of religion and literature, Buddhist modernism, and the religious imagination in contemporary culture, including science fiction, cosmology, and outer space exploration. He is especially interested in how Buddhist thought adapts to modern scientific and technological worldviews in China, Japan, and North America. His teaching interests include Zen Buddhism, Chinese and East Asian religions, comparative religion, Buddhist philosophy, religion and literature, and religion and science fiction. At Duke Kunshan University, he teaches in Religious Studies, Global China Studies, and the university-wide Common Core curriculum, with a focus on discussion-based, interdisciplinary pedagogy.

Van Overmeire is the author of American Koan: Zen and Self in Autobiographical Literature (University of Virginia Press, 2024) and co-editor (with James Miller) of Chinese Religions in Five Minutes (forthcoming, Equinox). His research has appeared in journals such as The Journal of Chinese Philosophy, Religions, Contemporary Buddhism, and The Journal of Popular Culture, as well as in edited volumes from Oxford and Hawai‘i University Press. He is actively involved in curricular leadership and educational innovation at Duke Kunshan University and serves on steering committees for the Religion and Science Fiction and Comparative Studies of Religion units of the American Academy of Religion.

Van Overmeire received a B.A. and an M.A. in Germanic Languages and Literatures from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, an M.A. in American Studies from the University of Antwerp, and an M.A. in Comparative Literature from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He earned his Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the University of California, San Diego. Before joining Duke Kunshan University, he served as a postdoctoral fellow of the Research Foundation–Flanders (FWO) at Ghent University (Belgium).