Christopher Hartney

Christopher Hartney is a lecturer at the University of Sydney where he studies modern myth and new religions particularly those of East Asia and with a notable mania for Vietnam. He has a doctorate on and has published extensively about the origins and development of Caodaism, Vietnam’s largest indigenous religion. Chris has additional qualifications in Performance Studies, Latin, and is presently studying for a Masters in Education (UTS). He is president of the Sydney Society for Literature and Aesthetics, Australian national delegate to the International Association of Aesthetics, and he co-edits both the Journal for Religious History, and the Journal for Literature and Aesthetics. He has published over 30 scholarly articles, edited numerous books, and written an award-winning high school text book for Studies of Religion. Chris is a charismatic speaker and lectures at institutions across Sydney including the Historic Houses Trust, The Australian Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art and most often at the Art Gallery of New South Wales where his most recent series of public lectures focused on the connection between art, literature and the grand passions. For fun he leads tours to places as far away as Greece, Spain and Morocco, Vietnam and Cambodia, Cabramatta and the great necropolis at Rookwood.