Alex Mayfield is Assistant Professor of History at Asbury University and a Visiting Researcher at the Center for Global Christianity and Mission at Boston University. His research utilizes digital methodologies that enable the reconstruction of historical networks and movements within global Christianity. His research and teaching interests include global history, Pentecostal/Charismatic movements, mission history in East Asia, and the history of colonial Latin America.
Much of his research is dedicated to collaborative digital projects. Currently, he is a principal investigator for the China Historical Christian Database, an NEH-funded, international collaborative project that seeks to identify Christian people, events, and institutions in China between 1550 and 1950. With his help, the project has become the largest collection of data on Christian actors in China’s past, and it continues to grow. Beyond this project, he continues to serve as a technical advisor to the Chinese Christian Posters projects and the Dictionary of African Christian Biography. Most recently, he began leading a team of scholars to produce a digital documentary edition of the correspondence of Robert Morrison, the first Protestant missionary to China.
In his research, he explores the transnational dimensions of the early Pentecostal movement. His latest book, The Kaleidoscopic City, explores how changes in the structural and conceptual frameworks of foreign Pentecostals had a dramatic impact on the shape of Hong Kong Pentecostalism. Currently, he is researching how early Pentecostals theologized, utilized, and transformed network technologies in the 20th century.
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