Dr. Cheung researches how contemporary agents use Buddhist doctrine and ritual practices in Chinese and American contexts as well as transnational networks. He has published on Buddhists engaging with healing, meditation, ethical dilemmas, economics, capitalism, secularism, science, and technology. His work appears in The Journal of the American Academy of Religion; Religion, State and Society; The Journal of Buddhist Ethics; Miracles: An Exercise in Comparative Philosophy of Religion; Teaching About Asia in a Time of Pandemic; Buddhism and Medicine: An Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Sources; Studies in Chinese Religions; and Handbook of Ethical Foundations of Mindfulness. 

Dr. Cheung is co-editor of Buddhism and Healing in the Modern World, forthcoming by the University of Hawai'i Press scheduled for 2024. In that volume, he contributes a chapter on a contemporary Chinese American religious healer and his healing community in the New York City area. The chapter argues that the research subject's healing of vastly disparate ailments-including a cancerous tumor, dislocated jaw, balance disorder, and amnesia-lends him legitimacy when he teaches Buddhism. The healer spreads religion to his community by explaining karmic causes of disease and prescribing Buddhist healing rituals. Dr. Cheung's next major research project is a monograph that examines this healer and community in detail. 

In addition to his scholarly work, he has written public-facing essays on religious studies, international students, and mindfulness in classrooms and art spaces. Dr. Cheung received a BA in Philosophy from New York University and a MA and Ph.D. in Religious Studies from Temple University. He has studied or worked abroad in Nanjing, Seoul, Beijing, Kyoto, and Jinshan (New Taipei).  He is a strong proponent of religious literacy. Regardless of personal identification with a religious group, the study of religion promotes understanding of human experience.