Buddhism Print

Call for Proposals

This Section welcomes proposals for panels, individual papers, and roundtables in all areas of Buddhist studies. To facilitate greater exchange among the various subfields within Buddhist studies, we are particularly interested in sessions that engage enduring themes in Buddhist studies, examine methodological issues of broad concern, or introduce new materials. Applicants are also encouraged to propose innovative formats that might enable group study or extensive discussion and to take advantage of innovative options, such as ninety-minute sessions. The Section is happy to announce that we will participate in the AAR’s Full Paper Submission Pilot Program this year. Participants in sessions of this format will be required to submit the full text of their papers by October 1, 2012, to be made available to AAR members (on a password-protected site) in advance of the Annual Meeting. Papers will not be read at the sessions. Instead, presenters will be given a short time to present their major ideas, and the bulk of the session time will be given over to discussion. We hope that one or two of our 2012 sessions will follow this format. If your group would be willing to participate, please let us know in the body of your proposal. Themes proposed for the 2012 meeting, with contact members of the steering committee identified in parentheses are below. Please contact listed organizers if you wish to take part in any proposed session. Suggested themes are:

  • Buddhism and self-writing
  • Buddhaghosa
  • Shingon Buddhism
  • Images of light in Buddhism
  • Children and Buddhism (for a cosponsored session with the Childhood Studies and Religion Group) — Vanessa Rebecca Sasson, Marianopolis College and McGill University, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
  • Buddhism in contemporary China — Brian J. Nichols, Central Michigan University, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
  • Buddhism and religious tourism — Ivette Vargas-O’Bryan, Austin College, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
  • Buddhist canons — Jiang Wu, University of Arizona, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
  • Buddhism and new media
  • Buddhist education
  • New research on the perfections; pāramitās, pāramī, etc. — Bradley S. Clough, University of Montana, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
  • Buddhist representations of the Other — Daniel Kent, Whitman College, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
  • Maps of the Buddhist path — Karin Meyers, Kathmandu University, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
  • Responses to Owen Flanagan’s The Bodhisattva’s Brain: Buddhism Naturalized (Bradford Book, 2011) — Christian Haskett, Lexington, VA, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
  • Buddhism and Pan-Asianism — Victoria Rose Pinto, Institute of Buddhist Studies, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Proposals exploring other themes are also welcome.

Mission

This Section is the largest, most stable, and most diverse forum for Buddhist studies in North America. We embrace the full historical range of the Buddhist tradition from its inception some two-and-a-half millenia ago to the present and span its entire geographical sweep — the Indian subcontinent, Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia, Central Asia, Tibet, Mongolia, China, Korea, Japan, and the West. In addition to being historically and geographically inclusive, we have made efforts to encourage methodological plurality. Papers presented in recent years reflect, in addition to the philological and textual approaches of classic Buddhology, the methods of intellectual history, institutional history, philosophy, anthropology, sociology, gender and cultural studies, art history, literary theory, and postcolonial studies. We will continue to encourage cross-disciplinary exchange. This Section is the forum of choice for many established scholars. For some years now, we have also striven to provide a forum for younger scholars to aid them in establishing their careers. Under normal circumstances, at least one session at the Annual Meeting is devoted to four or five individual papers; often many or all of these are from graduate students or younger scholars making their first academic presentation at a national conference. In recent years, a growing number of foreign scholars have come to recognize this Section as a valuable forum to submit proposals, including scholars whose primary language is not English. We wish to continue to promote communication with scholars abroad and to provide opportunities for younger scholars, and are very much in favor of the AAR’s recent moves to encourage greater international participation.

Anonymity of Review Process

Proposals are anonymous to chairs and steering committee members during review, but visible to chairs prior to final acceptance or rejection.

Questions?

Lori Meeks
University of Southern California
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Christian K. Wedemeyer
University of Chicago
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Method of Submission