Original content:
Aierken, Yipaer is a Ph.D. candidate in Art History, supervised by Professor Claudia Brown of the School of Art at the Arizona State University. Her dissertation focuses on the transreligious and transethnic aesthetics of Yuan and Qing ethnic art, including Uyghur, Tibetan, Manchu and Mongol.
Altenburg, Gerjan is a graduate student at the Department of Religious Studies, McMaster University with a research interest in Indian Buddhist monastic literature extant in Sanskrit and Tibetan.
Bianba, Deji is a Ph.D. candidate at the Centre of Buddhist Studies, University of Hong Kong. Her research focuses on Mind Training (Lojong) literature in Tibetan Buddhism from the 10th to 15th century with a particular interest in exploring the exoteric and esoteric Lojong practices.
Beaudin, Joshua Donald Claude is a Brandon University student majoring in Mathematics and Computer Science with a Religion minor. Beaudin was also a research assistant for Dr. Chenkuan Li’s NSERC-funded project: On the Generalized Fractional Laplacian. He hopes to share his passion for learning and research as a Professor of Mathematics.
Beaudoin, Crystal is a graduate student at the Department of Religious Studies at McMaster University. She is interested in ideas about death and the afterlife in Chinese religious and philosophical thought. Of particular interest to her are the Chinese “Ghost Festival,” ghost stories and representations of mortuary rituals in Chinese literature.
Beek, Kimberly is a retired Logistics Officer of the Royal Canadian Air Force who began her doctoral career as a mature student. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree (Advanced) in English Literature and Religious Studies and a Master’s Degree in Religious Studies, both from the University of Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. For doctoral studies, Kimberly chose McMaster University’s Department of Religious Studies to examine the emergence of contemporary, popular fiction with a Buddhist worldview. She is interested in story and discourse that offers a view into the processes of religious acculturation and demythologization. Her approach is interdisciplinary and includes ethnography and textual analysis. She has taught English Literature and Religious Studies courses for Athabasca University, Royal Military College of Canada, and the University of Regina. While at McMaster University she was a teaching assistant for many courses on Buddhism(s) and Asian religions offered by the Department of Religious Studies. She currently lives with her family in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia where she is finishing her dissertation project, planning future research and writing projects, and learning to appreciate the desert.
Burnett, Rachel is a student in the Department of Religion at Brandon University, a poet and writer, and a member of Westman Dharma. Grateful for supportive mentors, she is focusing her studies toward a career in Spiritual Care.
Butterfield, Julian is an MA student in Religious Studies, interested in the poetics and technologies of East Asian Esoteric Buddhist ritual. His current research project considers how standard elements of Esoteric empowerment such as ritual space, presence, and vision are understood and developed by contemporary, digitally savvy agents to accommodate their increasingly transnational, multilingual audiences.
Carlton, Kelly is a Ph.D. candidate in Asian Religions at Princeton University. Her research focuses on children and morality in medieval Chinese Buddhism. Her dissertation examines how age, gender, and moral and biophysical development determined young Buddhist adherents’ karmic culpability, salvific agency, and participation in religious activities.
Chan, Emmett completed his BA at UBC in 2016, during which he majored in Asian Studies. In 2017 he began to pursue his MA focusing on Japanese New Religious Movements (NRM) in a North American context. He is interested in understanding why some NRMs formed exclusive communities, what attracts people to, and what ultimately repels people from an organized religion. Emmett is also involved with event planning and website curation for The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Program in Buddhism and Contemporary Society at UBC.
Collins, Casey is a PhD candidate in Asian studies at the University of British Columbia. His research’s focus is on religious movements in East Asia during the 20th century. His work examines sociological and cognitive approaches to religious studies, charismatic religious leaders, ritual, and the cultural evolution of religion. Casey also assists with event planning and website curation for The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Program in Buddhism and Contemporary Society at UBC.
Dieplam, Alex is an MA student at McGill University
DiMaio, Marina is a Canadian contemporary visual artist currently based in Victoria, BC. She holds a BFA with a Studio Concentration from the University of Calgary, and an MFA in Visual Arts from the University of Victoria. Her creative practice incorporates installation, weaving, painting, drawing, video, sound, and etching in an interdisciplinary approach to an exploration of spirituality and immersive space.
DiMaio has received numerous scholarships and awards for her creative research, including a University of Calgary PURE award for undergraduate research, the University of Calgary Silver Medallion in Art, and a Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship awarded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. DiMaio was recently awarded an Early Career Development Grant by the BC Arts Council to intern as a curatorial assistant at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria on a research and exhibition project titled, In the Present Moment: Buddhism, Contemporary Art, and Social Practice. She is also a sessional instructor of drawing, painting, and printmaking at Vancouver Island School of Art. Her work is held in the collections of the Nickle Galleries and the Glenbow Museum. marinadimaioart.com
Ding, Rui is a PhD student in UBC whose research field lies in 14-19th century Chinese history, with a great interest in comprehensive historical research in and outside China, including Korea, Japan, the Ryukyu, while utilizing more research methodologies of global history, religion and material culture into her research.
Duoer, Daigengna completed her Master degree in the Department for the Study of Religion at the University of Toronto. She is interested in Buddhist practices in Mongolia during the Qing dynasty and the religious and political relationships between Mongolia, Tibet and the Manchu court. Her projects concern the modern and contemporary history of religion in Inner Mongolia and the role Buddhism played in the formation of political and cultural identities.
Dylan, A. is an Associate Professor in the School of Social Work at St. Thomas University. Her research interests include critical and social justice explorations of eco-social work, spirituality and social work, contemplative practices, neuroscience, trauma, and Buddhism and social work. She has trained in Positive Neuroplasticity Training with Dr. Rick Hanson. She is also nearing completion of her Mindful Self-Compassion Teacher Training through the Centre for Mindfulness Studies. She is currently enrolled in the Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Training Certificate Program with Dr. Tara Brach and Dr. Jack Kornfield.
Ellsworth, Jason WM is a doctoral candidate in Social Anthropology at Dalhousie University and is a Sessional Lecturer at the University of Prince Edward Island in both the Religious Studies and Sociology & Anthropology Departments. His current and past research interests include the study of Food & Food Movements, Theories of Value, Buddhism in North America, Political Economy, Marketing, Transnationalism, Orientalism, and the Sociology & Anthropology of Religion.
Emory-Moore, Christopher is a PhD candidate in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Waterloo. His research explores householder/renouncer relations in transnational Buddhism with a focus on the sociology of Vajrayana movements in North America. In 2012 Christopher defended a MA thesis at the University of Calgary examining the Tibetan ritual of Guru Yoga and its contemporary practice by Euro-North Americans.
Ereshefsky, Joshua is Master’s student in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Calgary. He works under the supervision of Dr. Wendi Adamek, the Numata Chair in Buddhist Studies at the University of Calgary. He has studied Japanese and Sanskrit, and is currently researching Buddhist cosmography. Here, he is exploring Buddhist responses to the scientific challenge of Mt. Sumeru.
Fardelos, Larissa is a doctoral student in the Department for the Study of Religion in collaboration with the Centre for South Asian Studies, University of Toronto. She specializes in the Vajrayana Buddhist traditions of Northeast India and Nepal with a particular interest in explicitly gendered religious texts and women’s participation in ritual and practice. Larissa’s research investigates the application and interpretation of medieval texts within contemporary religious communities, utilizing both anthropological methods as well as primary text interpretation.
Fink, Sarah is a Master’s student in the Asian Studies department at the University of British Columbia. Her research is on contemporary conceptions of gender in Buddhist monasteries.
Foster, Liam is a third year English-History double major at Simon Fraser University, and editor-in-chief of SFU’s literary magazine, the Lyre. His focus is on the global history of religion, and on creative writing.
Fu, Jisi is currently a visiting Ph.D. student in the Department of Asian Studies at the University of British Columbia. She obtained her B.A. in Chinese language and M.A. in Chinese philology from Fudan University with a dissertation entitled “A Philological Study of the Dunhuang Manuscripts of Avatamsaka Sutra (華嚴經)”. Her research interests include Dunhuang manuscripts, Chinese Buddhism and Textual Bibliography. She is now working on the subject of Dunhuang Chinese manuscripts during the Tibetan period.
Gandhi, Rutika is currently a Master’s student in the Department of Religious Studies, at the University of Lethbridge. Her study and research interests include space and place, Buddhist modernism, globalization and transnationalism, spiritual and heritage tourism, and the branding of Buddhism in India. More specifically, her current research focuses on the revival of Buddhism in India, and the influx of pilgrims and tourists at the sites of Sarnath and Bodhgaya.
He, Shuyue is completing her BA (Hon) in philosophy at McGill University. She wants to pursue her MA in Chinese Studies directly after graduation. She is grateful for the opportunity of contributing to the CJBS News Blog.
Heckman, Annie is a doctoral student in the Department for the Study of Religion, University of Toronto. After receiving her MFA in Studio Art (New York University, 2006), Annie spent several years working in the visual arts as an educator, artist, and designer, teaching at DePaul University (Visiting Assistant Professor 2011–2014) and at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (Art & Dialogue specialist 2008–2015). Examining certain Tibetan texts as part of her studio research, Annie studied Tibetan language through the University of Chicago’s Graham School before relocating to Toronto to pursue further studies. She has since received the Dipty Chakravarty Award for excellence in the study of South Asian Society, History, and Culture, and the Phool Maya Chen Award in Buddhist Studies. Her research focuses on the agency of non-humans in Tibetan life literature.
Hunt, Emily is in her final year of undergraduate study at Belmont University. She is double-majoring in English and philosophy. Her primary interest is on the role of Tibetan literature, oral poetry, and art in regards to national identity in Tibet as seen in modern Tibetan literature. Additionally, Hunt is interested in the intersections of language, culture, and environmental conservation.
Jones, Ryan is a doctoral candidate in the School of Religious Studies at McGill University. His research interests include Tibetan Buddhist historiography and its use in constituting religious lineages. His current research examines the formation of the Surmang Kagyu lineage in eastern Tibet during the sixteenth century.
Kotyk, Jeffrey (Leiden University Ph.D., 2017) is a Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow in Buddhist Studies at McMaster University. He presently researches Buddhism in state and secular sources from medieval China in addition to his other work detailing the relationship between Buddhism and astrology. He earlier spent time as a visiting researcher at Friedrich-Alexander University in Erlangen, Germany, where he documented the introduction and development of foreign astrology in China.
Landry, Nelson is a Ph.D. candidate in Oriental Studies at the University of Oxford. He is interested in Medieval Chinese cultural history with a focus on Buddhist formulations of the miraculous. His project revolves around the works of the Tang dynasty master of monastic codes, Daoxuan (596-667), and how experiences of the supernormal shaped his worldview. Nelson’s work also includes the translation of Daoxuan’s collection of miracle tales, the Ji shenzhou sanbao gantong lu (Collected Record of Miracles Relating to the Three Treasures in China).
Lau, Francis is a student of Master of Pastoral Studies (Spiritual Care- Buddhist Studies) at Emmanuel College, Victoria University – University of Toronto. He is a Mahayana Buddhist and interested in Buddhist meditation and psychotherapy.
Le, Jing is a visiting Ph.D. student in the Department of Asian Studies at the University of British Columbia and a PH.D. candidate in folklore studies at East China Normal University. She is interested in Chinese Buddhism and folk religions, cultural exchanges of Buddhism in Maritime Silk Road. She intends to expand the research on the relationship between Buddhism and folklore.
Le, Ngoc is a Master’s student at Simon Fraser University.
Leslie, Bethany is an undergraduate student at Brandon University double majoring in Psychology and Religion Studies. Post-graduation, she plans on pursuing her MA in Jungian Psychotherapy.
Li, Jingjing is a PhD candidate at McGill University. She mainly works on three areas: the Yogacara philosophy of consciousness, Buddhist studies, and Husserl’s phenomenology.
Lin, Weiyu is a Master’s student in the Asian Studies department at the University of British Colombia. He is interested in the philosophy of the Huayan School of Chinese Buddhism
Lovdahl, Nate is a doctoral candidate at Yale. His research examines how Buddhist ordination rituals and the state’s administrative laws mutually defined the parameters of legitimate monasticism during the Tang and Song periods. Nate’s research has been supported by the Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation and Fulbright-Hays DDRA Program.
Marshall, Alison R. teaches and researches Asian religion and history at Brandon University, and is the author of three monographs on migrant religiosity (including Buddhism, Daoism and Confucianism) in Canada. Marshall is also a director on the board of the Winnipeg Chinese Cultural and Community Centre.
Mitchell, Maggie is a Master’s student in the Asian Studies department at the University of British Colombia. Her research examines the creation and rebuilding of sacred Buddhist sites in China.
Moevus, Adrien is a Master’s student at McGill University in the faculty of Religious Studies. He works on Indian and Tibetan Buddhism, and focuses primarily on the writings of the Indian saint Maitripa.
Moore, Amber is a Ph.D student in the field of Buddhist Studies with an emphasis on the intersection of narrative literature, ritual and visionary landscape. She holds a BA in Buddhist and Philosophy and Himalayan languages from Kathmandu University and an MA in Religion and Culture. She is currently interested in engaging an intercultural approach in her research on epistemic culture and on the corpus of Newar, Tibetan, Nepali and Sanskrit literature related to Vajrayoginī in Nepal and Tibet and is inspired to discover more compelling questions than definitive answers in this area. She has lived for several years in Tibet and Nepal with her family, and is also collaborating with The Asian Institute at the Munk school of Global Affairs for her project.
Muncaster, K. is a PhD student in Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies at Western University as well as a MA student in Buddhist Studies at the University of South Wales. Their research interests include queer and trans communities in Buddhism, engaged Buddhism, trauma, HIV/AIDS, and suicide prevention.
Munjee, Rose Mina is an MPS student in Spiritual Care – Buddhist Studies with Psychotherapy at Emmanuel College, Victoria University – University of Toronto. She teaches evidence based Mindfulness Based Interventions for mental health and Therapeutic Yoga. She is also is interested in diversity and inclusiveness, applications of mindfulness in health care, and bringing a deeper understanding of Buddhist philosophy, history, and ethics to secular mindfulness teaching and practice.
Negru, John is an independent scholar and publisher at Sumeru Books.
Pirbhai, Hassan holds a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Calgary, and is currently pursuing a post-graduate degree in Natural/Biological Sciences at his alma mater. Hassan has authored writings under the CJBS Numata Speaker Series, and is also studying Zen Buddhism under the tutelage of Dr. Wendi Adamek, who is the Numata Chair at the University of Calgary.
Qi, Guanxiong is currently a third-year M.A. student in the Department of Religion at Florida State University. He studies late-imperial Chinese Buddhist culture, such as Buddhist patronage network, marriage, and cuisine. He is also interested in Yogacara Buddhism.
Scott, Tony is currently a PhD student at the University of Toronto. His scope of study extends from dinosaurs to bodhisattvas, and includes postcolonial literary theory, Theravāda civilizations and Burmese religious histories. With a background in philosophy and literature, Tony is currently focusing on the critical philology of controversial texts in broad historical and political contexts. He also welcomes discussion on all things Pali, especially as it relates to questions of canonicity, monastic reform and modernity.
Shi, Xian’ao is a doctoral student in the Department of Asian Studies at the University of British Columbia. Her research interest is the history of Chinese Buddhism in the early modern period.
Shing, H.S. Sum Cheuk completed his MA at the University of Toronto. His research focuses on medieval Chinese religions, specifically the practices of Buddhism and Daoism. He is particularly interested in the parallels and intersections between these two traditions, especially the visual and material culture of ritual materials. His work also seeks to engage with broader methodological and theoretical concerns in ritual studies, visual culture, and religious history.
Simoes-Gomes, Austin is an MA student at the University of Toronto’s Department for the Study of Religion. He works in two areas: Newar Buddhism, more specifically on the phenomenon of goddess mediums in the Kathmandu Valley, and on embryological and abortion narratives in Buddhist sources and contemporary communities.
Simonds, Colin H. is a PhD Candidate at Queen’s University at Kingston. His work focuses on Tibetan Buddhist philosophy and practice and its application to contemporary issues in the more-than-human world.
Stenzel, Julia is a PhD candidate at the School of Religious Studies, McGill University, Montreal, Canada, in the field of Indian and Tibetan Buddhism.
Tan, Yingxian is currently a Ph.D. student in the department of Asian Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI) and is working on the state-saṃgha relation in late sixth and early seventh century China. In mid-December 2021 she held a photograph exhibition on Buddhism in modern China for the first time at HUJI, with special focus on monumental monasteries versus village hermitages.
Tsang, Maggie Ka-ying is an MA student in Humanities at Simon Fraser University. Her current research focuses on the cultural-philosophical background of Chinese medicine in comparison with that of modern medicine. She is also participating in a project to improve an exhibit of Chinese herbalist shop at Burnaby Village Museum in Vancouver, BC.
Wang, Huizhi is currently an MA student at the University of Colorado Boulder. Her research interest is mainly in medieval Chinese literature and culture, especially the interaction between literature and Buddhism.
Weishar, Mitchell is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Religious Studies at McMaster University. His current research interests lie in issues concerning Buddhist women in contemporary Japanese society.
Widaatalla, Nahid is currently pursuing her BSc in Anatomy and Cell Biology with a minor in International Development at McGill University. Her interests include global health and traditional medicine.
Williams-Oerberg, Elizabeth is a Postdoc scholar and the Co-Director of the newly established Center for Contemporary Buddhist Studies at the Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies, University of Copenhagen. She works as part of a collaborative research project on ‘Buddhism, Business, and Believers in Asia and Beyond’ with Trine Brox (PI). They have received funding from the Carlsberg Foundation and the Danish Research Council (FKK) for their project which extends to the year 2020. Her individual research project is on spiritual tourism and the branding of Buddhism in Ladakh, India. She has a PhD in Anthropology from Aarhus University where, as part of a larger research project on ‘Buddhism and Modernity’, she wrote her PhD thesis “Young Buddhism: Examining Ladakhi Buddhist Youth Engagements with Migration, Modernity and Morality in India” which highlights the particularly prominent role that youth play in forwarding contemporary transformations of Buddhism.
Zhang, Anqi is an undergraduate student in the Department of Asian and African Studies in Shanghai International Studies University. She is particularly interested in Korean Buddhism and other religions in Korea such as Shamanism and Confucianism. With a background in literature, she also takes an interest on how Buddhism texts influence Korean literature.
Zhang, Jie is a Master of Arts candidate at the University of Virginia. She specializes in Buddhist Art History and Digital Humanities. With her training in art history, she aspires to contribute to heritage conservation and museum curation, making arts and heritage more relevant to their audience from around the world
Zhang, Meng is a MA student in the Department of Asian Studies at the University of British Columbia. She completed her BA in Chinese language and literature at Zhejiang University. Her research interest is the history of Chinese Buddhism in pre-modern period and the diffusion of Buddhism in East Asia.
Zhao, Shan Shan (Alice) a M.A. student in the Religious Studies Department at McMaster University. She is interested in the topics of suicide and violence, especially self-immolation, in medieval Chinese Buddhism. More specifically, she is interested in the social and political issues related to Buddhist self-immolation and the interpretations from different groups at that time, including the monastic communities and the government.
Zhu, Jiayi is a PhD student in the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilization at the University of Chicago. She is interested in medieval Buddhist ritual and art in East Asia. For her doctoral research, she plans to examine the use of dhāraṇī in local practices across China, Korea and Japan.
Curated content:
1. Affiliated Authors:
Joffe, Ben P. is a graduate student at the University of Colorado Boulder. His research interests focus specifically on the anthropology of Tibet and Tibetan diaspora. His doctoral dissertation research is concerned with the ways in which the esoteric knowledge and charisma of Tibetan non-celibate professional renouncers and Tantric ritual specialists (Tibetan: sngags.pa/ma སྔགས་པ/མ) are being mediated, circulated, appropriated and contested in light of the increasing globalization of Tibetan Buddhism, and drives to make legible a Tibetan nation and to preserve and reform Tibetan culture in exile. He is interested in how sngags.pa and sngags.ma engage institutional and other forms of authority in exile, and the ways in which the expertise, charisma and activities of such specialists can be said to contribute to the forging of particular moral orders and imaginaries in situations of dislocation, change and uncertainty.
Payne, Richard K. is Dean and Yehan Numata Professor of Japanese Buddhist Studies at the Institute of Buddhist Studies, Berkeley.
Purser, Ron is Professor of Management in the College of Business and the Educational Doctorate in Leadership program in the College of Education at San Francisco State University. His scholarship currently focuses on mindfulness in organizations, and how Buddhist psychology and Buddhist social theory can inform social change and transformation.
Thomas, Jolyon B. is an Assistant Professor of East Asian Languages and Civilizations at the University of Pennsylvania, where he teaches courses on Japanese religion, pop culture, and history. His research covers the politics of religious freedom; religion and material and visual culture; religion and education; religion and capitalism; and relationships between religion, sex, and gender. Jolyon is also an editor of the Asian Traditions section of the Marginalia Review of Books and a regular contributor at Sacred Matters.
2. Independent Scholars:
Ng, Edwin describes himself as a postcolonial “Western Buddhist” convert because, even though he was born and raised in Singapore where he was exposed to the Buddhist customs of his diasporic Chinese ancestral heritage, he only embraced Buddhism after he migrated to Australia and discovered Western translations of the teachings. His interest in the cultural translation of mindfulness is motivated by the lived tensions of straddling multiple cultural and intellectual traditions, and of attempting to cultivate mindfulness to support scholarship, pedagogy, and activism within and against an increasingly corporatized academic regime.
Sugunasiri, Suwanda H. J. is formerly of the Faculty of Divinity, Trinity College, University of Toronto, and Founding Editor/Editor Emeritus of the Canadian Journal of Buddhist Studies.
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