[Blog] Reflections on Attending the Annual Meeting of the Association for Asian Studies (2019)

By Gerjan Altenburg  On March 24th, 2019, I presented a paper on so-called Buddhist bioethics, abortion, and vinaya at the annual meeting of the Association for Asian Studies (AAS) in Denver, Colorado. The interdisciplinary nature of the AAS provides networking possibilities not found in other scholarly associations. Highlights of the conference included a digital humanities …

[Blog] “Diverse Textual Sources in the Study of Buddhism,” at Congress 2018

By Gerjan Altenburg In an age when, according to Buddhist tradition, the Dharma is in decline, and it often seems as if the Social Sciences and Humanities are too, it was a relief to attend the 2018 meeting of the Congress for Canadian Learned Societies in Regina, Saskatchewan.  The University of Regina hosted over 5200 …

[Blog] Places to Go, Things to Do: A Report of the Research in Religious Studies Conference at the University of Lethbridge

By Emmett Chan, Rutika Gandhi, and Maggie Mitchell On May 5 and 6, 2018, the University of Lethbridge hosted the Research in Religious Studies Conference, which allowed undergraduate and graduate students to present their work in the broad field of Religious Studies. Of the two panels, Places to Go, Things to Do featured three graduate …

[Blog] The Slash Between: Going Home as an Insider/ Outsider

By Rutika Gandhi Introduction For my thesis, I am looking at the revival of Buddhism in India in the context of modernism and globalization. Specifically, I am interested in the role that India’s government plays in branding, supporting and promoting Buddhist tourist and pilgrimage sites for economic development. Since there are various significant places connected …

[Blog] A Report on “The Dharma and the Dime” from Washington DC

"Washington from Above" - Photo courtesy of Jason WM Ellsworth By Jason WM Ellsworth & Elizabeth Williams Oerberg. On Wednesday, November 29 in Washington DC at the 116th Annual American Anthropological Association (AAA) a group of scholars convened on a panel titled The Dharma and the Dime: Ethics and Economics in the Anthropology of Buddhism. …

[Blogger Highlight] An Interview with Crystal Beaudoin (McMaster University)

Crystal Beaudoin is one of the most prolific bloggers at CJBS News. Joining the team in 2015, she has covered numerous workshops, public lectures, conference panels at McMaster University, University of Toronto and other institutions. She recently successfully defended her Master's thesis on female religious practices, agency, and freedom in the novel Jin ping mei …

Requesting Energy to Realize Emptiness: A Structural Analysis of Losang Chokyi Gyaltsan’s Guru Pūjā

Christopher Emory-Moore, PhD Candidate, Religious Studies, University of Waterloo. This paper is based on a chapter of my M.A. thesis, The Systematic Dynamics of Guru Yoga in Euro-North American Gelug-pa Formations, supervised by Dr. James Apple at the University of Calgary and published in 2012 as Tibetan Guru, Western Disciple (Saarbrucken: LAP Lambert). Introduction: Since …

[Blog] 2017 Canadian Society for the Study of Religion Conference Reflection

By Rutika Gandhi Recently, I have been in contact with the manager of the Canadian Journal of Buddhist Studies. Since I was about to attend the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences 2017 meeting for the Canadian Society for the Study of Religion at Ryerson University in Toronto, from May 27th – 30th,  I …

[Blog] A Report on McMaster’s Religious Studies Department’s 50th Anniversary of Graduate Studies Celebration

By Crystal Beaudoin McMaster's Religious Studies Department was a hub of activity on the weekend of May 13-14 2016, as we celebrated the 50th anniversary of our graduate program. The weekend commenced with an opening reception and barbecue on Friday evening. Saturday began with a 50th-anniversary luncheon, during which we heard from Professor Eileen Schuller, …

[Blog] 2015 American Academy of Religions Conference Reflection

By Annie Heckman A contributor for the Canadian Journal of Buddhist Studies News Blog asked me to draft a brief reflection about attending the 2015 American Academy of Religion Conference in Atlanta, Georgia from November 21-24. As a first-time attendee, I found that the formal contours of the experience stood out: the format, the hierarchies, …