Table of Contents
- WORKSHOP> Precept Practices in Meiji Japan (at Tohoku University, July 28th)
- CFP> Theravada Studies Conference
- REMINDER> Funding Application Deadline for Special Workshop with Jan Nattier (Yale)
- RESOURCE> SAT Taisho Database Project adds 2,800+ characters to Unicode
WORKSHOP> Precept Practices in Meiji Japan (at Tohoku University, July 28th)
by Orion Klautau
(apologies for cross-posting)Dear list members,
The Tohoku University Global Japanese Studies Initiative would like to invite you to a student workshop on the image and activities of vinaya priests in modern Japan.
ワークショップ「近代日本仏教における律僧の表象と現実」
Speakers:
Nathaniel Gallant (University of Michigan)
慈雲となる道――近代日本仏教における翻訳と歴史
Kameyama Mitsuhiro 亀山光明 (Tohoku University)
宗門改革期における釈雲照の国民道徳論と戒律主義
Responding:
Shigeta Shinji 繁田真爾 (Waseda University)
Presiding:
Sasaki Shunsuke 佐々木隼相 (Tohoku University)
July 28, 2017 (14:30-16:30)
Tohoku University, Kawauchi Kita Campus
Grad. School of Intl. Cultural Studies, r.101
(41 Kawauchi, Aoba, Sendai, 980-8576, Japan)
The event will be in Japanese.
For details, please access the URL below:
http://www.intcul.tohoku.ac.jp/news/course
-----
Best regards,
Orion Klautau, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Japanese Studies
Graduate School of Intl. Cultural Studies
Tohoku University (Sendai, Japan)
http://web.tohoku.ac.jp/klautau-zemi/
CFP> Theravada Studies Conference
by Thomas Borchert
Call for Conference Presentations:
Theravada Cultures and
Civilizations
March 22, 2018, Marriott
Wardman Park Hotel, Washington DC
The study of Theravada Buddhism has undergone significant
reconceptualization in recent years that reflect broader developments in the
humanities and social sciences. While seeing Theravada practices no longer as
discrete foci of study, Theravada studies as a field ascertains Buddhist formations,
practices and sentiments as broadly informed by an imaginaire that is
derived in part from a prestige language, Pali, and its literary concerns.
Recent work on Theravada Buddhist formations emphasizes comparisons among
Theravada iterations, their intersections in world history, social networks and
aesthetic formations across regions in South and Southeast Asia, global
diasporas and interactions with other religions and cultures.The Theravada Studies Group, established in 2013 in affiliation with the Association for Asian Studies, invites scholars and doctoral students in history, art history, textual studies, anthropology, regional and global studies, political science, environmental studies, migration studies, and related fields to submit proposals for presentations at this inaugural conference. Possible topics include, but are not limited to, Theravada material culture, spirit cults, tricksters, ethics, rethinking lay-monastic relations, secularisms and transnational linkages, among other possible themes.
Submission Guidelines
Proposals for panels and individual papers should be submitted electronically at Theravadaciv.org no later than October 1, 2017. Formats may include thematic panels (three papers with respondent or four without), roundtables with pre-circulated position papers; and individual paper proposals. Panel proposals must include an abstract (100 words) describing the significance of the panel’s scope and abstracts (100 words) for each paper.
Following a peer review of submissions, participants will be notified by November 1, 2017 to allow for travel planning in conjunction with the 2018 AAS meetings (March 22-25, 2018). The Theravada Studies Group has some limited funds to assist (especially graduate students) with one night’s accommodation. Registration is free and required at Theravadaciv.org. For further information, please email Theravadaciv@gmail.com.
The conference is organized by the Theravada Studies Group and supported by a grant to the Theravada Civilizations Project from the Henry Luce Foundation’s Asia Program. Logistical support is provided by the Association for Asian Studies and Arizona State University.
REMINDER> Funding Application Deadline for Special Workshop with Jan Nattier (Yale)
by Eric Greene
A reminder that August 1st is the deadline to apply for funding to attend
the special workshop on early Chinese Buddhist translations at Yale in October.
Funding remains available for graduate students coming from anywhere in
North America. The full original announcement and description of the workshop
is given below.- Eric Greene (Yale University)
SPECIAL WORKSHOP ON EARLY CHINESE BUDDHIST TRANSLATIONS, LED BY JAN NATTIER
With the generous support of the Research Center for Buddhist Texts and Arts (Peking University), the Department of Religious Studies at Yale University is pleased to announce a special 3-day workshop on early Chinese Buddhist translations led by Professor Jan Nattier, to be held on October 13-15, 2017 at Yale. The full description of the topics to be covered is given below.
Professor Nattier is one of world’s foremost experts on the rarely-studied corpus of early Chinese translations of Buddhist texts, and this workshop is a unique opportunity to read such materials with her. The workshop is open and free of charge to all interested graduate students and faculty. Lunches and dinners will be provided for all participants.
FUNDING is available to cover travel and accommodation expenses in New Haven for a limited number of graduate students coming from anywhere in North America. To apply for funding, you must be enrolled in, or set to begin in fall 2017, a relevant MA or PhD program. Please send a brief cover letter explaining your reasons for wishing to attend and your background and qualifications. Your advisor at your home institution must also send a (brief) email indicating your status and confirming that you have their support to attend. When applying for funding, please indicate what city you will be traveling from.
The final DEADLINE for applying for funding is August 1st 2017, but funding will be allocated on a rolling basis (first-come first-serve). Funding is limited, so you are encouraged to apply as soon as you can.
Anyone not applying for funding must still REGISTER to confirm their participation, no later than September 1st 2017.
Please direct all inquiries and send funding/registration applications to: eric.greene@yale.edu
The specific topic of the workshop will be two unusual Chinese versions of the story of the final nirvana (i.e., the death) of the Buddha’s foster mother, Mahāprajāpatī: 大愛道般泥洹經 (T144) and 佛母般泥洹經(T145). We will consider, first of all, how to evaluate the translator attributions given in the received tradition. Having established the probable dates and attributions of these texts, we will begin to read through them, discussing what to do with Buddhist names and terms that are not registered in existing dictionaries. We will then compare these two Chinese versions with other versions of the story extant in Chinese, Tibetan, and Pāli, in an attempt to place the texts we have read within their historical context.
Reading materials for the workshop will be entirely in Chinese, and a basic competence in classical/literary Chinese will be assumed of all participants. Those with knowledge of other Buddhist scriptural languages are welcome to use those to consult parallels to our texts, but such collateral work will not be expected or required.
RESOURCE> SAT Taisho Database Project adds 2,800+ characters to Unicode
by Charles Muller
[Posted on behalf of Masahiro Shimoda]Dear Colleagues,
It is the great pleasure of the members of the SAT project to announce that our team has succeeded in getting a proposal through Unicode in which more than 2,800 characters from the Taishō canon that were not yet contained in the present international standard character set, are now being added. This means that these characters, which had previously been rendered in the various digital canons as normalized variants, GIF images, etc., will now be representable by standard computer font display. These characters will be made available in the release of Unicode 10.0. We hope best advantage will be taken of this by all people who are interested in East Asian Buddhism and cultures.
In addition to the boon for Buddhist studies research, there is special significance contained in this event, as it marks the first time that the Ideographic Rapporteur Group (IRG) that is, the technical committee under the auspices of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has accepted and processed a proposal from an academic body, having in the past only accepted materials from government bodies of various countries. Thus, a way has been paved for such an approach in the future. We would like to extend our deep gratitude to those scholars of Buddhist Studies and Digital Humanities who affixed their signatures to the written petition submitted to IRG in 2012. This provided a distinct impetus toward the achievement of this goal.
Details of this are provided in Japanese at http://21dzk.l.u-tokyo.ac.jp/SAT/ucs_encoded.pdf
Best wishes,
Masahiro Shimoda
University of Tokyo
