North American Graduate Student Conference in Buddhist Studies

ANNOUNCEMENT

Conference Announcement and Call for Papers

The graduate students of the Group in Buddhist Studies at the University of California Berkeley are happy to announce the above event, to be held at UC Berkeley April 17-19, 2009. We are soliciting paper proposals from graduate students on any aspect of the Buddhist tradition. We will select approximately 15 papers to be presented at the conference. Presentations will be limited to 20 minutes, and there will be faculty respondents for each of several panels, to be arranged thematically and/or geographically depending on the submissions.

Funding

The conference organizers will cover the costs of lodging and meals at UC Berkeley for all students presenting papers. We cannot, however, cover travel costs, which must be obtained from your home institution or another source. Please submit a proposal only if you are confident of being able to cover your travel to the conference. Non-presenting students able to arrange their own lodging are also welcome to attend. If you are planning to attend the conference but are not presenting, please register by contacting us before March 1, 2009.

Deadlines

Interested graduate students should submit a paper proposal of approximately 500 words by October 15, 2008. Presenters will be notified by December 15. The final paper must be submitted no later than March 1, 2009 so as to allow time for the respondents to prepare their remarks.

Contact

Please direct all inquiries to buddhist_conference@berkeley.edu.

SCHEDULE

Schedule

All panels will be held in 370 Dwinelle Hall (see directions tab)

Friday, April 17, 2009

4:00 pm - 6:00 pm - Welcome

Panel 1 - Buddhism and the State: Tibet, Mongolia, and Bhutan

Orna Tsultem — Ikh Khuree: Mapping Monastic Space in Early Modern Mongolia

Ariana Maki — Nangkar Dok: Ritual and Identity in Bhutanese Drukpa Kagyu Buddhism

Matthew King — Healing and Conversion at the Interface of Tibet, Mongolia and China

Respondent: Jake Dalton (UC Berkeley)

6:30 pm - Reception for conference participants at the Women's Faculty Club

Saturday, April 18. 2009

Panel 2 - Material Aspects of Chinese Buddhism: Manuscripts, Printing and Board Games
9:30 am - 11:30 pm

Zhang Dewei — To Contextualize a Religious Enterprise: Centering on the production and circulation of a Ming period northern Buddhist canon (Ming beizang)

Beverly Foulks — Playing with Karma: A Chinese Buddhist Board Game

Wang Xiang — Buddhist Libraries in Tang Chang'an and their Asian Context

Respondent: John McRae (Visiting Scholar, UC Berkeley)

11:30 pm - 1:00 pm - Lunch for participants in Ishi Court

Panel 3 - Buddhism in Dialogue
1:00 am - 3:00 pm

Frederick Chen — Who are the Eight Kings in the Jingdu sanmei jing 淨度三昧經 (Samādhi-Sūtra of Liberation through Purification)?: A new study on the formation of the Jingdu sanmei jing

Daniel McNamara — Eclectic Visions, Syncretic Visionaries: Drikung Rinchen Phuntsog's Encounters with Jabir ibn-Hayyan

Breton Sullivan — Tibetan Buddhist Blueprints for a Chinese Buddhist Revival: Fazun's (1901-1980) Xizangminzu zhengjiaoshi (Political and Religious History of the Tibetan People)

Respondent: Robert Sharf (UC Berkeley)

3:00 pm - 3:30 pm - Coffee/tea break

Panel 4 - Aspects of Indian and Tibetan Buddhism
3:30 pm - 5:30 pm

Nathan McGovern — Revisioning the Buddhist/Brahman Divide: Brahmanical Orthodoxy around the Time of the Buddha

Wayne Bass — Contemplative Practice in the Poṣadhavastu of the Mūlasarvāstvāda-vinaya

Joshua Schapiro — Religious Knowledge in Patrul Rinpoche's Spiritual Advice

Respondent: Paul Harrison (Stanford University)

6:00 pm - Dinner for participants at Le Bateau Ivre Restaurant

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Panel 5 - Buddhist Monasteries
9:30 am - 11:30 pm

Tatsuo Saile — The Making(s) of a Patriarch: The Yakushijibon Jion Daishi zō and Its Role in the Creation of a Hossō Sectarian Identity

Aaron Proffitt — Kōen the Dragon Bodhisattva: History and Hagiography: An Analysis of the Fusō-Ryūjinden, 扶桑龍神伝

Sarah Richardson — The Art of Pilgrimage: Reading a Tibetan Account of a Temple Experience

Respondent: Patricia Berger (UC Berkeley)

11:30 pm - 12:30 pm - Lunch for participants in Ishi Court

PARTICIPANTS

Participants

Wayne Bass — UC Los Angeles

Frederick Chen — University of Oxford

Beverly Foulks — Harvard University

Matthew King — University of Toronto

Ariana Maki — Ohio State University

Nathan McGovern — UC Santa Barbara

Daniel McNamara — University of Chicago

Aaron Proffitt — University of Michigan

Sarah Richardson — University of Toronto

Tatsuo Saile — UC Berkeley

Joshua Schapiro — Harvard University

Breton Sullivan — University of Virginia

Orna Tsultem — UC Berkeley

Wang Xiang — Stanford University

Zhang Dewei — University of British Columbia

DIRECTIONS

Directions to 370 Dwinelle Hall

Dwinelle Hall is notorious for being hard to navigate; in addition, on Sundays most of the entrances into the building are locked. In order to find the room where the workshop will be held and signs to help you get in on Sunday, we suggest that you follow the directions below.

1. Enter campus via Sather Gate which is located where Telegraph Avenue meets the Berkeley campus. (See this campus map for details.) After going through the Gate and crossing the immediately following bridge, the first building on your left will be Dwinelle Hall. Enter through the doors off the big plaza.

2. This entrance to Dwinelle Hall is on Level D. (See the map of level D for details.) To the right in the main hall, there will be an elevator. Take it to Level F/G. Alternately, you can take the stairwell directly opposite the elevator.

3. Once you have exited the elevator, room 370 will be immediately to your left. (See the map of level F/G for details.)