Buddhist Critical-Constructive Reflection Unit

The Buddhist Critical-Constructive Reflection Unit explores how Buddhist thought and practice can address contemporary issues and, more broadly, how Buddhist modes of understanding can inform or be informed by academic study (in Religious Studies, Philosophy, Ethics, Theology, Sociology, Economics, etc.). With this dialogical approach in mind, we seek to support conversations that bring diverse perspectives to bear on the work of critical and constructive reflection.

This year, we welcome paper and panel proposals on any topic pertaining to the unit’s areas of focus. We particularly invite proposals that engage with the theme for the 2024 meeting, Violence, Non-Violence and the Margin, as well as those that might contribute to themes that our members have suggested, as indicated below. Where an organizer’s contact email is provided, those interested in contributing to a proposal on that theme are encouraged to contact the organizer directly regarding a possible panel proposal.

Author meets author: the two truths in Buddhist Studies

This roundtable invites Buddhist Studies scholars to take part in an exercise of self-reflection. Each speaker will pick a category (gender, feminism, agency, body, mind, medicine, healing, science, ...) and critically examine their engagement with these categories in Buddhist Studies by making two opposing arguments that are equally valid. By doing so, we hope to open up a space to articulate the challenges we face in putting emic categories in dialogue with more traditional religious studies categories, and what we gain and lose by doing so. (Contact: Kin Cheung, cheungk@moravian.edu; Jue Liang, jue.liang@case.edu; and Andrew S. Taylor, ataylor9@css.edu)

Buddhist perspectives on critical digital literacy (Contact: kim.lam@deakin.edu.au)

Critical-constructive evaluation of modern Buddhist developments

Each presentation on this panel will critically evaluate one modern Buddhist development, by drawing both on criteria of any past Buddhist tradition(s) and any modern discipline(s).  The evaluation should include the presenter's assessment of both positive (beneficial) and negative (deletrious) aspects of the modern Buddhist development in light of both those criteria. (Contact: John Makransky, John.Makransky@bc.edu) 

Defining the scope of engaged Buddhism: debates, oversights, and missing pieces

Images of Buddhism, Buddhist Images

This panel surveys the multiple meanings of photographs, statues, figures, and representations of Buddhism. Such images have played a significant role in the transmission of the tradition, but less attention has been paid to the reception of various types of religious media within Buddhist studies. What do photos of famous monks mean to contemporary practitioners? How have historical actors and texts considered Buddha statues? I am looking for co-panelists to create a diverse set of papers for broadening and theorizing our understanding of the reception of Buddhist images. (Contact: Brooke Schedneck, schedneckb@rhodes.edu) 

Psychedelic Buddhism: problems and potentials

Since Buddhism entered the North American consciousness, it has consistently bumped elbows with psychedelic culture. From Aldous Huxley and Alan Watts in the fifties and sixties, to Tricycle’s special issue on "Buddhist Psychedelics" in the nineties, to today’s emerging Psychedelic Buddhist syncretism, these two traditions have come together in complex and heretofore understudied ways. This panel will explore this convergence of Buddhism and psychedelics and think through some its problems and potentials in both historical and contemporary times. It welcomes papers that approach this topic from any methodology, that engage with any Buddhist tradition, philosophical school, or practice lineage, and that think through psychedelics broadly construed. Papers should engage in constructive and/or critical reflection on the idea of Psychedelic Buddhism and are encouraged to approach the topic in not only a descriptive fashion but a normative manner. (Contact: Colin H. Simonds, 11cs77@queensu.ca)

Putting Buddhist environmental ethics to work: contemplative practice and creative tactics (Contact: Melissa Anne-Marie Curley, curley.32@osu.edu) 

Buddhist ethical responses to current events -possible cosponsorship