Panels & Sections
The conference will be structured along the following lines. First, there will be a number of panels dealing with specific topics, normally consisting of either five or ten speakers, organized by conveners who are responsible for their thematic unity, academic content, and internal structure. Second, various sections will be formed by the conference planning committee itself, with each section maintaining, as far as possible, a general thematic consistency. A panel consisting of five papers will fill one three-hour time slot, and a panel with ten papers will be allotted two three-hour time slots, normally a morning and an afternoon on the same day. Sections will generally contain five or six papers and will be assigned to one three-hour time slot. Accepted papers that have not been submitted as part of a panel will be assigned to the most appropriate section, or, in certain cases, to an already accepted panel by permission of the conveners.
Below is a list of the 54 panels and sections that have been arranged for the conference. The names of the panel conveners appear in parentheses.
Panels
Analyzing and Advancing Buddhist Philosophy (Jay Garfield and Jan Westerhoff)
Beyond Simple Constructions of the So-called “Humanistic Buddhism” (renjian fojiao): Reinterpreting Modernity in 20th Century Buddhism in China and Taiwan (Esther-Maria Guggenmos)
Borobodur in International Perspective (Hudaya Kandahjaya)
Buddhism in the Writings of Ippolito Desideri, S.J. (Robert Trent Pomplun)
Buddhist Commentarial Traditions: Transdiscursivity and Textual Production in Buddhist Intellectual History (John Y. Cha and Mark W. Dennis)
Buddhist Funerary Cultures: Art, Text, Ritual, Performance (Pattaratorn Chirapravati and Justin McDaniel)
Buddhist Monumental Sculpture and Architecture (Cameron David Warner)
Buddhist Theories of Self-Awareness (svasaṃvedanā): Interpretation and Critique (Birgit Kellner)
Chinese Buddhist Meditation Practices and Chan (John McRae and Eric Goodell)
Gandhāran Manuscripts and Gandhāran Buddhism (Richard Salomon)
How Theravāda is Theravāda? (Peter Skilling)
Humor in Buddhism (Shayne Clarke)
Indian Buddhist Metaethics (Martin Adam)
Madhyamaka and Yogācāra Models of Truth or Reality in Indo-Tibetan Buddhism (Klaus-Dieter Mathes)
Mahāmudrā: Approaching the Great Seal (Lara Braitstein and Roger Jackson)
Mahāyāna Sūtras (Jonathan Silk)
Miracles and Superhuman Powers in Buddhism (David V. Fiordalis)
New Research in Avadāna Literature (Andy Rotman)
Pioneer Translators, Missionaries, and Their Transmitted Texts (Mariko Walter)
Recovering Anew the Lotus Sūtra’s Originality as a Religio-Philosophical System (Joseph Logan)
Re-examining Tibetan Auto/biographical Writing (Sarah Jacoby and Andrew Quintman)
Śāntideva’s Bodhicāryāvatāra: Examining a Great Mahāyāna Classic in Social and Historical Context (Ani Kunga Chodron)
‘Terms of Art’ in Indian Esoteric Buddhism (Christian Wedemeyer and David Gray)
The Academic Discipline of Buddhist Studies in North America (Charles Prebish)
The Rebirth of Buddhist Scholasticisms in Twentieth-Century China (Eyal Aviv and Jason Clower)
The Tantras in East Asia: Creating a Handbook for Scholars (Charles D. Orzech)
Tibetan Scholasticism in the 11th and 12th Centuries (Pascale Hugon, Kazuo Kano and Kevin Vose)
Universal Claims, Postcolonial Frames: An Interdisciplinary Session on Bodh Gaya (Tara Doyle and David Geary)
Wonhyo (617-686) and his Comprehensive Buddhist Vision (Charles Muller)
Yogācāra Buddhism: Approaches (Tao Jiang)
Sections
The planning committee has identified the following themes in Buddhist Studies that will serve as sections for the conference.
Buddhism and Brahmanism
Buddhism in the West
Buddhist Art
Buddhist Theories of Mind and Meditation
Contemporary Developments in Buddhism
Dunhuang Studies
East Asian Buddhism
East Asian Buddhist Philosophy
Ethnography of Buddhism
Healing and Buddhism
Hermeneutics, Scholasticism and Commentarial Techniques
Himalayan Buddhism
Indian and Tibetan Buddhist Philosophy
Logic and Epistemology in Buddhism
Mahayana Buddhism
Narrative Studies
Schools of Early Buddhism
South Asian Buddhism
Southeast Asian, Inner Asian, Korean, and Mongolian Buddhism
Technology and Resources
Textual and Philological Studies
Uses of 'Modern' in Tibetan Buddhism
Vajrayāna Buddhism
Vinaya Studies