Buddhism without Borders: Contemporary Developments of Buddhism in the West

at the Institute of Buddhist Studies
Berkeley, California
March 18 - 21, 2010

Conference Schedule*

Thursday, March 18
Early registration and check-in 11:00 - 2:00

Panel I: Buddhist Experiences: Expressions and Subjectivities, 2:00 - 5:00 p.m.

• Daniel Veidlinger, California State University, Chico
  "From Indra's Net to Internet: The Effects of Social Networking Websites on the Acculturation of Buddhism in North America"
  [ abstract ]
• Ruth Fitzpatrick, University of Western Sydney
  "Transforming Tara, Meanings in Motion"
  [ abstract ]
  
• Erik Braun, University of Oklahoma
  "The United States of Jhana"
  [ abstract ]
  
• Kimberly Beek, McMaster University
  "Telling Tales Out of School: The Fiction of Buddhism in North America"
  [ abstract ]
  
• Respondent/Moderator: Todd Lewis

Friday, March 19
Panel II: Buddhisms in America, 9:30 - 12:30

• Jeff Wilson, Renison University College, University of Waterloo
  "Regionalism within American Buddhism"
  [ abstract ]
  
• Charles S. Prebish, Redd Chair in Religious Studies, Utah State University
  "Buddha in Mormon Land: American Buddhist Challenges in a Dominant Mormon Culture"
  [ abstract ]
  
• Duncan Ryuken Williams, University of California, Berkeley
  Onward Buddhist Soldiers: Japanese American Buddhists in the U.S. Military during World War Two
  [ abstract ]
  
• Michihiro Ama, University of California, Irvine
  "The First White Buddhist Priestess"
  [ abstract ]
  
• Respondent/Moderator: Martin Verhoeven, Graduate Theological Union and Dharma Realm Buddhist University

12:30 - 2:00 Lunch break

Panel III: Transnational Buddhisms, 2:00 - 5:00

• Richard K. Payne, Institute of Buddhist Studies
  "Syncretism and Syntax: An Examination of Yogi Chen's Christian Homas"
  [ abstract ]
  
• Chapla Verma
  "Comparative Study of Zen Buddhism in Japan and North America"
  [ abstract ]
  
• Todd Perreira
  "Beyond Americanization: On the Transnational Boundaries of Theravada America"
  [ abstract ]
  
• David McMahan, Franklin & Marshall College
  "Buddhism and Multiple Modernities"
  [ abstract ]
  
• Respondent/Moderator: Natalie Quli, Institute of Buddhist Studies

Keynote Address and reception, 5:00 - 8:00

• Following the Flows: Reframing the Study of Buddhism
  Prof. Thomas Tweed, University of Texas at Austin
• The Keynote Address and reception is open to the public. A catered reception will follow Prof. Tweed's address.

Saturday, March 20
Panel IV: Identifying Buddhists, Buddhist Identity, 9:30 - 12:30

• Richard Hughes Seager
  "Dharma Images and American Buddhist Identity"
  [ abstract ]
  
• Christine Walters, University of South Florida, Tampa
  "Denominationalism in American Buddhism"
  [ abstract ]
  
• Mindy McAdams, University of Florida
  "Finding Buddhism in Blogs"
  [ abstract ]
  
• Wakoh Shannon Hickey, Assistant Professor of Religion, Alfred University, New York
  "Two Buddhisms, Three Buddhisms, and Racism"
  [ abstract ]
  
• Respondent/Moderator: Scott A. Mitchell, Institute of Buddhist Studies

Lunch break, 12:30 - 2:00

Panel V: Living Buddhism: Community and Family, 2:00 - 5:00

• Helen Baroni, University of Hawaii at Manoa
  "Zen at a Distance: Isolation and the Development of Distant Membership"
  [ abstract ]
  
• Jitka Cirklová, Faculty of Social Science, Department of Sociology
  "Buddhism as Value Source in the Course of New Identity and Lifestyle Formation in the Czech Republic"
  [ abstract ]
  
• Eve Mullen, Emory Univeristy
  "Care for the Dying: Innovative American Buddhist Institutions"
  [ abstract ]
  
• Zach Zimmerman, Princeton University
  "Bringing Up Buddhists in America"
  [ abstract ]
  
• Respondent/Moderator: Lisa Grumbach, Institute of Buddhist Studies

Dinner (on your own), 5:00 - 6:30

6:30 Special film screening: TBD

Sunday, March 21
Panel VI: Interpreting Buddhism in the West, 9:30 -12:30

• Franz Aubrey Metcalf, The Forge Institute
  "The Borderless Borders of the White Plum Asanga"
  [ abstract ]
  
• Mira Niculescu
  "The Jewish Buddhists: The Upcoming Rise of a New School of Buddhism?"
  [ abstract ]
  
• Galen Amstutz, independent scholar
  "Kiyozawa In Concord: Will Shin Buddhism Manage to Make a More Successful Contribution to American Religious Thought in the 21st Century?"
  [ abstract ]
  
• Jeannine Chandler, Siena College
  "An Analysis of Western Involvement in the Dorje Shugden Controversy"
  [ abstract ]
  
• Respondent/Moderator: Jiden Ewing, Graduate Theological Union

Conference closing remarks, 12:30 p.m.

* This schedule is tentative and subject to change