IASBS events at this year’s AAR

M. Editor  |  September 16, 2013

The American Academy of Religion (AAR) is the largest professional organization for scholars of religion in North America. Annually, the AAR hosts a conference that draws tens of thousands of religious scholars. Because this is the largest annual religious studies event in North America, scholars of Buddhism regularly attend, and there are numerous panels, presentations, and public events that focus on Buddhist history, thought, and culture.

The International Association of Shin Buddhist Studies (IASBS), the largest international organization dedicated to the scholarly study of Pure Land Buddhism, has recently become a related scholarly organization of the AAR. This means that the IASBS will be able to host meetings in conjunction with the AAR’s annual meeting, thus allowing for greater exposure of Shin and Pure Land Buddhist studies to a North American audience.

To celebrate this new arrangement, the IASBS will host a reception at this year’s AAR meeting in Baltimore, Maryland.

The reception is scheduled for Saturday, November 23 from 6:30 to 8:30 PM at the Royal Sonesta Harbor Court, Whitehall Ballroom North, 550 Light St, Baltimore. Please join us to celebrate this new relationship, meet scholars and practitioners working in the fields of Shin and Pure Land Buddhist Studies, and learn more about both the IASBS and AAR. The reception is open to the public.

Also at this year’s AAR will be a panel dedicated to studies of Shinran. The panel, “(Re)imagining the Founder: Shinran in Modern Japanese History,” features Shin Buddhist scholars including Orion Klautau, Melissa Anne-Marie Curley, Makoto Hayashi, and others. Papers will explore new and emerging scholarship on Shinran’s life and biography.

The panel is scheduled for Sunday, November 24, from 2:00 to 5:00 PM at the Marriott Inner Harbor, Grand Ballroom West, 110 South Eutaw Street, Baltimore. The panel is also open to the public.

For more information on the American Academy of Religion, please visit http://www.aarweb.org.

For more information on the International Association of Shin Buddhist Studies, please visit http://www.iasbs.org.

And for questions regarding this year’s events at the AAR, please contact Scott Mitchell at the Institute of Buddhist Studies.