News

  The Dharma Forward Campaign The Buddhist Churches of America (BCA) and Institute of Buddhist Studies (IBS) have adopted the Dharma Forward as a shared vision to build the future of Jodo Shinshu Buddhism in America.   Dharma Forward is […]

Joy and relief at being able to celebrate in person was a theme resonating throughout the Institute of Buddhist Studies’ commencement, held at the Jodo Shinshu Center on May 20th, 2022 in Berkeley, CA. Joy, but also grief and sadness […]

On Thursday, April 28, 2022, Institute of Buddhist Studies alumni gathered online for a panel entitled “Buddhist Spiritual Care for Our Times.” Rev. Jo Laurence, Blayne Higa, and Trent Thornley work in ministry and chaplaincy in a variety of settings, […]

This spring, the Institute of Buddhist Studies will be offering a staple of our Buddhist Studies curriculum, taught by Dean Scott Mitchell: “Buddhism and the West.” It is scheduled to be offered in person, at our campus, Thursdays 2:10pm-5pm. This […]

The Public Theologies of Technology and Presence (PTTP) is a three-year program, launched in 2018 and funded by the Luce Foundation. This program gathered and funded a cohort of leading scholars of religion, theologians, and journalists for their work addressing […]

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought the fragility of the human body to the forefront of our minds and imaginations. What tools does Buddhism offer us in confronting health and illness? This spring semester, we are excited that Dr. Courtney Bruntz […]

The Pacific World: Journal of the Institute of Buddhist Studies has published the second volume of its fourth series, and it is now available to view online.  This volume contains book reviews by Richard Payne, Gereon Kopf, Matt Orsborn, Ray Buckner, […]

The Institute of Buddhist Studies is pleased to announce that Rev. Dr. Takashi Miyaji has been appointed to the H.E. Kosho Ohtani Professor of Shin Buddhist Studies professorial chair. Rev. Dr. Miyaji has been a core faculty member of IBS […]

The Institute of Buddhist Studies is excited to announce our new chaplaincy program coordinator, Chenxing Han. Han is a graduate of IBS’ Buddhist chaplaincy program, and is well-known for her recent book Be the Refuge: Raising the Voices of Asian […]

The Graduate Theological Union (GTU) and Institute of Buddhist Studies (IBS) are pleased to announce the deepening connection between their scholarly communities as IBS becomes the GTU consortium’s ninth member school, following thirty-six years of collaboration as a GTU affiliate. […]

This fall, IBS is excited to offer Buddhist Japanese I, the first of a four-course sequence. Students will begin with basic Japanese grammar and build up their skills and knowledge of kanbun (Chinese characters) to eventually tackle more complex Buddhist […]

This fall, the Institute of Buddhist Studies is pleased to have Dr. Nancy Lin join us as full-time faculty member in support of the Buddhist chaplaincy program. Dr. Lin joins us after four years at Vanderbilt University, where she taught […]

The Pacific World, the peer-reviewed journal of the Institute of Buddhist Studies, has published a special section on Buddhist Apologetics, featuring essays by Charles B. Jones, Thomas Calobrisi, Kwi Jeong Lee, and Wei Wu. The articles in this issue “examine ways in […]

We are delighted to announce the Graduate Student Symposium at the Institute of Buddhist Studies for the fall of 2021. The Symposium will be held virtually on October 22nd, 2021. The theme of the 2021 Symposium is “Authority and Normativity […]

Former Bishop Rev. Dr. Seigen Haruo Yamaoka had never planned on his amazing path — which has now nearly spanned 60 years — with the Buddhist Churches of America. He wanted to become a journalist, a newspaper reporter.  But he […]

On Friday, May 21, faculty, students, trustees, and friends of the Institute of Buddhist Studies gathered online to celebrate the graduating class of 2021, along with the class of 2020, who was not able to celebrate last year due to […]

Current IBS adjunct faculty member and recent IBS grad Thomas Calobrisi has co-edited this autumn’s Journal of Dharma Studies. The journal’s theme is histories of science in Buddhism, and looks at how various Buddhist cultures produced knowledge. What goes into editing […]

On May 4th at 4pm, over 1700 people watched the livestream of “May We Gather,” a pan-Buddhist memorial to honor the 49th day memorial of the victims of the Atlanta shootings. At once memorial service, communal healing and protest against […]

Environmental activists and Buddhists have admired the work of Joanna Macy for decades. We’re pleased and excited that IBS professor Dr. Taigen Dan Leighton has a new chapter published in Joanna Macy’s latest book, A Wild Love For the World: […]

We at IBS are saddened and outraged by ongoing anti-Asian violence, attacks on Buddhist temples, and most recently and tragically the murder of six Asian women in Atlanta last week. Whereas these events have been receiving more and more media […]