Pavilion building, Museum Volkenkunde,
Steenstraat 1, Leiden
Moving away from a common perception of Buddhism as intrinsically a tradition of peace and justice, our project—based at Leiden University—seeks to explore the various ways in which historically Buddhist societies have shaped, transmitted, and adapted Buddhist ideas and ideals about equality, fairness, and freedom. We are further interested in how (if at all) such societies have instantiated these ideas and ideals.
The intent of the conference “Buddhism and Social Justice” is to gather scholars to discuss Classical and modern Buddhist notions of justice and their real world reflexes. We will be most centrally concerned with Buddhist visions—implicit or explicit—of ideal (just) societies and the role of human action, as these appear, for instance, in the realms of freedom and its constraints, social hierarchy and mobility, economic opportunity, and power and self-determination.
The full text of the initial proposal upon which our project was based, and other information about our research team, and the conference itself, can be consulted on this website.
This Call for Papers hasinvited scholars interested in these issues from a descriptive, rather than prescriptive, point of view to come together and share their expertise, findings and questions. Papers will deal with many regions within Asia and any time period.
The interested public is welcome to attend, but we do ask that you register (free of charge) in order to allow us to plan properly for seats and catering. Registration emails and questions can be sent to conference@buddhismandsocialjustice.com
Please visit our website Buddhismandsocialjustice.com to view the conference abstracts and to stay updated on conference developments.
Wednesday 23 April
9:30-10:30 | Jonathan Silk - Buddhism and Social Justice: What are we doing? |
10:30-10:45 | Coffee break |
10:45-11:15 | Claudio Cicuzza - Buddhist notions of justice and modern concepts of Human Dignity |
11:15-11:45 |
Paulus Kaufmann - Roles of Justice in Kūkai’s Ethical Theory |
11:45-12:00 |
Coffee break |
12:00-12:45 | Eugin Ciurtin - Flat and Curved Universes: On Exceptional Agency and Ordinary Social Justice in Indian Buddhism |
13:00-14:30 |
Lunch break |
14:30-15:30 | Steve Collins - On the 'gentle violence' of a stable social order |
15:30-15:45 | Coffee break |
15:45-16:15 | Berthe Jansen - The Impact of the Monastic Institution on Society and Social Justice in Pre-modern Tibet |
16:15-16:45 |
Johan Elverskog - Buddhism as Colonialism: Mining and Social Exploitation on the Commodity Frontier |
Thursday 24 April
9:30-10:30 |
Nam-Lin Hur - Buddhism and War: Senriji’s Monthly Newsletters and Shinshū Teachings in Modern Japan, 1929-1944 |
10:30-10:45 | Coffee break |
10:45-11:15 | Vincent Breugem - Ghosts Under the Bridge: Famine and Segaki Rituals in Medieval Japan |
11:15-11:45 |
Pu Chengzhong - Justice for Different Species: the Ethical Treatment of Animals in Early Chinese Buddhism |
11:45-12:00 |
Coffee break |
12:00-12:30 | Thomas Kim - Temple Slaves and Monks as Landlords: Issues of Doctrinal Allegiance and Institutional Pragmatism in the Joseon Period |
12:30-14:30 |
Lunch break + afternoon visit to Keukenhof |
Friday 25 April
9:30-10:00 |
Joanna Gruszewska - The rhetorics of the caste criticism in Vajrasūcī |
10:00-10:30 | Jonathan Silk - What Remains: Anti-caste Rhetoric and Anti-Outcaste Rhetoric in Indian Buddhism |
10:30-11:00 | Vincent Tournier - Cosmogony, Anti-caste Arguments and Royal Epics: the Aggañña Myth and Its Scriptural Contexts |
11:00-11:15 |
Coffee break |
11:15-11:45 | Iselin Frydenlund - Religious minorities in Buddhist majority states |
11:45-12:15 |
Jacques Leider - Buddhist Rakhine and Muslim Rohingyas in Arakan - Historical grief and ethnic tensions |
12:15-13:30 |
Lunch break |
13:30-14:00 | Chris Lammerts - Contested histories of Buddhist law in Burma, c.1200-1800 C.E. |
14:00-14:30 |
Daniel Webster Kent - Thinking Karmically About War in Sri Lanka: Evaluating Actions and Ameliorating Consequences in a Time of Declining Dharma |
14:30-15:00 | Coffee break |
15:00-15:30 | Chris Wilkinson - Political Revolution and the Commoners’ Cause in the Transmission of the Cakrasaṃvaratantra |
15:30-16:00 |
Ian Harris - Kingship, colonialism and republic: Rethinking issues of social justice in modern Cambodia |
16:00-16:15 | Coffee break |
16:15-17:30 | Round table discussion |