Dear Colleagues, Dear Friends:

Preparations are well underway for the XVIIIth Congress of the International Association of Buddhist Studies (IABS), which takes place at the University of Toronto, August 20th to the 25th, 2017. On behalf of the IABS, my university, and the conference’s Planning Committee, I kindly send you this Second Circular to share the panels that will be presented, to invite individual papers for the panels and sections here proposed, and to encourage all IABS members and supporters to attend the Congress in Toronto.

General Information

This Congress is a unique opportunity for Buddhist Studies scholars from around the world to convene and celebrate the excellence of our field. As Chair of the Planning Committee, I enthusiastically encourage you to circulate this Second Circular to colleagues, students, on message boards, electronic forums and on social media. This Second Circular is sent to all current IABS members, those who have filled out the electronic ‘Mailing List’ request form on the website, and to those who wrote me directly. We strive to convene as inclusive a Congress as possible, and welcome the attendance of a diverse range of scholars, students and supporters.

I would once again kindly remind everyone that they must be a fully paid member of IABS for the year 2017 in order to attend the event, deliver a paper, or sit on a panel in Toronto. To be a member of the association in 2017, those wishing to participate in the Congress will need to pay their IABS dues by December 31, 2016. All participants will also need to pay a Congress registration fee used to help us cover the cost of hosting the event, stipulated below. IABS membership can be secured through the online form at the IABS website: www.iabsinfo.net. Kindly keep in mind that on registration, to complete the process aspiring participants will be required to provide proof of payment of their IABS dues for 2017. Initial enquiries about eligibility should be sent to the association’s Secretary General, Dr. Ulrich Pagel (up1@soas.ac.uk).

Submission of panel proposals for the Congress has already closed, and I, along with the Planning Committee, would like to generously thank all those who took time to submit their panel proposals. Given the high volume of submissions—an IABS record—not every panel was accepted, though all were of superior quality and testify to the wide-ranging excellence of our field.

Submission of individual paper abstracts for both panels and sections (each of which is outlined below) opens May 15th, 2016, and closes October 1st, 2016. Please note that individual paper abstracts cannot be accepted after October 1st, 2016, so be sure to take note of the deadline.  

Congress registration opens October 1st, 2016, and closes just prior to the start of the proceedings, August 18th, 2017. Registration any time between these dates is permitted. Please see below for further details on how to register, as well as to the amenities covered by the fee.    

Though our field spans a myriad of linguistic regions and our members represent the most diverse language backgrounds, it is IABS policy that official Congress proceedings, including papers and presentations, be conducted in an English-language medium.

As all future communication will be distributed via email, I encourage those who wish to attend or stay abreast of Congress news to fill out the electronic “Mailing List” request form found at our website: http://www.iabs2017-uoft.ca/contact/. Please write to me, Christoph Emmrich, directly, if you have any questions or concerns about future communication. My address is found at the bottom of this circular under ‘Correspondent,’ or at the above website address.

Academic Program

In following with past Congresses, the proceedings in Toronto will consist of both panel presentations and paper sections. Panels have been proposed by their respective convenors, and will consist of no more than six papers, each 20 minutes in length, each followed by a 10 minute discussion period. All told, panels will last half a day, including a coffee and tea break after the first three papers. The organizers and I will strive to ensure that papers in each panel begin and end in unison to allow participants to attend select papers from multiple panels.

Sections, in contrast, have been chosen in accordance with past Congresses and are to be compiled from individual paper submissions. They will follow the same format as panels in terms of time and duration: 20 minutes for delivery and 10 minutes of question and answer period immediately following each paper. Please be advised that in the event an insufficient number of qualified entries are made to a given section, the Planning Committee and I reserve the right to decide to cancel the said section and reassign the papers accepted to another, thematically equivalent section as well as the time slot to another section with a surplus of submissions.    

Individual Paper Proposals

I cordially invite scholars, students, and independent researchers from across the spectrum of Buddhist Studies to submit abstracts for individual papers, starting May 15th, 2016. Paper abstracts should be no more than 500 words, and preferably in both word and PDF format. In order to contribute a paper to an individual section, please upload abstracts to the Congress website at http://www.iabs2017-uoft.ca/, indicating which section the abstract will address. Please limit your selection to one section. The list of sections is found below. It has been chosen with the aim of being both representative of the traditional profile of the Congress and as inclusive as possible. Some submissions might fit under several section headers, though only one presentation per participant is permitted.

Indeed, to ensure a smooth and balanced program that allows for maximum participation, attendees are limited to act in only one official capacity at the Congress: this limit extends to presenting a paper, convening a panel, or acting as designated discussant. If one has any questions pertaining to this limit, please contact me directly at the correspondence address listed below.     

The following are the sections proposed for the XVIIIth IABS Congress:

Āgama and Nikāya Studies

Abhidharma Studies

Buddhism and Gender

Buddhism and Its Relation to Other Religions

Buddhism and Its Relation to Science

Buddhism and Society

Buddhism and the Śramaṇas

Buddhist Art and Architecture

Buddhist Hermeneutics, Scholasticism, and Commentarial Techniques

Buddhist Literature

Buddhist Music

Buddhist Places

Buddhist Sciences

Contemporary Buddhism

Early Buddhism

Epigraphy, Manuscripts, and Codicology

Epistemology and Logic in Buddhism

Information Technologies in Buddhist Studies

Mahāyāna Buddhism

Mahāyāna Sūtras

Śrāvakayāna Buddhism, incl. Theravāda

Tantric Buddhism

The Canonical Languages of Buddhism

Vinaya Studies