Vernacular Landscapes and Global Dialogues: Understanding Buddhist Monasticism Seminar

1. Monastic Rules and Regulations: this year’s roundtable discussion invites new research on the rules, etiquettes, ordinations, and behaviors that are embodied in monastic lives. Expanding on traditional scholarship that centers the Vinaya as the site of articulation for regulating monastic life, this roundtable offers new insights into the literary, cultural, ritual, financial, and political aspects of organizational documents and regulatory actions in Buddhist monasticism.

Call for Papers

Vernacular Landscapes and Global Dialogues: Understanding Buddhist Monasticism Seminar

Theme for 2026: Monastic Rules and Regulations

The Vernacular Landscapes and Global Dialogues: Understanding Buddhist Monasticism Seminar invites paper proposals for its 2026 annual meeting, focused on Monastic Rules and Regulations. This year’s roundtable seeks new research on the rules, etiquette, ordinations, and forms of conduct that shape and are embodied in monastic lives across Buddhist traditions and historical periods.

Expanding beyond scholarship that centers the Vinaya as the primary site for regulating monastic life, the seminar welcomes work that examines the broader literary, cultural, ritual, financial, technological, and political dimensions of monastic regulation. We are particularly interested in how rules are produced, interpreted, negotiated, contested, and adapted in lived monastic contexts, as well as how they mediate relationships between monastics, institutions, states, donors, and lay communities.

We encourage contributions that attend to vernacular practices and global exchanges, highlighting how regulatory frameworks operate across regions, lineages, and historical moments—from pre-modern scholastic settings to contemporary monasteries navigating digital technologies and generational change.

Topics of Interest

Papers may address, but are not limited to, the following themes:

• Buddhist reform movements and the reinterpretation or reconfiguration of monastic rules in different historical and regional contexts
• Rules and regulations governing sexuality, gender, and bodily discipline in monastic life
• Ordination practices, temporary vows, and regulatory frameworks for lay participation in monastic spaces
• Rules governing interactions between monastics and the public, including hospitality, access, and ritual boundaries
• Financial, administrative, and organizational documents as sites of monastic regulation
• The impact of contemporary technologies, including AI, on monastic education, authority, discipline, and transmission

Here are some of the ideas collected at the business meeting. Please reach out to the people proposing those ideas if you want to collaborate.

• Rohit Singh: Buddhist reform movements in different contexts (singhr@denison.edu)
• Damien Choi: AI, Gen Z, and Buddhist Monasticism (demiandc@bu.edu)
• Fan Wu: Monasticism and scholasticism in pre-modern times (fan.wu2@email.ucr.edu)
• Learned Foote: monastic rules on sexuality (learned.m.foote@lawrence.edu)
• Damien Choi: confession, purification, admitting to faults (demiandc@bu.edu)
• Learned Foote: rules for the public when people come to visit monasteries, temporary vows for laypeople learned. (m.foote@lawrence.edu)

Submission Guidelines

Please submit a paper proposal of 250–300 words, including a clear statement of argument, sources, and methodological approach. Proposals should indicate how the paper engages the theme of monastic rules and regulations and contributes to broader conversations in Buddhist Studies.

Submission details, deadlines, and presentation format will be announced by the seminar organizers in advance of the annual meeting.

We especially welcome contributions from scholars working across disciplinary, linguistic, and regional boundaries, and from those whose work foregrounds lived monastic practice alongside textual and institutional analysis.