In-person November Annual Meeting 2025 Program Book

This paper examines the scope and nature of Buddhism in Kucha according to the biography of Kumārajīva in The Biographies of Eminent Monks 高僧傳 Gaoseng zhuan during the early phase of Central Buddhism along the Silk Routes.  Kumārajīva travelled extensively in Northern India and Central Asia to study Buddhism from various teachers since his childhood in the fourth/fifth centuries.  Moreover, I am also interested in the sexuality issues of his life. The questions I tried to address regarding sexuality in this paper are: why did he decide to end his celibacy of monkhood towards the end of his life although he continued his major translation work/project in Changan? How common was the practice of having a wife or concubines for Buddhist monks in India, Central Asia, and China at that time? Is it related to a particular  Mahāyāna idea regarding women, indicated in the Lotus Sūtra ? Interestingly his father was an Indian monk who married a Kuchean princess, and we can also examine the examples of the married Buddhist monks in Kroraina  (樓蘭 Loulan in Chinese) along the southern route of the Silk Routes.

In recent years, archaeologists have discovered and excavated numerous significant tombs in and around Pingcheng (present-day Datong), shedding new light on the material culture, regional beliefs, and the cultural exchanges along the Silk Roads. One notable discovery was made in May 2015, when the Xinghejiang Tomb of the Northern Wei Dynasty (386–535) was unearthed near Datong. The painted stone slabs in the tomb were rescued and pieced together into a painted sarcophagus with unique Buddhist themes covering the interior walls, which are the first to be found in tombs anywhere in the country. The subjects of the murals share similarities with those in the Yungang Grottoes. Furthermore, the archaic tomb mural style and techniques are reminiscent of the early Buddhist murals in the Western Regions along the Silk Roads, highlighting the artistic influences that traversed these routes.

The discovery of the Xinghejiang Tomb provides new archaeological data for the study of Northern Wei burial practices and offers critical insights into the interplay between secular and religious cultures. These murals serve as evidence of the interactions and influences between the Northern Wei capital and the broader Silk Road network.

This paper revisits the significance of the paintings of Kṣitigarbha (Dizang 地藏) Bodhisattva and the Ten Kings in Dunhuang (Northwest China) from the tenth century onwards. It argues that the significance of such Dunhuang paintings lies in their in situ physical location within the cave architectural structure, specifically on the ceiling of the passageway in several Mogao caves.  Studying the relevant Kṣitigarbha cave art, alongside passages from the Abhidharmakośa, the Sūtra on the Past Vows of Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva, and the Sutra on the Ten Kings [of the Underworld], this paper argues that the shift in the physical location of Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva and changes in his iconography in this period in Dunhuang caves are efforts to translate into architectural and art imagery the place of the intermediate existence (Skt., antarābhava; Ch., zhongyou 中有or zhongyinshen 中阴身) within Buddhist afterlife cosmology, when the disembodied consciousness awaits its next rebirth.  Cave architecture offers the conducive structures that physically enacted the sojourn from this world to the interim existence and then, to the wishful destination of the next rebirth.  Thus, through architectural placement, Dunhuang cave art was able to materialize the antarābhava in a manner that no other media could achieve. 

This paper analyses the grammar, specifically the syntax and paradigms, of visual recollection in the c. 5th-century Qizil Yoga Manual (QYM). Associated with Kucha on the Northern Silk Road, the QYM examines visual recollection, combining Sarvāstivāda meditation sequences with some Mahāyāna and ostensibly local practices (e.g. Dhammajoti 2021, Abe 2024). As with certain Mahāyāna ontologies, the expansive Qizil meditations appear to eschew a formal grammar of meditation, focusing on expansive spatiality rather than temporality. However, the formulas also retain the Sarvāstivāda emphasis on visual elements in strict temporal sequence. The cue for this paper is taken from Yamabe’s analysis of the Turfan cave images in which he argues that the murals in Turfan represent a kind of visual language of meditation (Yamabe 1999). Recently, further progress has been made towards understanding this visual language in spatial terms by Vignato and Li (2024), yet many questions remain over the visual culture of Kucha and its significance for meditation. The paper engages a semiotics of image visualization and temporal experience. It finds both radical departures in the Qizil Manual from South Asian textual traditions as well as distinct local elaborations on how to gain ontological freedom. 

This project concerns artistic expressions of interreligious ideas and practices related to last rite rituals and teachings about the start of the afterlife—shared between Manichaean and Buddhist communities—attested in text and art from the Uygur era of Manichaean history (762-1024 CE), the Tang (618-907 CE), Liao (907-1125 CE), and Northern Song (960-1126) dynasties.  It focuses on core motifs seen on relief sculpture, banners, and hanging scrolls, including traditional/old motifs, such as rebirth into the New Aeon (Manichaean) or the Pure Land (Buddhist); and innovative/new motifs, such as a divine guide for the start of the afterlife and a figure of the deceased as the guided.  Through a contextualized assessment of these motifs, I aim to demonstrate that despite the separate origins of their respective doctrines, Manichaeans and Buddhists along the Silk Roads came to portray the rite of passage from life to death analogously.  Starting from the 8th/10th centuries, they co-developed strikingly similar art and ritual to envelope the moment of death, aiming to inform and comfort the dying and the mourner alike.

This paper explores textual or historical erasure as a process. In general, what sorts of changes are considered bowdlerization, excision, addition and transcreation, or commentarial reinterpretation? What is left unchanged, and why? What are the various reasons for such “laundering” of a text or its history? Who does the purifying or editing? What are the effects of such changes? And what are possible ways of approaching or judging the phenomenon?

I take as a case the national poet of Bangladesh, a man named Kazi Nazrul Islam (1899-1976), whose 12-volume oeuvre of poetry, songs, short stories, plays, lectures, and letters – all of which shows him to have been a Muslim with extraordinary sympathy for the Hindu tradition – has elicited both great admiration and even adoration, as well as great discomfort and critique.

This essay explores the history and rhetorical strategies of church leaders in constructing a Lamanite identity throughout the 1970’s. Firstly, I examine the ways in which “Lamanite work” was narratively constructed as a divinely sanctioned proselytizing mission by the LDS prophet Spencer W. Kimball. I argue that prominent members such as George P. Lee, who self-identified with the term, used their Lamanite identities to represent the opinions of Indigenous peoples broadly and thus reified the categories significance as a divinely sanctioned classification of being. With Kimball and Lee’s reciprocal foundation, I then look forward to contend with the legacy of the Lamanite category to show how Meso-American texts, like the Title of Totonicapán, became rhetorical tools to support the narratives purported within the Book of Mormon. At the same time, scholars interested in Book of Mormon archeology contended that the Lamanites existed within indigenous and Meso-American cultures. This intervention seeks to bring attention to the historical development of the Lamanite category as emphasized throughout the 1970’s, the rhetorical strategies used to reify it, and the tenuous legacy of its categorical construction.

This paper examines how Scripture functions in two of Jerome's consolation letters. While Jerome does use Scripture as a source for theological assertions, this does not explain the sheer quantity and detail in his citations from Biblical texts. I argue that these texts serve a pastoral-performative function to alleviate grief in his recipients by inviting them to the shared activity of Biblical study. The process of reading and reflecting on Scriptural texts itself serves to console the grieving recipients. The texts refocus attention from a loved one's death to Scriptural difficulties, mediate Jerome's presence as a fellow student of the Bible, and model how working through Scripture for oneself conveys a deeper consolation than simply being told what each text 'means.' Since consolation requires more than a clever argument, attention to the extra-semantic dimension of these texts is vital to understand them.

In this presentation, I will discuss Zahra Ayubi’s 2020 article “DeUniversalizing Male Normativity: Feminist Methodologies for Studying Masculinity in Premodern Texts” in Gender, Sexuality, and Islamic Mysticism to give students a clear, rich, and nuanced understanding of pre-modern masculinity. This article is valuable to the study of Islam because Ayubi offers a methodology for studying masculinity that is applicable to any premodern text, which allows an instructor to use it in any course on premodern Islam (or other religions). Moreover, because Ayubi addresses both patriarchal interpretations by Muslim authors and anti-Muslim stereotypes held by Western feminists, this article helps students to resist a Western hegemonic vision of feminism when studying gender and Islam. I will share my specific pedagogical experience teaching the article in a course with the focus on premodern Sufi texts and offer considerations for how Ayubi’s article could enhance other courses on Islam.

Malak Hifni Nasif’s lecture "Comparisons between Egyptian and Western Women" provides a lens into early 20th century notions of gender roles in a Muslim society. It’s also a fascinating look at Egyptian views of “Western” women, from style to education to behavior to spending habits.  Malak was unapologetic about her belief that all aspects of Western cultural imperialism should be contested. She uses both the Qur’an and Islamic law to argue against cultural norms and for specific standards of behavior and practice, helping introduce students to Islamic feminism. My assignment is designed to increase understanding of gender construction by examining Malak’s idealized standards for how girls and women should behave, and how this particular Egyptian Muslim woman views, contests, and sometimes applauds Western gender roles. Conveniently, there are many issues to which students can relate as they consider gender roles and construction in their own lives. 

Menstruation serves as a critical site for feminist pedagogy, offering students a lens to interrogate gender, authority, and embodied religious experience. In my undergraduate course, I assign Yasmin Nurgat’s article, "Menstruation and the Ṭawāf al-Ifāḍa: A Study of Ibn Taymiyya’s Landmark Ruling of Permissibility" (Hawwa, 2020), as a case study in Islamic legal reasoning and gendered religious agency. This reading allows students to examine how juristic discourse navigates questions of purity, ritual access, and interpretive authority. To deepen engagement, I assign a scaffolded reflection in which students analyze how Ibn Taymiyya’s ruling departs from dominant legal norms, consider its implications for Muslim women’s ritual participation, and reflect on the broader stakes of legal plurality. By positioning menstruation as a site of inquiry, we illuminate hidden gendered dynamics and systemic inequities, making it relevant to disciplines such as Public Health, Anthropology, Economics, Public Policy, and Environmental Studies.

Hidayatullah’s “The Qur’anic Rib-ectomy: Scripture Purity, Imperial Dangers, and Other Obstacles to interfaith Engagement of Feminist Qur’anic Interpretation” introduces a framework to articulate the “tokenizing and surface character of multi-faith feminist conversations” and the still-felt harms of colonialist feminism, problematizing the student-lead project of comparative scriptural study the class is about to begin. Her work outlines how, in the intra-religious effort to deconstruct patriarchal hierarchies of othering, feminist theologians may be unknowingly constructing new taxonomies that “other” those who could have been partners. This critical analysis of developments in the field lends caution to our class-wide effort–where we think we may be building connection, we may be doing harm. We must proceed with caution and care. Hidayatulah’s critical analysis of the work of constructive Muslim feminist theology, a form of scholarship she identifies herself within, becomes an invitation to center doubt as a part of our project’s practice of comparative scriptural study.

This paper examines two versions of the legend of Rabbi Amnon of Mainz and the composition of the Unetanneh Tokef liturgical poem: the 13th-century Hebrew text from R. Isaac of Vienna's Or Zarua and a 1602 Old Yiddish variant from the Mayse-Bukh collection. Through comparative analysis, I explore how each narratives employs distinct techniques to ensure the memorability of the poem and its composer. The Hebrew version establishes a foundational martyrdom narrative, while the Yiddish, nearly triple in length, incorporates dialogue, emotional depth, and familial relationships to enhance memorability for lay audiences. Central to both narratives is the graphic depiction of Rabbi Amnon's torture and dismemberment, which serves as a visceral mnemonic device. I argue that the preservation of these gruesome details functions as a literary mechanism ensuring the continued remembrance of Rabbi Amnon and his poem, which remains a centerpiece of Jewish High Holiday services despite its fictional origins.

Judaism has a robust, and well studied, set of rituals for the work of mourning and remembering dead loved ones. Less attention has been paid to the material aspect of these rituals and the objects associated with Jewish memory of the deceased. This paper examines one modern phenomenon of Jewish material memory, particularly in the American context: yahrzeit (death anniversary) plaques that decorate many an American synagogue. These bronze plaques, which are ubiquitous in contemporary American synagogues across all denominations, are notable for their egalitarian aesthetic where all names are displayed similarly. This paper asks about the moral function of these objects in relation to their aesthetic effect. What do they do for the memory of loved ones for American Jews and how do they turn the individual memory of a deceased loved one into a larger communal concern?

This paper analyzes American Jews’ use of burials to control Jews involved in the sex trade, and sex workers’ subsequent rebellion against that control. Previous scholars have highlighted religion’s role in necropolitics, that is the way death is used to control populations. However, their analysis has typically ignored burial sites in favor of other necropolitical practices such as incarceration. In contrast, I turn to NYIBA’s cemeteries in Brooklyn and Queens to understand wayward Jews’ response to death subjugation. Methodologically, my analysis also differs from prior studies of Jewish “impure” cemeteries in Argentina and Brazil in my close attention to the NYIBA cemeteries’ spatial layout, inscriptions, and iconography. I do so to reveal how the NYIBA used their cemeteries to memorialize the dead and combat Jewish communal attempts to dictate who could attain eternal life.

What will Holocaust remembrance look like when there are no more living survivors to deliver their accounts first-hand? The USC Shoah Foundation’s Dimensions in Testimony initiative is one response to this concern. The project has created a library of holograms of survivors that, with the assistance of artificial intelligence, can participate in “real-time, lifelike conversation.” But what are the implications of a memory that gets preserved artificially and definitively but engaged as though it is not? This paper approaches the hologram as a figure and a genre of Holocaust memory that demands attention to technology and the politics of representation. It advocates for situating these new forms of historical record within enduring conversations about the relationship between memory and history—whether figured as opposing projects, joint forces, or otherwise. With the example, I follow an Arendtian approach to memory to argue that historical representations must be contextualized and open to contingencies. 

Drawing on The Proper Mode of Exposition (Vyākhyāyukti), this presentation examines Vasubandhu’s critique of an interpretive approach that evaluates new texts by aligning them with established canons. Through numerous examples and citations, he argues that all Buddhist texts are fragmented and inconsistent, with conflicting doctrines and prescriptions — discrepancies present even within Yogācāra texts. This presentation interprets The Proper Mode to argue that Vasubandhu rejects canonical contextualization due to its flawed mereological assumption of a canon as a unified whole composed of texts bearing a distinctive marker of canonicity. This argument draws an important parallel between Vasubandhu’s hermeneutics and ontology by interpreting his critique of a coherent canon as an extension of his ontological position against unified wholes. It also explores the implications of his position, specifically regarding the proper uses of fragmented Buddhist texts in commenting on Yogācāra treatises.

While the early proponents of Yogācāra did not necessarily see themselves as representing a radically new tradition, later commentators such as Sthiramati had a much clearer vision of it as a distinct school. Accordingly, he faced the difficult task of consolidating the school’s identity and bringing together ideas from the diverse and often contradictory earlier materials. This paper focuses on various commentarial strategies Sthiramati adopted to overcome these challenges in his commentary on Vasubandhu’s Triṃśikā, the Triṃśikāvijñaptibhāṣya. The paper first examines the tripartite narrative framework Sthiramati gives for explaining the overarching aims of Vasubandhu’s text, and offers some reflections on the methods he uses to defend, legitimise and create a paradigm for the interpretation of a key Yogācāra source. The talk also highlights the major difficulties Sthiramati as a commentator encountered in his attempt to reconcile interpretations from different layers of Yogācāra, and explains how he dealt with them.

An influential commentary on the fringe of the “classical” Yogācāra-Vijñānavāda tradition is the Ratnagotravibhāga. A noteworthy feature of the text is that while the prose, commentarial layer of its structure undeniably exposits Yogācāra doctrine, the earlier, root verses that they expand upon – devoted foremost to exploring ideas about “buddha-nature” – do not. While this and other features of the Ratnagotravibhāga have been well-studied, this paper puts front and centre our earliest witness to the text: its early sixth-century translation into Chinese (Baoxinglun 寶性論). This version is noticeably different to our surviving Sanskrit and Tibetan versions – and, conspicuously, features yet more evidence of Yogācāra influence in its composition. We will look at what how the commentarial stratum of the Ratnagotravibhāga transforms the text into a Yogācāra work, and will give special attention to features and passage of the Chinese version that exhibit still greater investment in specifically Yogācāra doctrine.

Since the time of Śākyamuni Buddha, Buddhism has undergone diverse doctrinal developments across different historical periods and geographical regions. As Buddhist teachings diversified, commentators faced a crucial hermeneutical challenge in addressing the relationships among the various doctrinal frameworks, which at times appeared to be in conflict. This paper examines the commentarial approach of Silla Yogācāra monk Daehyeon (ca. eighth century), in which he sought to reconcile the seemingly contradictory doctrines of “nature” (i.e., tathāgatagarbha) and “characteristics” (i.e., Yogācāra) through his interpretation of the Awakening of Faith (Dasheng qixin lun). Contrary to the prevailing exegetical tendencies of the time, which often displayed antagonism toward opposing theoretical frameworks, Daehyeon adopted a hermeneutical approach aimed at integrating both perspectives. Through an analysis of his commentarial work, with particular focus on his interpretation of ālayavijñāna, this study explores how Daehyeon sought to demonstrate the doctrinal coherence between tathāgatagarbha and Yogācāra.

Drawing on The Proper Mode of Exposition (Vyākhyāyukti), this presentation examines Vasubandhu’s critique of an interpretive approach that evaluates new texts by aligning them with established canons. Through numerous examples and citations, he argues that all Buddhist texts are fragmented and inconsistent, with conflicting doctrines and prescriptions — discrepancies present even within Yogācāra texts. This presentation interprets The Proper Mode to argue that Vasubandhu rejects canonical contextualization due to its flawed mereological assumption of a canon as a unified whole composed of texts bearing a distinctive marker of canonicity. This argument draws an important parallel between Vasubandhu’s hermeneutics and ontology by interpreting his critique of a coherent canon as an extension of his ontological position against unified wholes. It also explores the implications of his position, specifically regarding the proper uses of fragmented Buddhist texts in commenting on Yogācāra treatises.

While the early proponents of Yogācāra did not necessarily see themselves as representing a radically new tradition, later commentators such as Sthiramati had a much clearer vision of it as a distinct school. Accordingly, he faced the difficult task of consolidating the school’s identity and bringing together ideas from the diverse and often contradictory earlier materials. This paper focuses on various commentarial strategies Sthiramati adopted to overcome these challenges in his commentary on Vasubandhu’s Triṃśikā, the Triṃśikāvijñaptibhāṣya. The paper first examines the tripartite narrative framework Sthiramati gives for explaining the overarching aims of Vasubandhu’s text, and offers some reflections on the methods he uses to defend, legitimise and create a paradigm for the interpretation of a key Yogācāra source. The talk also highlights the major difficulties Sthiramati as a commentator encountered in his attempt to reconcile interpretations from different layers of Yogācāra, and explains how he dealt with them.

An influential commentary on the fringe of the “classical” Yogācāra-Vijñānavāda tradition is the Ratnagotravibhāga. A noteworthy feature of the text is that while the prose, commentarial layer of its structure undeniably exposits Yogācāra doctrine, the earlier, root verses that they expand upon – devoted foremost to exploring ideas about “buddha-nature” – do not. While this and other features of the Ratnagotravibhāga have been well-studied, this paper puts front and centre our earliest witness to the text: its early sixth-century translation into Chinese (Baoxinglun 寶性論). This version is noticeably different to our surviving Sanskrit and Tibetan versions – and, conspicuously, features yet more evidence of Yogācāra influence in its composition. We will look at what how the commentarial stratum of the Ratnagotravibhāga transforms the text into a Yogācāra work, and will give special attention to features and passage of the Chinese version that exhibit still greater investment in specifically Yogācāra doctrine.

Since the time of Śākyamuni Buddha, Buddhism has undergone diverse doctrinal developments across different historical periods and geographical regions. As Buddhist teachings diversified, commentators faced a crucial hermeneutical challenge in addressing the relationships among the various doctrinal frameworks, which at times appeared to be in conflict. This paper examines the commentarial approach of Silla Yogācāra monk Daehyeon (ca. eighth century), in which he sought to reconcile the seemingly contradictory doctrines of “nature” (i.e., tathāgatagarbha) and “characteristics” (i.e., Yogācāra) through his interpretation of the Awakening of Faith (Dasheng qixin lun). Contrary to the prevailing exegetical tendencies of the time, which often displayed antagonism toward opposing theoretical frameworks, Daehyeon adopted a hermeneutical approach aimed at integrating both perspectives. Through an analysis of his commentarial work, with particular focus on his interpretation of ālayavijñāna, this study explores how Daehyeon sought to demonstrate the doctrinal coherence between tathāgatagarbha and Yogācāra.

The Dobbs decision is causing catastrophic consequences to women and queer people’s reproductive freedom and health care.  Roman Catholic leaders, including the American Bishops, are aligning with other patriarchal manifestations of Christianity to curtail access to legal abortion and discourage birth control.  This paper formulates a Roman Catholic argument—a Catholic Case—for reproductive freedom by resurrecting and revisiting historical concepts  from Catholic ethics and liberation theology that are no longer commonly associated with Reproductive Ethics. This resurrected “Catholic Case” also connects to supporting Jewish and Muslim teachings on abortion.  The Catholic Case for Reproductive Freedom resurrects the currently dormant  or underused Christian ethics of 1) double effect 2) liberation theology 3) original Thomistic personhood (ensoulment) 4) proportionality and 5) Post Vatican II bioethics to grow reproductive freedom and mitigate the oppressive life vs. choice binary. 

In April 2024, Dignitas Infinita asserted that any “sex-change intervention” risks threatening “the unique dignity” of persons. In October 2024, a group of transgender and intersex people, met with Pope Francis and discussed the importance of transgender healthcare. In March 2025, Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández suggested that in some "exceptional circumstances" there may be room for gender affirming care. eanwhile, in the wake of the 2024 election, the USCCB has seemed to double down on anti-trans policies and legislation, endangering the lives of  trans Catholics and forsaking them. This paper examines the experience of trans Catholics through interviews, testimonies, and writings to demonstrate how trans affirming care is life affirming. Drawing on Catholic ethics and incarnational theology, this paper argues that the need for Catholic institutions to support trans individuals and gender affirming care is not merely harm reduction and suicide prevention, but contributes to the flourishing of trans Catholics. 

This paper examines shifting Orthodox rabbinic opinions and activity regarding abortions in recent years, particularly following the 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision. Contrary to a monolithic “galvanization,” responses to Dobbs have revealed divergent responses within Orthodox communities. This paper traces the complex landscape of Halachic Jewish thought on abortion, from biblical verses through their application in the opposing views of the Tzitz Eliezer and Reb Moshe. It investigates how post-Dobbs orthodox camps are not only split, but at times changing their positions to more divergent approaches on issues such as permissible abortion boundaries for maternal health, and examines apparent shifts in rabbinic thought and advocacy might line up with a wider cultural alignment of certain Orthodox sectors with conservative Christianity, the GOP, and/or Trumpism. As such, this research underscores the dynamic interplay of halakhic tradition, political realities, and evolving ethical frameworks concerning reproductive rights.