All time are listed in Eastern Time Zone.
This is a session for topics that do not fit into other categories, but explore questions, methods, and avenues of inquiry pertinent to TWW. Preference will be given to young scholars or others new to the group.
Taking a comparative cross-cultural approach with case studies from South, Southeast, Inner and East Asia, this 90-minute roundtable centers on the question: How has monastic succession been implemented in Buddhist institutions and/or socially-constructed in Buddhist literatures? The diverse group of presenters (across a range of criteria: gender, nationality, professional experience, and institutional affiliation) includes four scholars in Pali Buddhist traditions and four experts in Tibetan Buddhist traditions. Prior to the AAR, each participant will pre-circulate papers on their respective case study from Sri Lanka, Burma, Bangladesh, Mongolia, Central Tibet, or China, ranging from the seventeenth century to the contemporary period. During the session, each presenter will limit their remarks to eight minutes to illuminate the central question on monastic succession and will distribute a handout to contextualize the form/s of succession and/or its imaginings socially, historically, and politically. The remaining fifteen minutes will be used for discussion.
What is the place of Canada within the “American” Academy of Religion? How do geopolitics and national borders shape the work of teaching and scholarship? The current U.S. Presidential administration brings renewed and urgent attention to these questions. In this roundtable panel, a group of University of Toronto alumni reflect on their experiences working on both sides of the U.S.-Canada border. The Department for the Study of Religion at the University of Toronto was formed fifty years ago, alongside the postwar rise of religious studies in the U.S. Its subsequent growth, like that of the city of Toronto, was shaped by the economics of a historical period that has now changed. Our roundtable panelists’ reflections use Toronto as a site for reflecting on the cultural history of the study of religion as a North American disciplinary formation, and for speculating about this discipline’s possible futures.
Myrna Perez's Criticizing Science: Stephen Jay Gould and the Struggle for American Democracy (Johns Hopkins UP 2024) analyzes the career of Harvard paleontologist and public intellectual Stephen Jay Gould against the backdrop of contemporary debates around science, religion, and political controversy. Gould is a well-studied figure in the field of science and religion, but this discussion largely focuses on a small subset of his work. Perez draws on an expansive study of the full sweep of his career, considering especially how he modeled a relationship between science and power that still holds relevance today.
This panel brings together leading scholars of queer and trans studies in religion to engage with Dawne Moon and Theresa W. Tobin's book Choosing Love: What LGBTQ+ Christians Can Teach Us All About Relationships, Inclusion, and Justice (Oxford University Press, 2025). Panelists will consider the book's contributions to the field and in the context of intensifying culture wars.
The new sourcebook Global Philosophy (Equinox, 2025) is a first-of-its-kind collection of translations, writings, and conversations by sixty leading contemporary philosophers and translators, featuring some of the major ideas, themes, and arguments nearly one hundred philosophical texts of Africana, Buddhist, Confucian, Hindu, Islamic, Jain, Jewish, Latin American, Mesoamerican, Native American, and Taoist philosophy. It includes translations from sixteen different languages on topics including metaphysics, cosmology, epistemology, philosophy of language, logic, ethics, storytelling, philosophy of religion, selfhood, death, and freedom.
In this roundtable, contributors and teachers who have used the volume will discuss how it fits into philosophy research and pedagogy. There will also be discussion of the relative merits of labels like “global philosophy,” “cross-cultural philosophy,” and “fusion philosophy”; connections between these and allied fields such as the history of philosophy and the philosophy of religion; the challenges of making space for them in the Anglo-American academy; and other questions.
This panel explores a series of new academic directions in understanding Buddhism's transmission and transformation outside Buddhist Asia. “Translating the Tathāgata” examines a failed CIA effort to use a screenplay on the Buddha's life for Cold War psychological warfare, American Buddhist Tradition: The work of the Tibetan Preliminary Practices investigates how American Buddhists engage with Tibetan practices to cultivate tradition, challenging the tradition-modernity dichotomy. Deconstructing the Dichotomy between the Esoteric and Buddhism in the West: the case study of Ananda Metteyya argues that Western esotericism is integral to understanding Buddhism's Western transmission, using Ananda Metteyya's life as a case study. Redacting Forest Spirits: A Discourse Analysis of Psychotherapeutic Uses of Buddhist Metta (Lovingkindness) Meditation Practice analyzes the secular appropriation of metta meditation in Western psychotherapies, highlighting ethical concerns and potential limitations.
“Tathāgata in Translation” explores a failed CIA effort to win the hearts and minds of Asian Buddhists in the early Cold War. Its focus is an unpublished 1953 screenplay on the life of the Buddha, conceived as a psychological warfare tool to promote U.S. bloc-building efforts in Asia. Envisioned as a Hollywood-style epic, The Wayfarer would convince Asian Buddhists to reject Communism and help the CIA forge ties local Buddhist leaders.
To examine its failure, I analyze The Wayfarer's interpretative ambiguity through a close reading of three scenes. I then frame the screenplay as a Translation Zone, in Emily Apter’s sense—a battleground for interpretative dominance. By relocating The Wayfarer from a CIA back office to a wartime frontier, we see that American efforts to court Asian Buddhists failed not from poor execution, but because they became sites of resistance where local actors adeptly re-purposed them to suit their own goals.
This paper takes up the well-worn debate over Buddhist modernism from the perspective of its neglected shadow: Buddhist tradition. Can contemporary American Buddhists ever be “traditional” (as opposed to merely “traditionalistic”)? What would that mean? Based on ongoing ethnographic interviews, participant observation, and liturgical analysis, I argue that the Tibetan Buddhist preliminary practices (ngondro) work to form Buddhist subjects with a visceral sense of tradition, binding together cosmologies, bodily postures, ethical commitments, emotional habits, and sacralized relationships. This “tradition” is neither an ahistorical essence already out there in the world nor a rhetorical posture batting ineffectually at the rupture of modernity: it is one possible outcome of human labor and desire. For American converts engaged in the preliminary practices, both tradition and modernity are live orientations, ways of being in the world in a fraught and often tragic relationship to one another.
Through the life of Allan Bennett/Ananda Metteyya (1872-1923), this paper argues that the transmission of Buddhism to the West cannot be understood without examining Western esotericism. To draw a line between Buddhism and the esoteric in a Western context is a false dichotomy. In his youth, Bennett turned towards Theosophy and the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, within which he became the teacher of Aleister Crowley (1875-1947). After a period in Sri Lanka, he gained higher ordination as a Buddhist monk in Myanmar, becoming Venerable Ananda Metteyya. As a monk, Metteyya insisted that there was nothing esoteric or mysterious in Buddhism. In his personal life, however, Metteyya retained constructive relationships with Theosophists and continued to practice the esoteric, yogic meditation he had learnt in Sri Lanka. A dialectical relationship, therefore, existed between the esoteric and Buddhism within Metteya's life and within the Buddhism that he communicated to the West.
Western mindfulness movements, including mindfulness-based psychotherapies, have widely adopted Buddhist metta (lovingkindness) meditation practices. In their traditional contexts, these meditation practices have had an apotropaic function, and Buddhist commentary literature narrates the use of metta practice to transform conflict with "supernatural" beings. This paper engages in a discourse analysis of psychotherapy manuals, such as Dialectical Behavior Therapy, and psychotherapeutic research articles that include metta meditation practices, focusing on their omission or minimization of the Buddhist origins of metta practice more broadly and Buddhist metta traditions involving supernatural beings more specifically. This discourse analysis shows that adoption of metta practices by contemporary psychotherapy reflects broader patterns in secular appropriation of Buddhist traditions, such as front-stage/back-stage behavior, and that elements of Buddhist cosmology involving supernatural beings are strongly targeted for deselection. This is ethically problematic and may limit the effectiveness of metta practice for spiritually-attuned care.
What does it mean to be a Catholic feminist today? These three papers offer views from Canada, the United States and Latin America. Together, they open a conversation about the wide range of viewpoints across the hemisphere, suggest new language for studying Catholic feminisms in the academy, and to explore the possibilities for new forms of Catholic feminisms to emerge from the ground up.
This paper examines “Catholic feminism” as a term and analyzes the meaning(s) of these words as various Catholic women theologians and leaders have used them throughout the last three decades (~1990 to ~2025). Through engaging Catholic feminist theologians such as Rosemary Radford Ruether, Elizabeth A. Johnson, and Ivone Gebara, this paper reveals how progressive Catholic women are defining Catholic feminism. Through engaging contemporary Catholic women leaders such as Abigail Favale and Josephine Garrett, this work also analyzes how conservative Catholic women are considering Catholic feminism. Bringing the progressive and conservative Catholic women into conversation with one another, this essay uncovers what each approach has in common with one another, while revealing key differences that may prove irreconcilable. This paper establishes the slippery nature of the term “Catholic feminism,” suggests the need to reconsider the use of the term, and proposes new language to use in scholarly conversation.
In the year 2000, the World March of Women (WMW 2000) organized a series of international events to condemn poverty and violence against women. Development and Peace – Caritas Canada (the official international development organization of the Canadian Catholic Church) financially supported the March and encouraged Catholics to participate as a sign of “courageous solidarity” with women around the world. WMW 2000 became controversial as some of the other groups that also supported the March called for greater access to abortion, which contradicted established Catholic moral teaching. Pro-life organizations in Canada called for a boycott of the March and for the Canadian Bishops to withdraw their support from Development and Peace. As bishops lined up on both sides of the issue, WMW 2000 became one of the most divisive debates in Canadian Catholic history. This paper explores why this event was so polarizing and explains its impact on contemporary Canadian Catholicism.
This paper explores contemporary Catholic feminism and abortion rights activism and advocacy in Mexico, Argentina, and the U.S., with a focus on three nongovernmental organizations: Catholics for the Right to Decide Mexico, Catholics for the Right to Decide Argentina, and Catholics for Choice in the U.S. Specifically, I examine how these organizations strategically employ saints and their hagiographies to advance abortion rights. In the wake of Pope John Paul II's "sustained programme of ... 'strategic canonization,'" Catholic feminists have demonstrated that the “many models of holiness” the pope sought to highlight to advance the Vatican's agenda can also be employed to challenge the Church’s official positions (Bennett, 2011, p. 441, p. 448). Ultimately, the use of saints in Catholic feminism points to the ways in which the Catholic tradition, perhaps paradoxically, sets the stage for Catholic feminism to emerge.
This panel brings together five scholars studying Jain contemplative practices through philological, historical, anthropological, and philosophical approaches. The first three presentations examine Jain ideas on contemplation as presented in various Jain texts: the Cīvakacintāmaṇi (9th century), Yaśovijaya’s Dvātriṃśaddvātriṃśikā (17th century), and Śrīmad Rājcandra’s Mokṣamāḷā and Ātmasiddhi (19th century). Each presenter analyzes how these texts articulate or portray Jain contemplative practices within their respective historical and intellectual contexts. The remaining presentations explore contemporary cultural intersections of Jainism and contemplative practices. Case studies include Acharya Sushil Kumar’s “Arhum Yoga,” which integrates Jain and non-Jain elements into a unique system of yoga and sound theory, and prekṣā-dhyāna, a systematized Jain meditation practice framed for a global audience that emphasizes contemporary concerns, such as health and science. Collectively, these five presentations shed new light on the variegated nature of Jain contemplative practices and provide new research opportunities in Jain Studies and Contemplative Studies.
The 9th century Tamil narrative poem Cīvakacintāmaṇi is not the first place most scholars of Jain studies would think to look for Jain perspectives on contemplative practice. This text, which tells the story of Cīvakaṉ (Jivandhra in Sanskrit) is well known–even infamous–for its excessively erotic nature. Although some scholars interpret it as ultimately critical of embodied experiences, we can also read the work as exploring what it means to be embodied while on a spiritual path. In the narrative world of the Cīvakacintāmaṇi, animal interactions form a critical part of that path for Cīvakaṉ. This paper looks at the ways animal interactions and animal suffering catalyze intense emotional experiences, moments of contemplation, mantric practice, and the central character’s ultimate decision to renounce kingship and the world. Despite the story’s antiquity, these key moments can serve as guiding examples even in today’s world.
Pātañjali's teachings on the workings of the mind and the experience of meditation have been well-researched. The first part of his Yogasūtra—the samādhi pāda—presents, among other topics, different practices to stabilize the mind, obstacles in meditation, and different types of samādhi. Its compact style has often posed challenges for commentators. This paper examines Yaśovijaya’s engagement with this part of the Yogasūtra in the Dvātriṃśaddvātriṃśikā, a long Jain compendium on mendicant conduct that includes an auto-commentary. Despite his influence on Jain thought, Yaśovijaya remains understudied, and much of his work has not been translated into English. With original translations, this paper explores how Yaśovijaya offers a particular interpretation of Patañjali’s teachings on meditation, drawing from Vyāsa at points, building on earlier Jain authors like Haribhādrasūri, and applying Jain ontological and ethical frameworks. It also shows how his engagements with different current of thought reveal important concerns of his time.
Śrīmad Rājcandra (1867–1901) was a prominent Jain mystic, philosopher, and poet whose impactful teachings continue to influence Jain philosophy and spirituality, particularly in Gujarat, India, and among the Gujarati diaspora. His spiritual approach emphasized the imminent potential for spiritual liberation through self-realization, detachment, and contemplation, offering a perspective that may seem more immediate than what many Jains might believe. This paper explores Śrīmad Rājcandra's teachings on contemplative practices, drawing from his works such as Mokṣamāḷā and the Ātmasiddhi, which provide detailed guidance on the contemplative practices important for liberation within the Jain tradition while connecting modern and pre-modern ideas about Jain contemplative practice.
This paper features Jain contemplative practices in the “Arhum Yoga” tradition of Acharya Sushil Kumar (1926–1994), a Jain guru who left India to establish a community in North America in the 1970s. While Kumar described his contemplative system as “Jain Yoga” in his book, Song of the Soul (SOtS), a study of the contemplative practices contained therein reveals that Kumar was drawing from manifold non-Jain pan-South Asian influences to create his yoga system. He was therefore carrying forward a medieval tradition found in Jain yoga texts such as Hemacandra’s Yogaśāstra and the later Yogapradīpa, both of which drew contemplative practices from non-Jain traditions though without losing their commitment to Jain soteriology. What is most striking, however, is how Kumar draws from non-Jain Vedic, haṭha-yogic, and tantric traditions, and in doing so appears at times to present a non-Jain ontological and soteriological system – features of SOtS this paper will carefully untangle.
The term contemplation (anuprekṣā) is an ancient Jain meditative practice which is based on continuing to think about religious subjects with soteriological purpose. The Uttarādhyayanasūtra describes the daily routine of ascetics which consists of the practice of five types of self-study (svādhyāya) wherein anuprekṣā is one technique used as a component of advanced types of meditation (dharma-dhyāna and śukla-dhyāna). This paper notes a shift toward a systematized, modern packaging of anuprekṣā, which is different from its traditional forms in the Jain Āgamas and Tattvārthasūtra (9.7), as it is presented under the meditation system named prekṣā-dhyāna by Ācārya Mahāprajña (1920–2010). The main difference between the premodern practices and modern anuprekṣā is that the premodern method involved merely mental thinking, whereas in modern anuprekṣā many steps such as relaxation, positive affirmation, color visualization and concentration on psychic centers within the body are introduced, demonstrating the entanglement of secular and soteriological goals.
