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Examining nonviolence, exploring positionality, and engaging in contemplation in Buddhist Studies classrooms

Submitted to Program Units
1: Buddhist Pedagogy Seminar

This roundtable session brings together instructors from a variety of institutions to explore different examples of Buddhist pedagogy in practice. The presentations discuss Buddhist Studies courses that examine instances of Buddhist violence and nonviolence, that explore issues of identity and positionality influencing study abroad instruction, and the results of engaging contemplative practices within a graduate curriculum. The demographic makeup of their students and their institutional contexts range from a private university operated by a Buddhist organization in Thailand, a Catholic research university, a private liberal arts college, to a Buddhist graduate school.

Beverley Foulks McGuire, University of North Carolina, Wilmington, Presiding

Abstract for Online Program Book (maximum 150 words)

This roundtable session brings together instructors from a variety of institutions to explore different examples of Buddhist pedagogy in practice. The presentations discuss Buddhist Studies courses that examine instances of Buddhist violence and nonviolence, that explore issues of identity and positionality influencing study abroad instruction, and the results of engaging contemplative practices within a graduate curriculum. The demographic makeup of their students and their institutional contexts differ: they include a private university operated by a Buddhist organization in Thailand, a Catholic research university, a private liberal arts college, and a Buddhist graduate school.

Papers

  • Jeffrey Nicolaisen, Duke University

    Teaching Compassionate Listening in a Religious Conflict Course at a Buddhism-affiliated University in Taiwan

    Abstract

    Buddhists have been particularly successful in portraying the Buddhist Dharma as a nonviolent religion. As a result, some high profile scholars attempt to debunk the popular nonviolent image of Buddhism. While scholarship aiming to correct biases in the academic literature is important, in the classroom, scholarship that seeks to identify the violence tendencies of Buddhism, “New Religions,” cults, or other teachings also serves to invoke stereotypes of religion as violent, irrational, or superstitious. This paper presents the teaching methods of a class on Religious Conflict at a comprehensive private university operated by a Buddhist organization in Taiwan. The course curriculum both introduces the scholarship on religious violence in general, and Buddhist violence in particular, but also employs active learning pedagogy in the form of the Compassionate Listening Project curriculum to provide both examples of Buddhist nonviolence and opportunities for preemptive conflict resolution.

  • Huili Stout, University of Dayton

    Peace and War with Thich Nhat Hanh

    Abstract

    The topic of peace and nonviolence lends itself easily to a presentation of basic Buddhist teachings. Thanks to the writings and witness of Thich Nhat Hanh, such a presentation can utilize a combination of stories, poetry, discussion, and theoretical exposition, yielding a rich classroom experience with the potential to transform students’ understanding.

    This paper presents the outline of a lesson with three segments, each of them escalating the level of challenge posed to the students. The first segment tells stories from Nhat Hanh’s own experience during the Indochina War and the Vietnam War. The second segment presents his reflection on the US military response to the September 11 attack of 2001. The final segment concludes with Nhat Hanh’s provocative poem, “Please Call Me by My True Names.”

  • Alison Melnick Dyer, Bates College

    Student Identity, Positionality, and Privilege in the Buddhist Classroom Abroad

    Abstract

    How do student (and instructor) identity and positionality influence how we teach about Buddhism abroad? Likewise, what can this tell us about how we might make Buddhism courses taught in North America more accessible to students, especially at Predominantly White Institutions (PWIs)? In this paper, I discuss the challenges and successes associated with recruiting and then guiding a group of historically under-resourced college students on a four-week Study Abroad intensive course in Ladakh, India. From initial recruitment to final project presentations, there are pedagogical, cultural, and religious aspects that must be considered (and reconsidered) when teaching Buddhism in a classroom of students who are BIPOC, come from low-income homes, and are the first in their families to attend college. While this paper focuses on the Study Abroad context – that is, experiential learning where students are invited to engage with the tradition _in situ_, and intensively over a short period of time – my experience working with this cohort abroad also has implications for how we approach teaching Buddhism in the North American classroom.

  • Namdrol Miranda Adams, Maitripa College

    Still Gazing: The Evolution of Contemplative Pedagogy in Teaching Buddhism (A Follow Up to 2019's "Now I Can See the Moon")

    Abstract

    In 2019 this author demonstrated a model of Buddhist pedagogy that dovetailed with the mainstream academic movement contemplative pedagogy, offering promise in expanding American educational pedagogies with ideas of new epistemologies, dynamics, and languaging around why, how, and whom we educate. In 2019, this author proposed a young Buddhist graduate school, Maitripa College, as a nexus of investigation for such application, and the teaching of Buddhist Studies in its traditional and applied forms as a basis of understanding whether and how such pedagogy is effective. Four years later, this paper will summarize a critical analysis of this application thus far: through student evaluations of Maitripa College students, interviews with key college founders and friends from both inside and outside of traditional academia, and artifacts of student work, this paper will ask, and answer, the question: is contemplative pedagogy an effective medium through which to teach Buddhism in higher education?

Audiovisual Requirements

Resources

LCD Projector and Screen
Play Audio from Laptop Computer
Podium microphone

Full Papers Available

No
Program Unit Options

Session Length

90 Minutes

Tags

Buddhism
Privilege
BIPOC
PWIs
Ladakh
Study Abroad
#Taiwan
#Buddhism
#Buddhist pedagogy
# Violence
# religious violence
#compassion
#experiential learning