Fostering Education beyond the Classroom Examples from Republican Buddhism and their Legacy Today

Date & Time: December 8, 2021. 5:00AM PST / 7:00AM CST / 8:00AM EST / 1:00PM BST

Speaker: Dr. Stefania Travagnin, SOAS London

Discussants: Dr. Chin-Lon Lin (Buddhist Tzu Chi Medical Foundation) and Dr. André Laliberté (University of Ottawa)

Registration: https://ubc.zoom.us/meeting/register/u5Ylf-Gqrz0rHNXLQhbOJDOexkft0VsWPtNW

Webpage: https://frogbear.org/yin-cheng-distinguished-lecture-series-stefania-travagnin/

Abstract: 

The domain of ‘Buddhist education’ makes a distinction between education for the Sangha and Buddhist learning for the lay believers. In the context of education within/for lay society, Buddhist monastics and lay intellectuals did more than simply lecturing the laity about doctrinal principles and practice. For instance, in both the pre-modern and modern China, they have offered elementary and non-religious teaching whenever and wherever public schools were not available; Buddhist institutions also served, sometimes, as the only providers of education for certain social groups, especially women; and they have functioned as examples of private learning and models for other forms of institutions like the Confucian academies (shuyuan 書院) in the premodern era. In consideration of the positive guidance that Buddhist ethics could have offered, Chinese monastics have also been called to teach in other venues, like military camps or prisons. Finally, besides formal lecturing, Chinese monastics have often inspired by example, and facilitated the development of the surrounding community through their leadership, continuous guidance, and practical initiatives. Multiple, then, have been the ways in which Buddhists could intervene in society and educate, offering forms of learning that very often have gone beyond the traditional format and the classroom.

This talk will address Buddhists as educators in the larger society, exploring several cases from the first half of the twentieth century. It will continue showing that this engagement in society have continued after the Republican period and is still visible today, although in a different format due to a new socio-historical context. The talk will end with reflections on further potentials for Buddhists as educators in the twenty-first century.

About the Speaker: 

Dr. Stefania Travagnin currently teaches at SOAS, University of London. Before joining SOAS she was the founding director of the Centre for the Study of Religion and Culture in Asia at the University of Groningen (2013-2020). Travagnin obtained a BA and MA in Chinese Studies from Ca’ Foscari University (2000), and a PhD in the Study of Religions from SOAS (2009). Her publications include the edited volumes Religion and Media in China (Routledge 2016), and the three-volume series on concepts and methods for the study of Chinese religions published by De Gruyter (2019-2020): Concepts and Methods for the Study of Chinese Religions I: State of the Field and Disciplinary Approaches (co-edited with André Laliberté), Concepts and Methods for the Study of Chinese Religions II: Intellectual History of Key Concepts (co-edited with Gregory Adam Scott), Concepts and Methods for the Study of Chinese Religions III: Key Concepts in Practice (co-edited with Paul R. Katz). She is now co-directing, with Elena Valussi, the research project ‘Mapping Religious Diversity in Modern Sichuan’, which is funded by the CCKF and offers the very first comprehensive study of modern religious history of Sichuan.

本講座是“印證佛學傑出學術系列講座”第三講，由加盟校英屬哥倫比亞大學主辦。

This lecture is part of the Yin-Cheng Distinguished Lecture Series on Buddhism, hosted by UBC.

Note: [This lecture will be presented with simultaneous translations in English and Mandarin Chinese.]This event is free to public via Zoom but advance registration is required. This event will also be livestreamed on Youtube.