CFA 8th Glorisun International Intensive Program on Buddhist Studies

The Glorisun Global Network for Buddhist Studies, whose members are Peking University, UBC, Hamburg, Princeton, Oxford, Cambridge, Yale, UC Berkeley, Harvard FAS CAMLab, University of Hong Kong, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Zhejiang, Tokyo, and Inalco cordially invites applications for an intensive program on Buddhist Studies. This year’s intensive program is hosted by the Centre d’études interdisciplinaires sur le bouddhisme (CEIB) and the Inalco in Paris, France, with administrative support from the Glorisun Global Network for Buddhist Studies at Peking University (the Research Center for Buddhist Texts and Art 北京大學佛教典籍與藝術研究中心) and the Glorisun Network at UBC, the FROGBEAR project at UBC. 

Lasting from July 5, 2025 to July 15, 2025, this year’s program is composed of four synchronous conferences, a series of intensive seminars, lectures, one student forum and finally, field visits.

The backbone of this program consists of six lectures and lecture series (seminars) delivered by international scholars (listed by the alphabetical order of the speakers’ family names):

1. Noga GANANY 高諾佳 (University of Cambridge 英國劍橋大學): The Impact of Buddhism on Late Imperial Book Culture 佛教對晚期帝制中國書籍文化的影響 (lecture; Segment 1)
2. Vincent GOOSSAERT 高萬桑 (École Pratique des Hautes Études [EPHE] 法國高等研究實踐學院): Religious Literature in Late Imperial China: Typologies, Spirit-writing and Ritual Uses 晚期帝制中國的宗教文獻：類型學、扶乩活動與儀式用途 (lecture series; Segment 1)
3. Zhe JI 汲喆 (Inalco-CEIB 法國國立東方語言文明學院-多學科佛教研究中心): Lay Buddhism and Its New Forms in Contemporary China 當代中國居士佛教的新形態 (lecture series; Segment 2)
4. Ulrike ROESLER 鄔瑞可 (University of Oxford 英國牛津大學): Buddhist Advice for Rulers 佛教對王者的箴規 (lecture series; Segment 2)
5. Anna SHIELDS 田安 (Princeton University 美國普林斯頓大學): Daoism in Poetry from the Late Tang through the Early Northern Song: Losing the Way 晚唐至初宋文學中的道教：失道 (lecture; Segment 1)
6. Ru ZHAN 湛如 (Peking University 北京大學): Precepts Discepted and Accepted: Studies of the Transformation of Vinaya Traditions in East Asia 戒之詰、律之履：東亞律學嬗變 (lecture series; Segment 1)

As a key component of this year’s intensive program, four concurrent international conferences (scheduled for July 9–10, 2025) will take place in between the two teaching segments.

Student participants, especially those in need of travel subsidies, are encouraged to present papers at one of the four conferences. To guarantee full consideration, a conference application needs to be submitted by February 10 [Monday], 2025. Details of the four synchronous conferences are available here:

• Production and Distribution of Buddhist and Other Religious Texts in Chinese Societies
• Buddhism and Global Governance: Artificial Intelligence, Regional and Religious Conflicts, and Climate Change
• Buddhism and Art from Transregional and Cross-Cultural Perspectives
• Buddhism and Other East Asian Religions at the Grassroots: Change from the Ground Up

The program also includes a series of occasional lectures to be delivered by two top scholars. This year, student participants will conduct field trips in Paris. In addition to participating in the conferences, seminars, and lectures, students are also encouraged to present their research papers to their program instructors, lecturers, and their peer participants at the intersegmental student forum. Outstanding students will be selected and invited to carry out 3–12 month research at Glorisun partner universities (listed above). This may further bring them the opportunity of pursuing doctoral degrees or doing postdoctoral research at these top universities.

A tentative schedule of the whole program is available here.

Senior undergraduate students and graduate students specialising in any Buddhist tradition(s), and postdoctoral fellows working in relevant fields, are encouraged to apply. Please direct applications and inquiries to FrogBear.Project@ubc.ca. Please submit applications before February 15, 2025. Each application should include: (1) an application form, (2) updated curriculum vitae, (3) one writing sample in either Chinese or English, and (4) a reference letter (to be emailed by the referee directly to the above email address).

To guarantee sufficient interaction of student participants with instructors, and between student participants themselves, student enrollment is limited to 30. In addition to being exempted from all tuition and administration fees and being provided free accommodation and meals during the program period, a successful candidate may receive a limited amount of travel subsidy depending on his or her individual needs and the distance s/he has to travel for the program.