Upcoming Events

Anne Blackburn | Buddhist-Inflected Sovereignties Across the Indian Ocean

Anne Blackburn | Buddhist-Inflected Sovereignties Across the Indian Ocean

   30,
  5 - 6:30 p.m.
  370 Dwinelle Hall

Anne Blackburn
,
Penny Edwards

Join us for a talk by historian of South and Southeast Asian Buddhism, and Professor of Buddhist Studies and South Asian Studies at Cornell University, Prof. Anne Blackburn.

Talk Abstract
Based on Blackburn's book project, now nearing completion, this talk presents case studies from locations in what are now Sri Lanka, Burma, and Thailand, and draws larger historical and methodological proposals from these cases. The lecture highlights varied and historically specific practices of sovereignty in the premodern Pali arena (13th-16th centuries), as well as the intellectual communities inspiring them, during a time of expanding Pali intellectual culture.

About the Speaker
Prof. Anne Blackburn was first drawn to the study of Buddhism at Swarthmore College thanks to Donald Swearer, a scholar of Northern Thai Buddhism who developed innovative analytical perspectives on Buddhist history working across the domains of Thai Buddhist historiography, politics, Buddhist material culture, and Buddha biography. She received further training as an historian of religions at the University of Chicago, mentored by Frank Reynolds in a program shaped by historical sociology and hermeneutics. Her secondary supervisor at Chicago, Steven Collins, conducted research in Buddhist Studies and South Asian Studies, working with great originality at the intersection of historical sociology, philosophy, and the study of Buddhist literature in Pali. Studying with Charles Hallisey and P.B. Meegaskumbura introduced Blackburn to the rich history of Sinhala Buddhist literature and historiography, as well as approaches to South Asian literary vernaculars. In her research, Anne Blackburn works at the intersection of Buddhist institutional history, political economy, intellectual history, and literature. She focuses on intellectual-political centers in what is now Sri Lanka (formerly Lanka) during the 2nd millennium A.D., and networked nodes across the Indian Ocean in what are now Burma and Thailand.

Click HERE to read more about Prof. Blackburn.

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Event made possible with the support of the Sarah Kailath Chair of India Studies

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PARKING INFORMATION
Please note that parking is not always easily available in Berkeley. Take public transportation if possible or arrive early to secure your spot.

The event is FREE and OPEN to the public.