The Circled Square

In this episode, Sarah Richardson speaks with Matt King, Associate Professor in Transnational Buddhism in the Department of Religious Studies and Director of Asian Studies at the University of California, Riverside.

Sarah and Matt talk about why there is even such a thing as Buddhist studies, and why it matters to work toward decolonizing the classroom. They also discuss how his research informs his teaching, and what kinds of approaches he takes to promote inspired learning.

Johan Elverskog’s 2013 book, Buddhism and Islam on the Silk Road

Ocean of Milk, Ocean of Blood: A Mongolian Monk in the Ruins of the Qing Empire

Charlene E. Makley’s 2003 article, “Gendered Boundaries in Motion: Space and Identity on the Sino-Tibetan Frontier” in American Ethnologist 30(4)

Gregory Schopen’s video lecture on The Buddha as a Businessman

Article on The Tao of RZA

See show notes at teachingbuddhism.net/matt-king/.

In this episode, Sarah Richardson speaks with Vanessa Sasson, who teaches Religious Studies at Marianopolis College in Quebec, where she also co-teaches a popular course in which students travel to Nepal.

Sarah and Vanessa talk about how Vanessa got interested in the study of Buddhism, about her new novel about Yasodhara, the Buddha’s wife, and about how writing a work of fiction has changed her approach to teaching.

Vanessa’s 2018 book, Yasodhara: A Novel about the Buddha’s Wife, published by Speaking Tiger Books

See show notes at http://teachingbuddhism.net/vanessa-sasson/.