(15 June 2017 – Hong Kong) The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation announced today the selection of 26 scholars and institutions for grants under The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Program in Buddhist Studies, an award scheme open to applications worldwide.

Competitively chosen through peer review, grantees come from leading universities and institutions and their in-depth explorations extend to different academic disciplines and Buddhist traditions as well as countries and regions including Burma, China, India, Japan, Kalmykia, Korea, Thailand, Tibet and Vietnam.

The fourth cohort of scholars has been selected from a wide range of leading international institutions including McGill (Canada), Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes (France), Korea University, Leiden (Netherlands), Max Planck Institute (Germany) and Princeton (United States), among others. École française d’Extrême-Orient and University of California, Irvine will receive seeding grants to establish new professorships in Buddhist Studies.

Such academic and geographical diversity is in line with the Program’s mission to foster a global interdisciplinary network of researchers and educators, aiming to expand understanding of Buddhism in contemporary scholarship and society.

Launched in 2014 and offered annually, The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Program in Buddhist Studies is administered by the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS). Grantees for 2016/17 were selected from 160 applications through rigorous peer review organized by the ACLS. Awards were made in five categories:

- The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Dissertation Fellowships in Buddhist Studies

- The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowships in Buddhist Studies

- The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Collaborative Research Fellowships in Buddhist Studies

- The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Research Fellowships in Buddhist Studies

- The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation New Professorships in Buddhist Studies

To strengthen intellectual exchange and networking among Fellows, ACLS is also presenting The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Program in Buddhist Studies Fellows’ Symposium at the University of Toronto, 17–21 August, 2017. This third annual symposium is centered on a series of intensive, senior scholar-led workshops to discuss the Fellows’ research.

Additionally, on the occasion of the XVIIIth Congress of the International Association of Buddhist Studies (IABS) at the University of Toronto, a public roundtable organised by the ACLS titled Bridging Divides in Buddhist Studies will be held at the Royal Ontario Museum on 21 August. The IABS Congress is held every three to four years, serving as the premier international forum for the presentation of current scholarship on Buddhism. The Congress also highlights the opening earlier this year of The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Centre for Buddhist Studies at the University of Toronto.

List of 2016/17 grantees

The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Dissertation Fellowships in Buddhist Studies

- Ernest Brewster (East Asian Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University) The Yoga of Dying: Consciousness and Mortality in Tang Yogacara Buddhism

- Christopher Emms (Buddhism, McMaster University) A Study and Translation of Sakyaprabha’s Aryamulasarvastivadisramanerakarika: Verses for Novices of the Noble Mularsarvastivadins

- Andrew Harris (Anthropology, University of Toronto) Buddhist Terraces at Angkor Thom: Exploring the Urban Evolution of the Khmer Capital from Mahayana to Theravada Buddhism through the Mapping and Analysis of Theravada Architectural Infrastructure

- Christopher Hiebert (Religious Studies, University of Virginia) Curricular Landscapes: Tibetan Scholastic ‘Commentarial’ Colleges (bshad grwa) and the Rise of Transnational ‘Modern’ Buddhist education in Asia

- Anna Johnson (Asian Languages and Cultures, University of Michigan) Debates on the Nature of a Vow from India to Tibet in the Eleventh to Fifteenth Centuries

- Susanne Kerekes (Religious Studies, University of Pennsylvania) Wat Arun and the Material Culture of Thai Buddhism

- Channa Li (Buddhist Studies, Leiden University) Challenging the Buddha’s Authority: How Buddhist Narrative Traditions Negotiate Religious Authority in Stories

- Ian MacCormack (Study of Religion, Harvard University) Buddhism and Government in Seventeenth-Century Tibet

- Nils Martin (Art history, Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes) Drigung Kagyu Murals in Ladakh (13th to mid-15th century): Patrons and Painters

- Or Porath (Religious studies, University of California, Santa Barbara) Intimate Dharma: Buddhism, the Body, and Imperial Authority in Medieval Japan

- Sara Swenson (Religion, Syracuse University) “Sharing Hearts”: Buddhism, Social Services, and Privatization in Vietnam

- Jessica Zu (Religion, Princeton University) Translation, Comparative Hermeneutics, and Yogacara Social Theory in Lu Cheng's (1896-1989) New Buddhist Canon

The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowships in Buddhist Studies

- Valeriya Gazizova (History of religions, Independent Scholar) 'Clandestine Buddhism' in Soviet Kalmykia (1958-1988) and its role in the post-Soviet Buddhist revival
Residency at the University of Cambridge, UK

- Hyoung Seok Ham (Affiliated Scholar, Buddhist Studies, Research Institute of Korean Studies, Korea University) Buddhist Confrontation with the Veda: A Historical Analysis of Bhaviveka’s Mimamsa Chapter of the Madhyamakahrdayakarika and Tarkajvala
Residency at Kyushu University, Japan

- Oren Hanner (Junior Fellow, Buddhist Studies, University of Hamburg) Collective Moral Responsibility in the Thought of Vasubandhu: Philosophical, Comparative and Applied Issues
Residency at University of California, Berkeley

- Joseph Marino (Doctoral candidate, Buddhist Studies, University of Washington) Imagining the Dharma: Metaphor as Pedagogy in Two Gandhari Sutras of the Robert Senior Collection
Residency at Cornell University

The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Collaborative Research Fellowships in Buddhist Studies

- Patrice Ladwig (Postdoctoral Fellow, Social Anthropology, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity) and Gregory Kourilsky (Independent Scholar, History of Religion) Governing the monastic order: A comparative exploration of traditional sangha-laws in pre-modern Laos and their transformations under colonialism

The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Research Fellowships in Buddhist Studies

- Katherine Bowie (Professor, Anthropology, University of Wisconsin, Madison) The Saint of Northern Thailand: Resurrecting the Stormy Life of Kruba Srivichai

- Kevin Carr (Associate Professor, Japanese Art History, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor) Topographies of the Sacred in Medieval Japan

- Brendan Gillon (Professor, Linguistics, Philosophy, McGill University) Ru shi lun, second earliest Chinese text on Buddhist logic: philosophical and philological analysis

- Laura Guerrero (Assistant Professor, Philosophy, Utah Valley University) “Truth for the Rest of Us: Conventional Truth in the Work of Dharmakirti”

- Alicia Turner (Associate Professor, Humanities, York University) Buddhism’s Plural Pasts: Religious Difference and Indifference in Colonial Burma

- Nicole Willock (Assistant Professor, Religious Studies, Old Dominion University) Lineages of the Literary: Tibetan Buddhist Scholars Making Modern China

The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation New Professorships in Buddhist Studies

Two awards were made for seed funding for new professorial appointments in Buddhist Studies.

- École française d’Extrême-Orient (EFEO) - this New Professorship in the study of medieval Chinese Buddhism, in which the professor will have an affiliation with an EFEO center in East Asia, will add an important new element to the international network of sites that constitute EFEO.  The position, continuing a tradition of excellence that extends back to the nineteenth century, will strengthen the worldwide field of Buddhist studies by training postgraduate researchers from both Europe and Asia and by developing scholarly networks among a range of institutions. 

- University of California, Irvine - this New Professorship in a large public university will create synergies in graduate and undergraduate programs as it builds upon existing strengths in East Asian Studies and Religious Studies to offer new curricula.  This will be the institution’s first position in Buddhist studies.  The position will be affiliated with the University’s growing Program in Religious Studies, a significant development given the large Asian and Asian-American communities in that area of southern California.

About The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation

Established in 2005, The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation is a private philanthropic organization based in Hong Kong. The Foundation’s dual mission is to foster appreciation of Chinese arts and culture to advance global learning and to cultivate deeper understanding of Buddhism in the context of contemporary life.

The Foundation’s Buddhist studies and Buddhist art programs include the Buddhist Ministry Initiative at Harvard Divinity School; a centre and an endowed professorship in Buddhist studies at Stanford University; a centre for Buddhist Studies at the University of Toronto; an endowed chair and program in Buddhism and Contemporary Society at the University of British Columbia; a multi-year lecture series at SOAS University of London; a Centre for Buddhist art and conservation and a MA program at The Courtauld Institute of Art; the Galleries of Buddhist Art at the Victoria and Albert Museum; a three-year exhibition Encountering the Buddha: Art and Practice Across Asia opening in the Sackler Gallery in Washington in October 2017 and other exhibitions of Buddhist art around the world.

To learn more about The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation and its activities, visit http://www.rhfamilyfoundation.org

About the American Council of Learned Societies

The American Council of Learned Societies is a federation of 75 scholarly societies devoted to the promotion of the humanities and related social sciences. This year, ACLS will award more than US$20 million to over 300 scholars across a variety of humanistic disciplines.

More information about the American Council can be found at http://www.acls.org

Media enquiries:

The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation

Janet Tong
+852 2232 0001
jtong@rhfamilyfoundation.org

Link-Work Communications

Viviane Pang
+852 2918 0907 / 6414 8496
viviane.pang@link-work.com.hk

Kylie Li
+852 2918 0900 / 6082 9701
kylie.li@link-work.com.hk