Graduate Student, Religion
Vanderbilt University, Religious Studies
Thesis Title: Rewriting Nara Buddhism: Sutra Copying in Early Japan
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Jacqueline Stone
Stephen Teiser Martin Collcutt |
About
I am currently completing a Ph.D. dissertation at Princeton University and will begin my tenure as the Mellon Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Vanderbilt University in the fall of 2012.
I specialize in East Asian religions with a focus on Buddhism in early Japan. I am broadly interested in ritual practice, Buddhist manuscript cultures, and the relationship between religion and the state. My current research centers upon transcribing Buddhist scriptures (sutras) in Japan from the late seventh through early ninth centuries. Whereas previous scholarship has focused on the promotion of Buddhism by the state, my research looks beyond court circles to consider the role Buddhism played in the social and religious life of a wide segment of the population. I argue that transcribing scripture was never a simple act of copying a text, but a ritualized practice performed by people from diverse social and geographic backgrounds that helped them realize both this and other-worldly ambitions. In future research, I hope to explore issues related to the visual and preaching cultures of early Japanese Buddhism with particular attention to the spread of Buddhism to the provinces from the seventh through ninth centuries.
I teach courses on Japanese religions, ritual theory, and Buddhist doctrine and practice. In teaching and research, I take an interdisciplinary approach to the study of religion. Students in my classes discuss poetry and novels, analyze films and material objects, and reflect upon philosophical and doctrinal treatises.
Prior to entering Princeton's Ph.D. program, I graduated from Middlebury College in 2003 with a double major in Religion and Japanese Studies. After graduating, I spent two years in Japan as a Coordinator for International Relations on the JET program in Nagano prefecture. I was a research fellow at Otani University in Kyoto from 2010-2011 on a Fulbright IIE grant. I have also had extended stays in other parts of Japan including Yokohama, Nagoya, and Himeji.
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