Spring 2012 Events

January 12, 2012
5:00 PM to 7:00 PM

Lecture by Robert Hellyer, Associate Professor of History, Wake Forest University (Ph.D. Stanford). Professor Hellyer grew up outside of Seattle, Washington. He served on the faculty of the University of Tokyo, taught at Allegheny College, and was a postdoctoral fellow at the Reischauer Institute of…

February 4, 2012
10:00 AM to 5:00 PM

MORNING WORKSHOP “Sorrowful Coverings of Tainted Karma: Towards a History of Female Impurity in Early and Middle Period Indian Buddhism” By Amy Langenberg (Religious Studies, Auburn University) “The Debtors’ Prison – The Daoist Construction of the Blood Lake Hell …

February 23, 2012
12:30 PM to 2:00 PM

BIOGRAPHY Leonard Schoppa is Professor and Associate Chair of the Woodrow Wilson Department of Politics at the University of Virginia. Schoppa’s research examines the politics and foreign relations of Japan. He is currently working on two projects, an edited volume titled The Evolution of Jap…

February 23, 2012
7:00 PM to 8:30 PM

Duncan Williams is co-director of the Center for Japanese Religions and Culture and director and associate professor in the School of Religion. Pico Iyer was born in Oxford, England, to parents from India, grew up between England and California, and currently lives in Japan. He won a Ki…

February 24, 2012
1:30 PM to 3:30 PM

This event is presented by the USC Center for Japanese Religions and Culture in association with PoNJA-GenKon (a scholarly listserv for postwar Japanese art), and organized in conjunction with the show “Requiem for the Sun: The Art of Mono-ha,” taking place February 24 to April 15 at Blu…

March 1, 2012
12:30 PM to 2:00 PM

Presentation by Scott Wilbur, Ph.D. Student (Politics and International Relations), USC School of International Relations   BIOGRAPHY Scott Wilbur is a first-year student and Provost Fellow in USC’s Political Science and International Relations Ph.D. program. Prior to USC, Scott co…

March 1, 2012
5:00 PM to 7:00 PM

Lecture by Brett Walker, Regent’s Professor, Montana State University (Ph.D. Univ. of Oregon)   BIOGRAPHY Brett L. Walker is Regents Professor at Montana State University, Bozeman, and Research Specialist and Visiting Professor at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.  H…

March 8, 2012
5:00 PM to 7:00 PM

Public Lecture Perceptions of Kegare in Premodern Japan By Masao Kawashima Professor Emeritus, Ritsumeikan University   Contact Phone: (213) 821-4365 Contact Email: kanay@dornsife.usc.edu   …

March 9, 2012
10:00 AM to 1:00 PM

International Awareness and Exoticized Worlds in Maps from the Late Edo Period Workshop & Luncheon “International Awareness and Exoticized Worlds in Maps from the Late Edo Period” By Ikuyo Matsumoto (Associate Professor, Yokohama City University)   Contact…

March 29, 2012
4:30 PM to 6:30 PM

A Window on Issues in the Study of Japanese Religions and Culture A lecture by Christopher Ives of Stonehill College, author of Imperial-Way Zen: Ichikawa Hakugen’s Critique and Lingering Questions for Buddhist Ethics.   Ives is chair of the Department of Religious Studies a…

April 27, 2012
8:00 PM to 10:00 PM

This 2010 film by director Naoki Kato centers on Jonen, who was a punk-rock musician in his youth, but is now a Buddhist monk with a wife and five-year-old son.   During his career-day speech at a local high school, Jonen has a public breakdown that leads to a deep depression. He realizes…

April 28, 2012
10:30 AM to 5:00 PM

Center for Japanese Religions and Culture Inauguration Symposium. Leading Japanese and American academic theorists consider the role of religion.   Many theorists of religion in the early half of the 20th century imagined that the process of secularization would result in the eventual …

May 1, 2012
3:00 PM to 5:00 PM

Lecture by Paul Swanson, permanent fellow at the Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture at Nanzan University and editor of the Japanese Journal of Religious Studies.   Takagi Kenmyo (1864–1914) was a Shinshu Otani branch Pure Land Buddhist priest who was arrested by the Japa…