Nerd Alert! 12 Super-Groovy Academia.edu Accounts (Eastern Philosophy and Religion)
Academia.edu sucks. It’s a for-profit company, backed by venture capital, posing as an educationally-affiliated organization. It sucks up the labor of educators and researchers at no cost to itself, then fishes for profit with misleading notifications and relentless pitches for premium features. However, in the absence of a utopian knowledge commons, it’s still a useful resource for independent researchers, as long as you can ride that wave of pop-ups and spam. So c’mon, let’s grease the wheels of cognitive capitalism together, and explore some mind-expanding accounts on Academia.edu!
Jayarava Attwood
Research focus: Prajñāpāramitā Studies, History of Buddhist Ideas
Exemplary works:
“Form is (Not) Emptiness: The Enigma at the Heart of the Heart Sutra”
“Escaping the Inescapable: Changes in Buddhist Karma”
David Chai
Research focus: Comparative Philosophy, Daoism
Exemplary works:
“Rethinking the Daoist Concept of Nature”
“Nothingness and the Clearing: Heidegger, Daoism and the Quest for Primal Clarity”
Anne Carolyn Klein
Research focus: Indo-Tibetan Buddhism
Exemplary works:
“Exploring How Religious and Secular Forces Interact in the Modern World: On Sameness, Difference and Wholeness”
“The Four Boundless States (From Theravada to Longchen Rabjam)”
Chenyang Li
Research focus: Confucianism, Comparative Philosophy
Exemplary works:
“Harmony from Confucian, Greek, Liberal, and Global Perspectives”
“How Can One Be A Taoist-Buddhist-Confucian?—A Chinese Illustration of Multiple Religious Participation”
Illustration from David Luke, “Disembodied Eyes Revisited: An Investigation into the Ontology of Entheogenic Entity Encounters”.
Douglas Osto
Research focus: Visionary Buddhism, Tantric Studies
Exemplary works:
“Altered States and the Origins of the Mahayana”
“The Supreme Array Scripture: A New Interpretation of the Title ‘Gaṇḍavyūha-sūtra’”
(For more Paisley Gate coverage of Dr. Osto and his work, visit here and here.)
Jin Y. Park
Research focus: Sŏn Buddhism, Comparative Philosophy
Exemplary works:
“Buddhism and Postmodernity: Zen, Huayan and the Possibility of Buddhist Postmodern Ethics”
“Nothingness and Self Transformation: Kim Iryŏp, Tanabe Hajime, and Jacques Derrida on Religious Practice”
Stuart Ray Sarbacker
Research focus: Yoga Studies, Comparative Religion
Exemplary works:
“Herbs (auṣadhi) as a Means to Spiritual Accomplishments (siddhi) in Patañjali’s Yogasūtra”
“Buddhist Meditation and the Ethics of Human Augmentation”
(For more Paisley Gate coverage of Dr. Sarbacker and his work, visit here.)
Robert Sharf
Research focus: Religious Experience, Zen Buddhism
Exemplary works:
“Buddhist Modernism and the Rhetoric of Meditative Experience”
“Knowing Blue: Early Buddhist Accounts of Non-conceptual Sense Perception”
Illustration from David Luke, “Disembodied Eyes Revisited: An Investigation into the Ontology of Entheogenic Entity Encounters”.
James Mark Shields
Research focus: Radical Buddhism
Exemplary works:
“Liberation as Revolutionary Praxis: Rethinking Buddhist Materialism”
“Peasant Revolts as Anti-Authoritarian Archetypes for Radical Buddhism in Modern Japan”
Sthaneshwar Timalsina
Research focus: Tantric Studies
Exemplary works:
“Meditating Mantras: Meaning and Visualization in Tantric Literature”
“Materializing Space and Time in Tantric Images”
Judit Törzsök
Research focus: Tantric Studies, Shaivism
Exemplary works:
“Women in Early Śākta Tantras: Dūtī, Yoginī and Sādhakī”
“Search for Meaning in Tantric Ritual in the Śaiva Scriptures”
Jan Westerhoff
Research focus: Mādhyamaka, Classical Indian Philosophy
Exemplary works:
“Buddhism without Reincarnation? Examining the Prospects of a ‘Naturalized’ Buddhism”
“What it Means to Live in a Virtual World Generated by Our Brain”
Illustration from David Luke, “Disembodied Eyes Revisited: An Investigation into the Ontology of Entheogenic Entity Encounters”.
Also worth checking out: Chipamong Chowdhury, Florin Deleanu, Georges Dreyfus (and his HUGE cat), Rupert Gethin, Ann Gleig, Paul G. Hackett, Thupten Jinpa (scattered across accounts one, two, and three), Lewis Lancaster, Eric S. Nelson, Michael Puett, Bee Scherer, Mike Slott, Bryan W. Van Norden, and Glenn Wallis.
Doesn’t have an Academia.edu account, but too good not to include: Jan Willis.
Any other suggestions? Leave them in the comments below!
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