Ghent Centre for Buddhist Studies had a notable presence at the 25th Biennial Conference of the European Association for Chinese Studies (EACS) held at Tallinn University, Estonia on 27-30 August, 2024. Our professors, postdocs and PhD students made nine presentations at various panels:
- Prof. Dr. Ann Heirman (Ghent University), “Ants in Vinaya Texts: Between India and China”
- Prof. Dr. Bart Dessein (Ghent University), “‘Yi Fofa piping shehui zhuyi’ (以佛法批評社會主義; Criticizing Socialism with Buddhism)”
- Prof. Dr. Christoph Anderl (Ghent University), “Text-Image Relations in the Panels on Buddha’s Life in Mogao Cave 61”
- Dr. Anna Sokolova (Ghent University), “Invoking Deities for the Deceased: Integration of Buddhist Rituals into Mortuary Practises in Medieval China”
- Dr. Mariia Lepneva (Ghent University), “The Dynamics of Chinese Buddhism During the Ming and Qing: Social Network Analysis Based on a Combined Dataset”
- Jiahang Yu and Prof. Dr. Christoph Anderl (Ghent University), “A Linguistic Study of the Donkey Mourning Text in Or. 8210/ S.1477”
- Longyu Zhang (Ghent University), “Research on the Grammaticalisation of Níngkě 寧可 in Medieval Chinese”
- Massimiliano Portoghese (Ghent University), “Why do Śramaṇas Take the Tonsure? Perceptions and Symbolism of the Shaven Head in Ancient and Early Medieval China”
- Nguyen Khuong Hong Ngoc (Ghent University), “Practical Learning (實學) and Its Influence on Educational Transformation in Eighteenth-Century Vietnam”
In addition, GSBC’s members participated in the “Roundtable on academic publishing in the field of Chinese religions” organized by the Society for the Study of Chinese Religions (SSCR). Prof. Dr. Ann Heirman serves as moderator, and Dr. Anna Sokolova shared the experience of publishing here recent monograph, The Awakening of the Hinterland: The Formation of Regional Vinaya Traditions in Tang China.