James A. Benn
@James_A_Benn
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Medieval Chinese Religions. McMaster Uni. Burning for the Buddha (Hawai'i 2007) pback 2016; Tea in China (Hawai'i, 2015), Chinese trans. 2019. Canadian, obvs.
Hamilton, Ontario
Joined September 2014
I started on the tenure track twenty years ago. Two universities, four presidents, six provosts (plus a few acting-), four deans, six department chairs. Here's all I want to pass on to you:.1. Be kind.2. Get it in writing. 3. Look after yourself.
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This massive new history of tea has arrived from Brill. 900 pages on the global story of tea.
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For the first time, I think I’m actually starting to understand the Song dynasty.
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2. Get it in writing. If the other person won't give it in writing, then send an email--"this is the gist of the conversation we had today." (doesn't matter if they don't reply). Or make a note in your calendar or diary.
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1. Be kind. To everyone. Especially students and staff. You have no idea what anyone else is dealing with when you encounter them--it might be something extremely gnarly. Muster as much compassion as you can. Try smiling at Deans.
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The Four Seasons Total Landscaping | China | Ming dynasty (1368–1644) | The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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I just heard news that means that all of my graduated PhD students will be tenure-track or tenured this year. I cannot tell you how relieved and proud I am. For those of you still seeking positions, I wish you every success. If I can help you, I will.
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3. Look after your physical and mental health. Academia is tough on both body and mind. Find a practice that works for you. Yoga and pilates are all that holds me together most days.
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Dr. Sonya S. Lee’s new book on Buddhist art in Sichuan just arrived.
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Ben Brose’s new book on Xuanzang just arrived. Looks very promising.
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Hard copy of Buddhist Statecraft in East Asia just arrived, edited by @StephBalkwill and me.
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My students nominated me for a teaching award this term and now I don’t know what to think. They have been consistently awesome and engaged. Me, not so much.
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That's it! Thank you to all the students I have taught over the last twenty years. You have been a constant joy.
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NEW BOOK> John Kieschnick's long-awaited book on Chinese Buddhist Historiography has a release date (July 2022). Buddhist Historiography in China | Columbia University Press
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I would love to teach an “East Asian Religions by drone” class.
Had a drone job in Nara recently, here is Todaiji at sunrise.
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Just arrived. All the way from the S U P bookstore in Alhambra, California. Hoping this will make me a more competent supervisor for students working with manuscripts from Dunhuang and elsewhere.
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UCLA receives $25 million from Uniqlo founder for Japanese literature and culture studies
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My PhD student takes up a tenure track position in the program from which I got my PhD. Great news for Steph and for Buddhist Studies at UCLA. I have a lot of emotions about this news, but pride and joy are the dominant ones. Congratulations Steph!.
Congratulations to Stephanie Balkwill (PhD, Asian 2015) who takes up a tenure-track appointment as Assistant Professor in Chinese Buddhism @UCLA in July 2021. Dr. Balkwill is currently at University of Winnipeg
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I have to edit the automatic closed captions in my teaching videos or my "qi circulates through the body" becomes "cheese circulates through the body." Plausible, but not what I intended.
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New arrival in today’s mail. Wondering if I should teach a seminar on Buddho-Daoism again. It’s been a while.
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JOB> New York University invites applications for an appointment as an Assistant Professor on the tenure track in Buddhist Studies.
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Anyone going on the market this year in Buddhist Studies/ Asian Studies or related fields—need another set of eyes on your application materials, cover letter, CV? I’m happy to provide feedback, advice ( in confidence). DM or email me.
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Next week is self-care week in my online course. I made a module with resources on sleep, relaxation, practices of kindness and care, smell, taste touch proprioception etc.
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My former PhD student @StephBalkwill starts a tenure-track position @UCLACollege where I got my own PhD. Good luck Steph! We are all excited to see what you will do with Buddhist Studies at UCLA.
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I just realized that Hesse’s Siddhartha is 100 years old. Published in 1922.
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Today's thought: 1-unit asynchronous course on Professional for Doctoral Students: guide students through academic competencies (comps, conferences, dissertation proposals, grant writing, dissertations, academic and alt-ac job markets). Good idea or nah?.
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I've been writing a lot of letters of recommendation over the last couple of weeks, I bet a lot of you are writing them too. Here's a useful resource.
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Thank you to @UHPRESSNEWS for sending me official copies of the authorized Chinese translation of Tea in China!
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Big day for Buddhist Studies at @McMasterU Thanks to all who helped make it possible @McMasterSocSci
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I have a query from a student interested in a PhD in comparative medieval history (Latin Europe and China). Student has language training. Suggestions for possible programs?.
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Two day department retreat, on Zoom. Can you even imagine?.
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Hello new followers. I study Buddhism and Daoism in medieval China. In theory, I post about Buddhism and East Asian religions, but in practice I retweet a lot of @ass_deans and @AcademicsSay. This is my dog, Plum.
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Bringing 25 years of experience in running academic conferences and workshops to today’s birthday party for 3 year olds. Probably won’t be enough.
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Are some Māhayāna sutras basically fanfic about specific bodhisattvas?.
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Thanks to @uoftcbs here's a glimpse into my research world --featuring @NotionHQ @RoamResearch @ScrivenerApp . You may find it overly complex/laughably primitive but this is actually how I work. 🙂. My Academic Workflow, with James Benn via @YouTube.
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Manuscripts people—ever seen anything like this? Alternating large and small characters (prob. same hand). Dunhuang MS, but provenance may be shaky. further info, or speculation, welcome
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My student Chen Ruifeng's PhD thesis is now available. Informed Textual Practices? A Study of Dunhuang Manuscripts of Chinese Buddhist Apocryphal Scriptures with Colophons by @ddmapollo
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I’m thinking of teaching a graduate seminar on Buddhist reliquaries across Asia.
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Get ready to play AARSBL bingo! #aarsbl19 . (Credit to the original creator of this card—not me)
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Academia has its problems, but heading out on a grey slushy Monday morning in February to introduce Zhuangzi to some bright young people is still a joyous feeling. This afternoon, graduate students and I will be trying to work out what Ge Hong meant, sentence by sentence.
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Everyone, Plum is two years old today! She has had a WALK and is now eating a BONE. Please enjoy her birthday!
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What’s the virtual conference equivalent of “Well, I guess I have to write this paper on the plane”?.
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As part of my pedagogical practice I always take classes in something new. Yoga, Pilates, dance. Lots of Coursera and EdX. This year, I’m learning to skate. On ice.
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I do not enjoy getting up at 6 every day to write for 45 minutes before everyone else is awake, but it does produce results (2 conference papers and a book review). Also, I feel more in control of things.
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Twenty years ago today. Food and Religion in Traditional China, University of Cambridge, April 2nd 2004. Photo taken outside Trinity College. I’m standing between Glen Dudbridge and Vincent Goossaert.
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I’d really love to attend a workshop on teaching premodern East Asia to undergraduates whose primary orientation to East Asia is k-pop, k-drama, j-pop, anime, manga, etc. I don’t mean using those materials to teach,.
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My copy of Becoming Guanyin arrived. Now I need to think what other books would fit well with it for a graduate seminar.
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Please congratulate @LiLan01677566 on the successful defence of her PhD thesis proposal and advancement to candidacy. A great morning’s work!.
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This is a landscape painted by a Chinese Buddhist monk. But is it a Buddhist painting? Discuss. [You have two hours, write on one side of the paper only].
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This book going to blow some people’s minds.
ENCHANTED REVOLUTION. Shows how the Party used religion as a model for its own aims, and revises our understanding of the Communist revolution by examining its battles with concepts such as ghosts and shamans. August 2023.@OxUniPress .
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Happy Solstice to us all. May the coming year bring all beings health, happiness and a world which values love, inclusion, diversity, knowledge, and equality. All power to the people. #Solstice2019.
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"Any group wishing to organize a potluck must review .Potlucks on Campus .in Appendix 3 of this document.".Campus Food & Beverage. Policy. Approved by:.@ass_deans.Date of Most Recent Approval:.September 2017.
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This week one of my current PhD students (m) had an article accepted in T’oung Pao, and a former student (f) had an article accepted in History of Religions. Please look out for both of those pieces when they appear.
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I’ve always been fascinated by this great relocation but never seen it on a map.
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Just reading a paper in which one of my former students is citing publications by two other of my former students and it's pretty cool tbh, but I may have to go for a walk or a lie down in a minute.
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NEW BOOK> The Chinese Dreamscape, 300 BCE–800 CE.Robert Ford Campany . [shows November drop date, but apparently already out].
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Congratulations to @ddmapollo on the successful defence of his PhD dissertation! Thank you to all who attended from around the world via Zoom.
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Good luck to my student @ddmapollo who will defend his PhD dissertation in a couple of hours.
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My East Asian Religions class paid me in dried meat today. It’s a #Confucius thing. Thanks 3S03–I learned a lot from you this term.
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Idea for a historical novel and/or Netflix series--Dunhuang manuscript forgery in the 1930s and 40s.
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This feels like the @AASAsianStudies equivalent of the Edward VIII coronation mug that my grandmother owned. #AAS2023 #AAS2020
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2022 has been mostly rubbish, but in September I started learning to skate, and now:
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JOB> Department of East Asian Studies, McGill University, Assistant Professor in Chinese Humanities. Position is open to any period with strong preference for the premodern and early modern eras.
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Old school research methods. Shout out to the OGs of Tang Dynasty history.
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A book manuscript that I peer-reviewed 11 years ago is coming out in print later this year.
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Department of East Asian Studies at the University of Toronto invites applications for a full-time tenure stream position in the area of Pre-modern East Asian cultural studies, with a focus on China
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Always a big moment when the paper makes it out of @ScrivenerApp and into Word for "final formatting."
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Just in time for my “Introduction to dictionaries and other resources” class next week. Thank you @_matthewhayes_. A Digital Introduction to the Chinese Buddhist Canon – The Digital Orientalist
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Some of you may have missed this during the break, but it appears that the "authorised" translation of Tea in China is now out (still waiting on my copy). Please let me know if you see it reviewed anywhere.
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If you’d like to know more, then Li Yuhang’s Becoming Guanyin has a whole chapter. we had considerable discussion about this in seminar yesterday.
In regions of China, hair embroidery, using the artist-maker's own hair, was a particular technique practiced by Buddhist women to create devotional images #womensart
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Pleased to see this new book arrive in the mail. Dewei was a @SSHRC_CRSH postdoctoral fellow @MacRelStuds a few years ago and did a lot of the research for this book when he was here.
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This is my student. Chris wrote an excellent dissertation on dreams in medieval Chinese Buddhism and has some interesting publications coming out on that topic and others.
Congratulations to Dr. Chris Jensen (Asian field) who takes up a tenure-track appointment in July as Assistant Professor of East Asian Religions at Carleton University. Well done Chris! We hope to see some of your students in our MA program in the future.
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Burning for the Buddha: Self-Immolation in Chinese Buddhism – $14 USD on sale. At that price, can you afford *not* to buy it?
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Excited to receive my copy of Jessey Choo’s new book @Jessey_Choo My students and I will be reading this in seminar next term.
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I don’t want to fetishize certain types of publication and their format, but there will always be something thrilling for me about books that look like this.
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Some Mahayana sutras seem to be written in a way similar to generative AI. They generate language that sounds Buddhistically "plausible," even if it's not doctrinally established by other sources.
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Today seemed like a good day to do something different in class, so we watched the Chef's Table episode on the Korean nun Jeong Kwan and forgot about other things for a while.
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Planning to switch from PowerPoint to artisanal hand-painted glass lantern slides for next term.
“Terms … for Great Stones” #LanternSlide, hand-painted on glass by H.M.J. Underhill on 5th December, 1895. A thing of beauty🥰🥰.HEIR 34395.#StandingStoneSunday #HistoryOfArchaeology #Archaeology
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I’ve always wanted one of these.
How to organize knowledge (photo from my visit to the Asian Civilisations Museum today).
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Latest issue of Tang Studies has reached Canada, featuring @MedievalChina and @tommazanec among others.
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New article by my former PhD student Chen Ruifeng @ddmapollo.The Relationship between Three Short Indigenous Chinese Buddhist Scriptures and the Textual Practices Found in their Dunhuang Manuscript Colophons.
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University of Oxford, Faculty of Oriental Studies.Professor, Buddhist Studies.
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Using Gemini Advanced as my new research assistant. Instead of searching the web, I get it to look for answers and information in my Google Drive.
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I will miss the regular research meetings I had every fortnight with @ddmapollo now the dissertation is complete. I learned so much in our discussions about Dunhuang manuscripts, colophons, paratexts, copying practices, and modern forgeries.
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Dr. Wendi Adamek’s long-awaited Practicescapes just arrived in the mail.
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Disappearing and Disappeared Daughters in Medieval Chinese Buddhism: Sūtras on Sex Transformation and an Intervention into Their Transmission History | History of Religions: Vol 60, No 4 @StephBalkwill
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Today’s class Zoom poll—who would teach best on Zoom?.Confucius.Queen Mother of the West.Laozi.Zhuangzi.Mozi.The Buddha.Dragon King’s daughter.
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