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GW Religion Department Newsletter Summer 2012 Faculty Updates Eyal Aviv taught a new course this past year about Buddhist ethics and was a finalist for the Bender teaching award. Professor Aviv published an article in the Journal of the Oxford Centre of Buddhist Studies titled "Ambitions and Negotiations: The Growing Role of Laity in 20th Century Chinese Buddhism" and is about to publish another paper titled “Religion, Historiography and Cultural Identity in the Debate over Xuyun’s Biography” in Modern China. Professor Aviv has also presented a paper in a conference that took place in Hawaii in December. The conference concluded an international three-year project, led by Australian National University. The project has produced a book (forthcoming) to which Professor Aviv contributed an article titled: “Ouyang Jingwu: From Yogācāra scholasticism to Soteriology.” Another international project that professor Aviv began this year is a comparative study of commentarial traditions between Tibetan and Chinese Buddhists. During the summer he is planning to divide his time between his book project and the study of Tibetan language. Paul Duff contributed a chapter entitled “Revelation” to The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Books of the Bible, vol. 2. (edited by Michael Coogan. Pp 256-71 Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011) and also published an article titled “Paul’s Elusive Opponents: Reading 2 Corinthians 3 in a Non-Polemical Context,” in Volume 54 of the journal Biblical Research (pp 37-59). He also presented a paper titled “Israel’s Hardened Minds: 2 Cor 3:14a and the Development of a Theological Idea,” at the annual meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature in San Francisco in November. Rob Eisen’s recent book, The Peace and Violence of Judaism: From the Bible to Modern Zionism (Oxford University Press, 2011), has been receiving excellent reviews in popular and academic journals. His latest research has begun to focus on two new areas that are connected with this project: approaches to war in Jewish law and the role of religion in the Israeli- Palestinian conflict. He was invited in the spring to deliver a paper at Georgetown University for a conference on religious pluralism that was entitled, “Reflections on the Noahide Laws as a Source for Religious Pluralism.” Professor Eisen has also remained active in peace-building and interfaith dialogue outside the university. He has been invited to serve on the Middle East Advisory Board for Search for Common Ground, the largest peace-building organization in the country. Alf Hiltebeitel published three books this past academic year: Dharma: Its Early History in Law, Religion, and Narrative. South Asia Research Series, Patrick Olivelle, ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011); Reading the Fifth Veda: Studies on the Mahābhārata—Essays by Alf Hiltebeitel, vol.1.Vishva Adluri and Joydeep Bagchee, eds. Numen Book Series, Studies in the History of Religions: Texts and Sources in the History of Religions, Vol. 131. (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2011); and When the Goddess Was a Woman: Mahābhārata Ethnographies—Essays by Alf Hiltebeitel, vol. 2. Vishva Adluri and Joydeep Bagchee, eds. Same series, Vol. 132.). He also published four articles, including “Just My Imagination? Puzzling through a Duryodhana Festival near Dharmapuri, Tamilnadu.” In Hilary Rodriguez, ed. Hinduism in Practice. 87-103. London: Routledge, 2011 (a book for undergraduate students on how scholars in different fields approach fieldwork on religious practices in India); and “You Have to Read the Whole Thing’: Some Reflections on Madeleine Biardeau’ s Mahābhārata,”, from «Du texte au terrain, du terrain au texte: dialogues disciplinaires autour de l’œuvre de Madeleine Biardeau» Journée du Centre d’Étude de l’Inde et de l’Asie du Sud. Paris, April 5, 2011. In January 2012, Alf was one of three co-chairs, with Adam Bowles, University of Brisbane, and Simon Brodbeck, University of Cardiff, of the “Epics and Purāṇās” section of the 15 th World Sansakrit Conferece in New Delhi. He also gave several conference presentations throughout the year, including the plenary keynote address at the 6 th Annual Meeting of the South 4
GW Religion Department Newsletter Summer 2012 Asian Studies Association, April 14, 2012, in Claremont CA. At the 6 th Annual Meeting of the South Asian Studies Association (SASA), he received the SASA-Exemplar Award for Academic Excellence and a Certificate of Academic Excellence from the Claremont Graduate University, Claremont University, Claremont, CA. Xiaofei Kang developed two new courses this year, “Women and Religion in China,” and “Religion in Modern China.” She began research and writing for a new project on women, gender and religion in the twentieth century Communist discourse of revolution. She presented some of the preliminary findings at the Conference on Women, Gender and Chinese Religions in June 2011 at the University of Macau, and at the Fairbank Center of Harvard University in April 2012. In addition, she is co-editing the Macau conference volume for publication and is writing an article on women and religion in twentieth century China for a collaborative book project entitled the “Construction of Contemporary China.” In terms of service to the academic community, she serves on the AAR’s International Connection Committee and two steering committees. She also joined the GWU team to set up the Confucian Institute. Derek Malone-France transitioned from interim to permanent Executive Director of the University Writing Program at GW and received tenure in Religion. Derek published two books this year. His monograph, Faith, Fallibility, and the Virtue of Anxiety: An Essay in Religion and Political Liberalism was published by Palgrave MacMilan. And his two-volume edited anthology, Political Dissent--A Global Reader, Vol. 1: Ancient to Early-Modern Sources & Vol. 2: Modern Sources, was published by Lexington Books. Derek also gave an invited lecture at American University in January titled "Judging Abraham: Faith, Coercion, and Autonomy in the Public Sphere" and delivered a paper titled "Religion, Nationalism, and Democratic Citizenship" at the annual meeting of the Society for Philosophy of Religion in March. He also served as a Referee for the prestigious Kluge Prize at the Library of Congress. Seyyed Hossein Nasr spent most of his research time last year as editor-in-chief of the Study/Quran, to be published by Harper. The editors hope to have the work go to press in June of this Year. Also he has just finished proofreading vol. IV of the Anthology of Philosophy in Persia, which is planned to appear this year. He also published three books, including Muslims and Christians in the New Millennium, foreword by Osman Bakar, Kuala Lumpur, International Institute of Advanced Islamic Studies, 2011. He gave several public lectures, including a talk at Princeton University in February titled “The Prophet Mohammad (PBU), His Spiritual Life and Path,” a talk at the State Department in Washington, DC titled “The Asian and Abrahamic Religions: A Divine Encounter in American,” and two lectures in London in November: “Islam and the Question of Peace” at Imperial College, London, and “Islam and the West: Yesterday, Today, And Tomorrow” at University College, London. Irene Oh’s article, “Islamic Voices and the Reconsideration of Human Rights,” appeared in the Journal of Church and State and her entry on “Islamic Conceptions of Human Rights,” came out in the Routledge Handbook of Human Rights. She also presented at the American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting in November in San Francisco, and at the Society of Christian Ethics/Society for the Study of Muslim Ethics Annual Meetings in January 2012 in Washington, DC, where she shared some new work on Islam and the Environment. Irene has been newly appointed to the Board of Editors for the Journal of Religious Ethics. Irene will be on maternity leave in the Fall Semester 2012 and on Sabbatical for the Spring Semester 2013. Faculty updates continue on pg. 6 5
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