EA presents: Alexander Soucy

Alexander Soucy, Associate Professor at St. Mary's University, Halifax 

Zen Conquests: Buddhist Transformations in Contemporary Vietnam

The opening up of Vietnam since the 1990s and the acceleration of global communication and travel has influenced the practice of Buddhism at the local level in Vietnam. The main manifestation can be seen in the establishment of large Zen Buddhist organizations that are successfully introducing a radically secular, nationalistic, and individualistic form of Buddhist modernism.  This presentation is based on archival work on the Buddhist reform movement in Vietnam and on ethnographic material gathered from 2005 to the present.

Alexander Soucy is an Associate Professor at Saint Mary’s University, Halifax, and the chair of the Religious Studies Department. He is the author of The Buddha Side: Gender, Power, and Buddhist Practice in Vietnam (2012).  His current research looks at transnational Vietnamese Buddhism and the rising popularity of Zen in Vietnam.

Open to the public.

Sponsored by the East Asia Program at the Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs and the Department of Religion and the Department of Anthropology