Professor Hiroko Kawanami
Professor of Buddhism and SocietyQualifications
MSc, PhD. London School of Economics and Political Science (Social Anthropology)
BA, MA. Sophia University, Tokyo (International Relations with special emphasis on Sino-Japanese Relations)
Career Details
I taught at Sophia University in Tokyo before coming to the UK and was Evans Fellow at Cambridge University for three years before coming to Lancaster University.
Recent Activities and Grants
In 2019, I was awarded the FASS award for 'Outstanding Contribution to the Student Experience'.
I mentored PhD students at their various stages of writing at SOAS, York, and Oxford University. I also gave seminar talks to postgraduate students at Minzu University and Nanjin Unversity in China.
In 2014, I received the Robert H N Ho Family Foundation Collaborative Grant in Buddhist Studies as a PI to conduct research on 'Communal jurisdiction of non-ordained female renunciants in the Southern Buddhist tradition.'
Recent conference presentations include: AAS-in-Asia (Kobe 2020; Bangkok 2019; Kyoto 2016), IABS (Seoul 2022; Toronto 2017), EUROSEAS (Oxford, 2017); SE Asian Congress (2016).
I organized a workshop titled: 'Gender, Buddhism, Development Actors and Civil Society (February 2013) in Myanmar, hosting it with Dr Monica Lindberg Falk, Centre for East and Southeast Asian Studies, Lund University in Sweden, and the Gender Equality Network (GEN).
I founded Sakyadhita Thilashin Sathin-daik nunnery school in Sagaing, Myanmar in 1998 and 2018 marks its 20th anniversay.
Research Overview
I am a social anthropologist and Buddhist studies scholar interested in gender and Buddhism, dissemination of knowledge and moral values, social justice and wellbeing, charismatic power(s) of monastic practitioners, and more recently on Buddhist orthodoxy and how heretical monks are created in Myanmar.
I am fluent in vernacular Myanmar and Japanese, can read classical Chinese and Pali, and have conducted research on the Buddhist monastic community in Myanmar for the last three decades.
My most recent monographs are The Culture of Giving in Myanmar (2020 Bloomsbury) and Renunciation and Empowerment of Buddhist Nuns in Myanmar-Burma (2013 Brill) http://www.brill.com/renunciation-and-empowerment-buddhist-nuns-myanmar-burma I have also edited Budddhisn, International Relief Work, and Civil Society (2013 Palgrave Macmillan) and Buddhism and the Political Process (2016 PM).
Professional Role
I am currently Director of Postgraduate Research in PPR.
Fellow of the Amercian Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) since 2014.
Member of the editorial board of Buddhist Studies Review and Journal of Buddhism, Law & Society.
Associate Professor (status only) in the Department for the Study of Religion at University of Toronto (2018-2023).
PhD Supervision Interests
Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Japan; Buddhist issues in the contemporary world; Buddhist nuns and female monasticism; Buddhism and the political process; spiritual well-being and the application of mindfulness in Asian societies; anthropology of Buddhism
Winstanley College
School Engagement
The doctrine of this-worldly karma and the disgruntled arahant
Invited talk
Numata Symposim on Buddhist Practice: Perspectives on and from the Oxford Handbook of Buddhist Practice
Public Lecture/ Debate/Seminar
Buddhist Nuns' Sangha around the World: Present and Future
Invited talk
RAI Film webinar
Public Lecture/ Debate/Seminar
17th Sakyadhita International Conference
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience
Buddhist Studies Review (Journal)
Editorial activity
JSPS Fellow
Hosting an academic visitor
Beijing Foreign Studies University
School Engagement
UK Association for Buddhist Studies: annual conference
Participation in workshop, seminar, course
Guizhou Minzu University
Visiting an external academic institution
Beijing Foreign Studies University
Visiting an external academic institution
ASEASUK workshop for PG students at York University
Participation in workshop, seminar, course
The National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS)
Visiting an external academic institution
'Interrogating Buddhism and Nationalism'
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience
Journal of Buddhism, Law & Society (Journal)
Editorial activity
18th International Association of Buddhist Studies Conference
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience
Euporean Association for Southeast Asian Studies
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience
Beijing Foreign Studies University
Visiting an external academic institution
UK Association for Buddhist Studies
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience
AAS in Asia
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience
AAS in Asia
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience
UK Association for Buddhist Studies annual conference
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience
Presentation at Linden Museum in Stuttgart
Invited talk
From a research question to an impact case: the study of Buddhist nunnery schools in Myanmar.
Invited talk
Khyentse Buddhist Foundation (External organisation)
Member of an organisation
International Burma Studies Conference
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience
World Sociology Congress
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience
UK Association for Buddhist Studies (External organisation)
Member of an organisation
Hamburg University
Visiting an external academic institution
Centre for East and Southeast Asian Studies, Lund University (External organisation)
Member of Advisory Panel
Panel on Buddhism and Anthropology
Invited talk
A New Asia? Politics, Society and Culture in the 21st Century
Invited talk
Focus Asia: Recent Developments in Burma/Myanmar, Laos and Korea.
Invited talk
Buddhism and the Political Process
Invited talk
Buddhism and Women
Invited talk
Asian Cultural Institute, Sophia University
Visiting an external academic institution
Faculty of Religion, McGill University
Visiting an external academic institution
Collaborative research fellowship in Buddhist studies
Fellowship awarded competitively
Communal Jurisdiction of Non-ordained Female Renunciants in the Southern Buddhist Tradition: Myanmar-Burma, Thailand, and Sri Lanka
Fellowship awarded competitively