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Buddhist Studies Footnotes: Daily Summaries Delivered
by Frances Garrett
Footnotes is a series of short lectures or conversations on research in the field of Buddhist Studies. Created by Frances Garrett, a professor of Buddhist Studies at the University of Toronto, with co-host Tony Scott, most episodes are summaries or discussions of articles or book chapters from academic work in the field, with some episodes featuring guest lectures or guest hosts from events and courses at the University of Toronto. We aim to make Buddhist Studies research freely accessible to students and the public.Footnotes was made possible by a grant from eCampusOntario and also receives support from the Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation Centre for Buddhist Studies at the University of Toronto. Audio editing has been done by Jesse Whitty and Frances Garrett.
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- Apr 23, 202649 min
LGBTQ+ affirmation in the Jodo Shinshu Buddhist tradition
A conversation between Kody Muncaster and Jeff Wilson, professor of Religious Studies and East Asian Studies. They discuss Dr. Wilson's journey into Buddhism and Buddhist Studies and his work as an ordained minister in the Jodo Shinshu tradition. Wilson highlights Jodo Shinshu's historical significance in North America, its long and important role in various forms of engaged Buddhism, and the transformative efforts of Jodo Shinshu temples in becoming LGBTQ+ inclusive. They also discuss practical steps Buddhist groups can adopt to improve inclusivity. Jeff Wilson is a professor of Religious Studies and East Asian Studies at Renison University College (University of Waterloo). His research focuses on Buddhism in North America, Hawaii, and Japan. His first book, Mourning the Unborn Dead (Oxford 2009), examined the American uses of Japanese Buddhist post-abortion rituals. His second book, Dixie Dharma (North Carolina 2012), explored the role of regionalism in the life of a Buddhist temple in the South. His third book, Mindful America (Oxford 2014), charted the transformation of mindfulness from a Buddhist monastic practice to a omnipresent medical, psychological, and self-help technique. His fourth book, Selected Writings of D.T. Suzuki, Volume III: Comparative Religion (California 2016), examined the interfaith writings of one of the most important 20th century Japanese Buddhist scholars. He is also the author of pioneering research on the first documented clergy-led same-sex marriages in American history, including the world’s first Buddhist same-sex wedding ceremonies.
- Jan 7, 20261h 19m
Creating safer spaces for queer and trans Buddhists
A conversation between Kody Muncaster and two representatives from the international Rainbodhi LGBTQIA+ Buddhist Community: Tenzin Tseme from Rainbodhi USA and Myra Blankenship from Rainbodhi Melbourne/Naarm. Rainbodhi is a network for LGBTQIA+ Buddhists to come together in community, sharing dharma and spiritual friendship. Rainbodhi has chapters all over the world. This episode explores Rainbodhi’s work, as well as the challenges faced by trans folks in Buddhism and how we can work to create a queer engaged Buddhism that is welcoming to all. This episode is part of a series of interviews with queer folks in Buddhism and Buddhist Studies.
- Nov 14, 20251h 16m
Living a queer Buddhist life, with Jampa Wurst
A conversation between Kody Muncaster and Jampa Wurst, as part of a series of interviews with queer folks in Buddhism and Buddhist Studies. Dr. Jampa Wurst is a queer, non-binary Buddhist and founder of the International Queer Buddhist Conference (IQBC). Dr. Wurst has a PhD in Comparative Studies in Religion from the Freie Universität, Berlin, Germany, completing a dissertation on Tibetan Buddhist Nuns and the Sakyadhita Network, an English translation of which was published in 2025 as Identity in Exile: Tibetan Buddhist Nuns and the Network Sakyadhītā. Kody Muncaster, PhD, the host of this series, has an MA in Buddhist Studies (University of South Wales) and a PhD in Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies (Western University). They are an OCSWSSW Psychotherapist and Clinical Director of Pink Lotus Counselling & Psychotherapy, and they have taught at the Buddhism, Psychology, and Mental Health program at the University of Toronto as well as at Western University’s Department of Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies. They began a three-year training to become a Zen priest under Venerable Bhikkhuni Thích Nũ’ Tinh Quang in 2024. Kody Muncaster is the author of the 2025 book, Queer Engaged Buddhism: Trans(forming) Buddhist Studies (Sumeru Press).
- Aug 13, 202448 min
Buddhist environmental ethics for a more-than-human world
A conversation with Colin Simonds, Lecturer in Religious Studies at the University of Alberta. His research focuses on how Tibetan Buddhist philosophy and contemplative practice are relevant to contemporary issues facing the more-than-human world. His doctoral thesis, titled "Moral Phenomenology in a More-Than-Human World: A New Approach to Buddhist Environmental Ethics," offers an interpretation of Buddhist ethics as a moral phenomenology and proposes a phenomenological approach to animal and environmental ethics from a Tibetan Buddhist perspective. Dr. Simonds is also interested in broader questions of animal ethics, environmental ethics, contemplative studies, yoga studies, and Buddhist studies. In this conversation with Frances Garrett, part of a Footnotes series on posthumanist approaches to the study of Buddhism, Dr. Simonds explores intersections of Buddhism, environmental ethics, and animal ethics. He talks about his work on deep ecology and on the feminist care ethics tradition, emphasizing the importance of relationship, community, and feeling. He also considers expanding traditional Buddhist understandings of sentience to include non-human animals, plants, and even maybe AI. This episode of Buddhist Studies Footnotes was created, produced and edited by Frances Garrett, with support from the Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation Centre for Buddhist Studies at the University of Toronto. This project aims to make Buddhist Studies research freely accessible to students and the public.
- Apr 29, 202427 min
Buddhist environmentalism through philosophy of language
A conversation with Nan Kathy Lin, visiting assistant professor at Oberlin College in religious ethics and critical thought. Her work focuses on East Asian Buddhism, environmentalism, and moral philosophy as informed by ordinary language philosophy. In this conversation with Frances Garrett, part of a Footnotes series on posthumanist approaches to the study of Buddhism, Nan Kathy Lin talks about her work on developing a theory of religious change as seen through Buddhist environmentalism, drawing on philosophy of language and theoretical biology. She discusses the use of the concept of "interdependence" by 20th-century environmentalists, and she traces how the word interdependence as a translation of the Buddhist term paticca-samuppada should be seen as a response to moral concepts, such as growth or progress, embedded in 20th-century industrial political economy. This episode of Buddhist Studies Footnotes was created, produced and edited by Frances Garrett, with support from the Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation Centre for Buddhist Studies at the University of Toronto. This project aims to make Buddhist Studies research freely accessible to students and the public.
- Apr 24, 202449 min
Rescaling the human: Nature, culture, and science in the Gobi Desert
A conversation with Matt King, professor of Buddhist studies at the University of California, Riverside. King is also the director of Asian studies and co-director of the medical humanities program at UCR. His research traces encounters between Buddhist scholasticism, science, humanism and state socialism in the 19th and early 20th centuries. In this conversation with Frances Garrett, part of a Footnotes series on posthumanist approaches to the study of Buddhism, Matt King talks about his new research on the Gobi desert in the long 19th century. He discusses frontiers and zones of exchange between Tibetan and Mongolian communities in early 20th century China and Buddhist perspectives on nature, culture, and science. He talks about how nature/culture binaries may be understood newly through the lens of Buddhism, Indigenous studies, Black feminist studies, and models of planetary thinking, and about how the concept of nature is used to justify power structures, including colonialism and imperialism. He describes how his research with Mongolian and Tibetan sources suggests that knowledge and environments are co-produced and fundamentally perspectival. This episode of Buddhist Studies Footnotes was created, produced and edited by Frances Garrett, with support from the Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation Centre for Buddhist Studies at the University of Toronto. This project aims to make Buddhist Studies research freely accessible to students and the public.
- Apr 22, 202431 min
Earth, water, fire, wind, space: Contemplative ecology in Buddhism
A conversation with Devin Zuckerman, a Buddhist studies scholar from the University of Virginia whose research looks at Buddhist theories and practices involving the elements of earth, water, fire, wind, and space. In this conversation with Frances Garrett, part of a Footnotes series on posthumanist approaches to the study of Buddhism, Devin Zuckerman talks about how the elements are used to map human difference, and how they function as an “information technology” that connects human bodies and non-human environments. She describes sensory practices such as listening to the sounds of water as a way of making intelligible a more-than-human world. Drawing inspiration from eco-feminism, she explores how embodied contemplative practices in Buddhism may subvert a nature/culture binary, and how these practices may allow climate change to manifest in a practitioner's body. Listeners may learn more about Devin Zuckerman’s work at https://vcsr.virginia.edu/devin-zuckerman. Works discussed in this conversation include Astrida Neimanis and Rachel Loewen Walker’s article “’Weathering’: Climate Change and the ‘Thick Time’ of Transcorporeality” , published in Hypatia, Vol. 29, No. 3 (2014), pp.558-575. This episode of Buddhist Studies Footnotes was created, produced and edited by Frances Garrett, with support from the Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation Centre for Buddhist Studies at the University of Toronto. This project aims to make Buddhist Studies research freely accessible to students and the public.
- Apr 17, 202437 min
Living mountains and mineral intimacies in Mongolia
A conversation with Jessica Madison Pískatá, a cultural anthropologist who studies relationships between humans and geological landscapes on the peripheries of Cold War empires. Pískatá is now Visiting Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Environmental Studies at Oberlin College. In this conversation with Frances Garrett, part of a Footnotes series on posthumanist approaches to the study of Buddhism, Pískatá talks about how her interest in anthropology was sparked by the experience of translating poetry in Mongolia, and how working with Mongolian poets led to insights into the relationship between people and the mineral landscape. She describes how geosocial relationships with mountains and mines can challenge binaries of living and nonliving, or nature and social life. Pískatá also discusses Mongolian understandings of the concept of energy, in the context of the field of energy humanities, and her new work on uranium mining in the Czech Republic. Listeners may read and listen to three poems celebrating life on Earth called “Grass Trilogy” by Mongolian author Ochirbatyn Dashbalbar, translated by Jessica Madison Pískatá, at https://www.sapiens.org/culture/grass-trilogy/. Works discussed include: Elizabeth Povinelli’s Geontologies: A Requiem to Late Liberalism (Duke University Press, 2016) Philippe Descola’s Beyond Nature and Culture (trans. J. Lloyd) (Chicago University Press, 2013) Cara New Daggett’s The Birth of Energy: Fossil Fuels, Thermodynamics, and the Politics of Work (Duke University Press, 2019) Breanna Wilson's article in Forbes magazine, Feb 25, 2024, "How To Visit Shambala, Mongolia’s Most Sacred And Spiritual Place" This episode of Buddhist Studies Footnotes was created, produced and edited by Frances Garrett, with support from the Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation Centre for Buddhist Studies at the University of Toronto. This project aims to make Buddhist Studies research freely accessible to students and the public.
About Buddhist Studies Footnotes
Footnotes is a series of short lectures or conversations on research in the field of Buddhist Studies. Created by Frances Garrett, a professor of Buddhist Studies at the University of Toronto, with co-host Tony Scott, most episodes are summaries or discussions of articles or book chapters from academic work in the field, with some episodes featuring guest lectures or guest hosts from events and courses at the University of Toronto. We aim to make Buddhist Studies research freely accessible to students and the public.Footnotes was made possible by a grant from eCampusOntario and also receives support from the Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation Centre for Buddhist Studies at the University of Toronto. Audio editing has been done by Jesse Whitty and Frances Garrett.
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