On March 6, we’re delighted to be hosting @levimclaughlin.bsky.social at Harvard for his Japan Forum talk, sharing his expertise and insights as Japan’s political landscape rearranges post-elections. If you’re in the area, please join us! More info in the link rijs.fas.harvard.edu/events/relig...

Job Opportunity: Harvard Art Musuems are hiring for a position of Associate Curator for Asian Art, specialising in Japan. Please help us circulate widely! careers.harvard.edu/job/abby-ald...

Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Associate Curator for Asian Art

careers.harvard.edu

My department is hiring a College Fellow in modern Japanese history or sociology. Deadline, including reference letters: March 23. facultyresources.fas.harvard.edu/college-fell...

Post-Doc Opportunity: Together with Asian Studies at the University of Pittsburgh, the World History Center is seeking a two-year postdoctoral fellow in Japan in World History. Please share widely and feel free to reach out with questions. www.worldhistory.pitt.edu/news/call-ap...

I learned a great deal from reading Timothy O. Benedict’s 'Spiritual Ends' and from writing a review of this thoughtful and compelling account of end-of-life care in contemporary Japan. I also look forward to the accompanying special issue on embodied worlds and the body in Japanese religions.

Deadline this coming Monday, January 26 📬 nomadit.co.uk/conference/e... @easainfo.bsky.social

P010: Everyday violence and the moral economies of care

This panel explores how everyday, slow violence takes shape within economies of care and neglect and through the moral and material infrastructures that sustain

nomadit.co.uk

Calling all the ravers: Cyber NamuNamu! サイバー南無南無 If you’ve ever thought: 'You know what this Buddhist temple service needs? A DROP!' Look no further 🪩 Madoka Kohno, Hourin, and Mikou

Cyber NamuNamu puts a techno spin on Buddhism

Cyber NamuNamu is injecting new life into Buddhism with its electronic performances accompanied by Buddhist priestesses reading sutras.

japantimes.co.jp

Thank you so much for making this possible! Very much looking forward to connecting with UPenn colleagues and students. And excited to share my research on unwanted gifts, ambiguous generosity, and refusal of ritual and other forms of care in Japan’s regional temples.

Donovan Schaefer@feelingtheory.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Philly folks! Some terrific stuff coming up in my Department this semester, including @paulakolata.bsky.social next week!

First Philly adventure soon! Big thanks to @jolyonbt.bsky.social & @feelingtheory.bsky.social for the kind invite. Looking forward to sharing my work on Buddhist gifts, material excess and religious economies in contemporary Japan with @upennrels.bsky.social. rels.sas.upenn.edu/events/2026/...

Our panel *Everyday violence and the moral economies of care* has been accepted for EASA2026 in Poznań! Looking for contributors exploring how care and violence are intertwined in daily life. If this resonates with your research, we’d love you to get in touch and consider submitting an abstract.

2026-27 REISCHAUER INSTITUTE POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWSHIPS IN JAPANESE 🚨***Applicant Deadline: December 19, 2025 (Friday), 5:00pm EST*** 🚨***Recommender Deadline: January 9, 2026 (Friday), 5:00pm EST*** rijs.fas.harvard.edu/postdoctoral...

DNA evidence of Tang dynasty cats www.livescience.com/animals/dome...

Pet cats arrived in China via the Silk Road 1,400 years ago, ancient DNA study finds

How and when domestic cats arrived in China has been a mystery. A new analysis of cat DNA suggests traders and diplomats likely carried the pets with them along the Silk Road 1,400 years ago.

livescience.com

Today's #ManuscriptMonday shows "tendoku," a way of "reading" a Buddhist sutra by rapidly fanning it out and then letting it cascade while chanting the title or a small section. In this case, the priest touches the book to the body as a ritual empowerment for protection. youtu.be/CsN-9xc9hlY?...

大般若 転読加持（西代寺）

YouTube video by kosaimitsuji

youtu.be

Over the weekend, @jjrs-nirc.bsky.social hosted a book talk on "The New Nanzan Guide to Japanese Religions" (2025) with editor Matthew D. McMullen & OG Nanzan Guide editor Paul Swanson. The event was held in Japanese. The recording is now available on the NIRC YouTube channel! youtu.be/Q0r7ZgensPo

南山大学と日本宗教の国際的な研究 『The New Nanzan Guide to Japanese Religions』

YouTube video by 宗文研NIRC

youtu.be

A great blog project on the topic of urban to rural migration and rural revitalisation ran by Cornelia Reiher at the Freie Universität Berlin: userblogs.fu-berlin.de/urban-rural-... Including a recent gust contribution by Julia Olsson on her fieldwork on Akiya in Kochi Prefecture. Check it out.

The Tokyo District Court strips the Unification Church (or Family Federation for World Peace and Unification) of its religious corporation status. A new financial reality for the group and a germane development for the religious freedom legal landscape in Japan. www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20...

旧統一教会に解散命令 東京地裁 経緯は 今後の手続きは | NHK

【NHK】旧統一教会の高額献金や霊感商法の問題をめぐり、東京地方裁判所は「膨大な規模の被害が生じ、現在も見過ごせない状況が続いてい…

www3.nhk.or.jp

Our next Fear Research Network (FeRN) seminar will be on April 2, 2025. Valentina Zagaria will present on “The harga is the women’s fault” – Fearing migration’s revolutionary potential in a Tunisian border town" events.manchester.ac.uk/event/event:.... @uomsalc.bsky.social @uomsoss.bsky.social

@uomsalc.bsky.social will be holding an online information session for potential applicants to the following schemes: Leverhulme Early Career Fellowships, British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowships, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Postdoctoral Fellowships. Link here: shorturl.at/opLFB

Looking forward to visiting University of Toronto & McMaster University in a couple of weeks. I appreciate the opportunity to share my work through the Yehan Numata Program in Buddhist Studies 2024-2025. My first time in Toronto & Hamilton. I’ve been assured Spring is the time to visit. 🌱

Call for 12 Bicentenary Postdoc Research Fellowships (3-years) at UoM. Fellows will need a mentor and address the Faculty of Humanities priority research themes of Digital Futures; Sustainable Futures; Creativity; Global Inequalities; and Adaptive Societies. www.jobs.manchester.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai...

Bicentenary Research Fellowships in Humanities:Oxford Road

jobs.manchester.ac.uk

Sheffield is an important centre of expertise on East Asia, both within the UK and internatiinally! Please share and sign to support our colleagues!

Sheffield Uni Needs East Asian Studies!

The University of Sheffield has been a global leader in East Asian Studies since its inception as the national centre for modern Japanese Studies in 1963. Korean Studies was introduced in 1979 and mai...

megaphone.org.uk

Looking forward to the Food System Temporalities conference with a great programme of papers: from the Red Palm Weevil infestations, to fishy futures, slow food movements & technological interventions in contemporary foodscapes. Excited to throw my two “Buddhist food waste” cents into the mix.

My copy of The New Nanzan Guide to Japanese Religions arrived yesterday. Many congratulations to the editors, @mcmullen.bsky.social and @jolyonbt.bsky.social, and the stellar collective of the contributors. @kaitlynugoretz.bsky.social The cover photo is truly fab! Feels like a good start to 2025!

Harvard-Yenching Library Travel Grant programme has reopened: 10 grants of $2000 each in 2025 & 🤞🏼 more to follow. Aimed at non-tenured faculty members, dissertation-writing PhDs/ABDs & independent scholars. Award period by 30 June 2025 Deadline: 31 January 2025 library.harvard.edu/grants-fello...

Harvard-Yenching Library Travel Grant

The Harvard-Yenching Library awards several grants each year to help scholars travel to Cambridge to use our collections in their research.

library.harvard.edu

My department has just advertised 5 salaried PhD positions. Projects within the fields of religion, culture studies, environmental humanities, and/or Asian/Middle Eastern studies are welcome. 3-4 years, full-time, fully funded. Candidates must have finished their MA. www.jobbnorge.no/en/available...

Five Doctoral Research Fellowships (271145) | University of Oslo

Job title: Five Doctoral Research Fellowships (271145), Employer: University of Oslo, Deadline: Monday, February 24, 2025

jobbnorge.no

The Fear Research Network (FeRN), led by @chikaw.bsky.social and yours truly, brings together researchers interested in the politics, feelings, and practices that converge around fear from historical and contemporary perspectives. tinyurl.com/ycx25kkb Here are some of our upcoming events at UoM

Fascinating online (and physical) exhibit on "how women and their families experienced pregnancy and childbirth in early modern Japan," with many amazing images like this one, a parodic rendering of the Buddhist Ten Realms Mandala placed within the womb. www.nichibun.ac.jp/online/ucsf_...

Landed safely in Venezia for ‘Buddhist Foodways: Vegetarianism, Ritual Economies and Gastropolitics’ Workshop hosted by NICHE at Ca' Foscari University. Here’s to the next couple of days of great conversations. www.unive.it/data/33113/2...

Nothing better than Venice in late November for the “Buddhist Foodways: Vegetarianism, Ritual Economies and Geopolitics” workshop hosted by the New Institute: Centre for Environmental Humanities (NICHE) at the Ca' Foscari University.

For anyone curious about the history of emotions and allied fields, here are some starter resources, accessible for students and professionals alike. 1. The public lecture series organised by NACHE/SIHEX in English and Spanish and freely available here: mars.gmu.edu/collections/...