Events

Occasionally AKP hosts online activities, lectures, or webinars for its consortium institutions and others interested in Japan. Check out the page below to review and register for our upcoming events!

Past Events

Spring 2022 Lecture Series: Progressive and Radical Buddhist Experiments in Modern Japan

Presented by Professor James Shields of Bucknell University, this 4-part lecture series draws on his recent research on Buddhist figures and movements who attempted in various ways to align Buddhist ideas and practices and secular progressive and radical politics. Although there is a chronological (and, to some extent, genealogical) thread to the lectures, each stands on its own as an introduction and discussion of the history as well as the ideas and activities of a particular figure or movement of “radical Buddhists” in the formative and tumultuous decades between the 1868 Meiji Restoration and the beginning of the Pacific War. The series investigates the problems as well as the possibilities of progressive and radical Buddhism in the context of Japanese and Western modernity.

Lecture Recordings: Click to watch now

Lecture #1: The Meiji Buddhist Enlightenment (1868–1899)

January 26 at 7:00 PM Eastern, 6:00 PM Central, 4:00 PM Pacific

(January 27 at 9:00 AM Japan Time)

Lecture #2: The New Buddhist Fellowship (1899–1916)

February 23 at 7:00 PM Eastern, 6:00 PM Central, 4:00 PM Pacific

(February 24 at 9:00 AM Japan Time)

Abstract: Click Here

Lecture #3: Taishō Buddhistic Utopians (1920s)

March 23 at 7:00 PM Eastern, 6:00 PM Central, 4:00 PM Pacific

(March 24 at 8:00 AM Japan Time)

Abstract: Click Here
Lecture #4: Shōwa Buddhist Socialism (1930s)

April 27 at 7:00 PM Eastern, 6:00 PM Central, 4:00 PM Pacific

(April 28 at 8:00 AM Japan Time)

Abstract: Click Here