Rethinking the Origins of Buddhist Studies in North America Kenneth Ch’en and the Central Role of Asian and Asian-American Scholars in Founding the Field

This conference focuses on Professor Kenneth Ch’en (1907–1993) and his larger intellectual context. Professor Ch’en was the first professor specializing in Buddhism hired at Princeton and possibly the first scholar of East Asian descent to receive the rank of full professor here. The conference is the capstone of a larger project funded by the Princeton Histories Project, which supports research on “aspects of Princeton’s history that have been forgotten, overlooked, subordinated, or suppressed.”

Sponsors: Princeton Histories Fund; Department of Religion; East Asian Studies Program; Center for Culture, Society, and Religion; Program in Asian American Studies; Princeton University Humanities Council; Glorisun Global Network for Buddhist Studies; Numata Visiting Scholar Fund.