by Tori Pinto, M.A. '11
Growing up Buddhist, I wanted to pursue a career that would allow me to better understand my own religious heritage, as well as contribute academically to the growing body of research on contemporary Japanese religion. Until recently, Buddhism was studied almost entirely from texts, with almost no attention paid to how these texts were (or weren't) used in the real world. We are moving into an exciting time for Buddhist Studies as more attention is being given to ritual, popular religion, folk and oral tradition, as well as visual and...