Introducing the Initiative for Black Buddhist Studies

We are a public scholarship project created at the intersection of academic inquiry and community-based engagement. We aim to:

• Offer community-based Buddhist Studies courses that center Black social movements, Black poets, and Black Buddhist writers;
• Create conversations amongst Buddhist practitioners and activists, as well as scholars of Buddhism, on how Buddhism can address racialized systemic harm in bureaucracies such as the U.S. penal system;
• Think through how Buddhist-inspired anti-caste movements influence anti-racism movements, as well as speak to discrimination based on poverty, gender, and sexuality in the U.S. context;
• Co-create a dialogue between Black Buddhists and Asian and Asian American Buddhists to address issues such as cultural appropriation, cultural adaptation, and internalized racism;
• Publish literature that can be used for furthering academic and community dialogue that incorporates the study of Buddhism and Black Studies.