AEA’s Brian Victoria, Ph.D. Completing World Lecture Tour
Posted on Wednesday, June 27th, 2012
Dr. Brian Victoria, Director of the AEA Japan and Its Buddhist Traditions Program, left Yellow Springs on April 23, 2012 for an eight nation, round the world lecture tour. He delivered lectures at twelve universities in Europe including those in the United Kingdom, Austria, Germany, Holland, Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. In mid-June, he presented an address at the Conference of the World Federation of Buddhists meeting in South Korea. Brian’s lectures are related to his groundbreaking research on the relationship of religion to violence, especially the Zen Buddhist school’s support of Japanese militarism during WW II. He is the author of two books on this subject, i.e., Zen at War and Zen War Stories, as well as numerous journal articles. His research was featured in the New York Times in 2003 and, more recently, the Dutch-based Buddhist Broadcasting Foundation produced a related, one-hour video documentary in 2009 entitled “Zen and War.”
Highlights from Brian’s lecture tour include:
- April 26, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh Great Britain, “Zen Terrorism in 1930s Japan: Lessons for Today.”
- May 1, Bristol University, Bristol, Great Britain, “Violence-enabling Mechanisms in Buddhism.”
- May 8, University of Oslo, Humanitarian Faculty, “Zen as a Cult of Death.”
- May 9, University of Oslo, Theological Faculty, “Universal Characteristics of Holy War.”
- May 14, 2012, University of Hamburg, Hamburg Germany, “Zen, D.T. Suzuki and the Nazis.”
- May 29, 2012, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany, “Zen, D.T. Suzuki and Nazis.”
- June 13, 2012, Keynote address at the Conference of the World Federation of Buddhists in Seoul, South Korea, “Buddhism and Violence.”
Brian will return to Yellow Springs in early July to continue preparing for the fall 2012 Japan and Its Buddhist Traditions program. You may contact Brian through the AEA Office: aea@antioch.edu; (800) 874-7986.
