The Classical Ideas Podcast

Sophea Seng is Assistant Professor in the Department of Asian and Asian American Studies at California State University, Long Beach, where she teaches courses on Cambodian diaspora, refugee studies, and transnational migration. A first‑generation Cambodian American scholar, she holds a PhD in Anthropology and an MA in Southeast Asian Studies from the University of California, Riverside, as well as an MA in Asian American Studies from CSULB. Her research focuses on Cambodian Buddhist communities in the United States and Europe, using ethnographic and community‑based methods to examine identity, religion, memory, and belonging in refugee and diasporic contexts. Visit Sacred Writes: https://www.sacred-writes.org/  

From https://www.gwendolyngillson.com: I am Associate Professor of Asian Studies in the History, Philosophy, Political Science, and Religion department at Illinois College. My research brings together anthropology of religion, religious studies, Japanese studies, and gender studies to trouble the "traditional" narratives of scholarship and society. My work focuses on otherness, however defined, within larger power structures and attempts to recover and ultimately highlight otherized experiences and ways of being. Please check out the rest of the website for more details! My edited textbook, The Essential Guide to Buddhism, came out with Bloomsbury Academic in 2024. Purchase a copy here. Before Illinois College, I worked as Visiting Assistant Professor of East Asian Religions at Oberlin College. I received my PhD in Religious Studies from the University of Iowa in 2018 and an MA from the same institution in 2015. In 2012, I received an MLIS in Archives from the University of Oklahoma and my BA in Religion from Gustavus Adolphus College in 2009. I now proudly serve on the Phi Beta Kappa Committee at IC after being inducted as an undergraduate. Born in Oklahoma, I have moved all around the Midwest and love every second of it. I enjoy cooking, baking (and winning baking competitions), reading fiction, playing D&D, and spending time with my husband John, and my cat Herne. Visit Sacred Writes: https://www.sacred-writes.org/  

Dr. Matthew Keller is Public Scholar of Buddhism within the Curatorial Department at the Detroit Institute of Arts! He completed his Ph.D. at the University of Southern California in Asian Religions.  This episode supported by Sacred Writes: https://www.sacred-writes.org/ Matthew Keller at American Council of Learned Societies: https://www.acls.org/fellow-grantees/matthew-keller/  

Renée Ford, Ph.D. is a Lab Coordinator at the Contemplative Sciences Center, providing support for contemplative research at the CIRCL Lab. Renée's keen interest in understanding lived experiences in various contexts is a key motivation to her engagement here. She is trained in microphenomenology interviews, a type of interview that focuses on a short moment of experience and interested to apply this method in ongoing research studies.  Renée completed her Ph.D. at Rice University in religious studies, and her dissertation focused on how affective states such as devotion and confidence function in Tibetan Buddhist tantric practices. Prior to joining the CSC, Renée has held fellowship positions at Aarhus University and Ruhr University – Bochum. She has conducted fieldwork in Nepal and India, conducting various types of interviews to capture lived experience and translation work. She also has taught courses in religious studies, including Buddhism and Hinduism, in multiple institutions.   On this episode, we dive into a primer about Tibetan Buddhism, lineage prayers, and a bit about the life of the Tibetan scholar, Longchengpa. Visit Sacred Writes: https://www.sacred-writes.org Visit Renée Ford online: https://csc.virginia.edu/people/renee-ford    

Jonathan Feuer earned his Ph.D in Asian Languages and Cultures from UCLA in 2023. His current book project is entitled Buddhist Militarism, Violence, and Religious Freedom: The South Korean Buddhist Military Chaplaincy and his research interests include Buddhist modernity, South Korean history, and religion and violence. On this episode, we discuss Buddhist military chaplaincy in detail and preview what readers can expect with his forthcoming book! You can find his work at https://jonathancfeuer.com/. Visit Sacred Writes: https://www.sacred-writes.org/