Jessica Xiaomin Zu

Office: 1879 Hall, Princeton, NJ 08544| Email: [email protected]

EDUCATION Dissertation Defense July 2020 (anticipated) Princeton University 2013–2020 (anticipated) PhD in Asian Religions The Pennsylvania State University 2011–2013 MA in Comparative Literature The Pennsylvania State University 1997–2003 PhD in Theoretical High Energy Physics Peking University 1992–1997 BS in Physics

DISSERTATION Toward an Ecology of Compassion: Lü Cheng’s Revolutionary Journey from Aesthetics to Yogācāra, 1918–1966

DISSERTATION COMMITTEE Stephen F. Teiser (Chief Academic Advisor), Jacqueline Stone, Jonathan C. Gold, Janet Chen

ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS Princeton University Graduate Fellow in Religious Studies, 2013–2018 Post-doctoral Research Fellow in High Energy Physics, The Florida State University, 2003–2005 The Pennsylvania State University Research Fellow, 2000–2003 The Pennsylvania State University Teaching Fellow, 1997–2000

RESEARCH INTERESTS Social History of Buddhism, Translation Studies, Buddhist Modernism, Yogācāra Philosophy, History of Modern China

TEACHING AREAS Asian Religions, History of Buddhism, Buddhist Philosophy, Chinese History, Translation Studies

PUBLICATION “Ouyang Jingwu’s Must-Read Buddhist Classics for Laity: Body Politics and Gendered Soteriology,” Journal of Chinese Religions 47:1 [forthcoming, May 2019].

MANUSCRIPTS IN PROGRESS “Charisma and Textual Production: How Did Master Yinguang Become Bodhisattva Mahāsthāmaprāpta?,” manuscript in preparation for Studies in Chinese Religions. “A Buddhist inflected Modernity: from the Matangi Maiden to Modern Girl,” manuscript in preparation for Modern China.

SERVICE TO THE PROFESSION

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Book Review: Erik Schicketanz, エリック・シッケタンツ, Daraku to fukkō no kindai Chūkoku Bukkyō: Nihon Bukkyō to no kaikō to so no rekishizō no kōchiku 堕落と復興の近代中国仏教― 日本仏教との邂逅とその歴史像の構築 [Between Decline and Revival: Historical Discourse and Modern Chinese Buddhism’s Encounter with Japan]. Kyoto: Hozōkan, 2016. Religious Studies in Japan 4 (March 2018): 115–118. Book Review: Shouhua Qi, Western Literature in China and the Translation of a Nation. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012. Comparative Literature Studies 52, no. 2 (2015): e-1–e-3.

INVITED TALKS “A Social Turn of Yogācāra Soteriology in Modern China,” Oslo Buddhist Studies Forum, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway, August 29, 2017. “从居士福田到五科佛学” [From “Laity as the Field of Merits” to “Five Disciplines of Buddhist Studies”], 佛教思想建设研讨会—商业时代的佛教本位与去商业化 [Buddhist Thought—The Benchmark for Buddhism and Decommodification in the Commercial Era.] Chinese Institute for the Study of Buddhist Cultures [中国佛教文化研究所], Beijing, China, December 18, 2016.

CONFERENCE PAPERS “Lü Cheng: A Forgotten May Fourth Youth and a Buddhist Revolutionary,” Young Scholars’ Forum in Chinese Studies 2019—A Century of Change: Revisiting the Legacy of May Fourth, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Co-organized by Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation Asia-Pacific Centre for Chinese Studies and Institute of Chinese Studies, May 22-25, 2019. Aesthetic Revolution for a New Moral Ecology, 1918–1923,” American Academy of Religion (AAR) Annual Convention, Denver, CO, November 17–20, 2018 (panel organizer). “Buddhisizing the Secular: Reframing the Family Ideals on Yogācāra Terms in Republican China,” AAR Annual Convention, Boston, MA, November 18–21, 2017. “Framing Critical Thinking as the Buddhist Logic Grounded in Compassion, 1923–1945, China,” Association of Asian Studies, Toronto, Canada, March 16–19, 2017. “A New Technology for Reading Sūtras: Translation and Comparative Hermeneutics in Modern China,” Buddhism in the Global Eye, Annual Tung Lin Kok Yuen Canada Foundation Conference at the University of British Columbia, co-sponsored by the Modernization of Buddhism in Global Perspective Project, Vancouver, BC, Canada, August 10–12, 2016. “A New Technology for Reading Sūtras: Translation and Comparative Hermeneutics in Modern China,” International Forum on Modern Chinese Buddhism, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, April 23, 2016. “The Poor Men’s Philanthropy Against the White Men’s Burden: Refashioning the Bodhisattva Spirit in the Pure Land Canon in Republican China,” International Conference on the Chinese Buddhist Canon in Modern East Asia, Provo, UT, April 9–10, 2015. “Buddhist ‘Structures of Feeling’ in the Modernist ‘Peking Opera’—The Matangi Girl,” Mid-Atlantic Regional Association of Asian Studies (MAR-AAS), Newark, DE, November 1–3, 2013 (panel organizer). “The Morning Bell Gatha and the Transformation of Ānanda into the Avatar of Chinese Monastics,” AAR Annual Convention, Baltimore, MD, November 23–26, 2013. “Between Transgression and Tradaptation: The Roundtrip Travel of The Dream of the Red Chamber from China to Japan and Back,” American Comparative Literature Association, Toronto, Canada, April 4-7, 2013 (panel co-organizer). “Ālayavijñāna as the Rhizomic Unconscious,” Modern Language Association Annual Convention, Boston, MA, January 3-6, 2013.

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“Fangbian and Youhua—Taixu’s (1890–1947) Cosmopolitics and the Making of Chinese Buddhist Modernism,” MAR-AAS Annual Conference, West Chester, PA, November 2-4, 2012. “Metaphysics and Politics: Lü Cheng and Xiong Shili’s Philosophies and Their Contributions to the Human Rights Discourse,” MAR-AAS Annual Conference, Princeton, NJ, October 21-23, 2011.

TEACHING EXPERIENCES Teaching Transcript, certified by The McGraw Center for Teaching and Learning, Princeton University, November 19, 2018 Teaching Assistant, The History of Modern China, Princeton University, Fall 2016 This was an introductory course on the history of modern China from 1850 to present and was instructed by Professor Janet Chen. My primary responsibility was to lead weekly small-group (8–15 students) discussions to deepen the students’ understanding of the lectures and reading material, and to further explore competing explanations for events such as the fall of the Qing empire, rise of the Communist Party, and the Cultural Revolution. I also provided timely quantitative and qualitative feedback. Teaching Assistant, The Religions of China, Princeton University, Spring 2015 This course surveyed the history of religions from early China to present and was instructed by Professor Stephen Teiser. I helped students to explore diverse religious practices that cannot be simply labeled as Confucian, Buddhist, Daoist, or folk, and to critically analyze the evolving constructions as well as self-definitions of religions under different political systems. I led weekly small-group discussions, offered individual consultation during office hours, guest- lectured, and provided timely quantitative and qualitative evaluations. Teaching Assistant, Tibetan Buddhism, Princeton University, Fall 2014 This course surveyed the history of the four major lineages of Buddhism in Tibet from the eighth century to present and was instructed by Professor Jonathan Gold. Students explored the social function of Madhyamaka and Yogācāra philosophy as well as tantric practices in Tibetan culture. In weekly group discussions, I helped students analyze difficult philosophical concepts and complex ritual systems. I also evaluated their weekly response posts, graded exams, and offered individual consultations during office hours. Teaching Assistant, various college physics courses, The Pennsylvania State University, 1997–2000 During my training as a PhD student in physics, I provided hands-on instructions for students in laboratory settings, led weekly group work that involved solving difficult physics problems, offered individual consultations during office hours, and guest-lectured multiple times for classes of more than 200 students.

PROFESSIONAL TRAINING Digital Humanities Workshop, “Introduction to Social Network Analysis for the Study of Buddhism and East Asian Religions,” sponsored by From the Ground Up—Buddhism and East Asian Religions (FROGBEAR), National University of Singapore, Singapore, August 1–9, 2018. Digital Humanities Workshop, “Digital Humanities for Research in East Asian Religions,” sponsored by Tianzhu Global Network in Buddhist Studies, McMaster University, Canada, May 26–27, 2018.

Buddhist Studies Workshop, "Buddhism and East Asian Cultures: An Intensive Program of Lecture Series, Conference/Forum, and Fieldwork," sponsored by FROGBEAR, Dharma Drum Liberal Arts College, Taiwan, January 13–21, 2018. Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra Workshop, led by Professor Mark Blum, sponsored by the Woodenfish Foundation, Wuwei, China, August 4–15, 2015.

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Guanyin (Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara) Workshop, led by Professor Chunfang Yu, sponsored by the Woodenfish Foundation, Suzhou, China, August 4–15, 2013.

Advanced Pāli Workshop, led by Professor Richard Gombrich, Oxford Center of Buddhist Studies, Oxford, United Kingdom, August 14–23, 2017 and August 15–24, 2016. Japanese Language Program for Specialists in Cultural and Academic Fields, sponsored by the Japan Foundation, Osaka, Japan, June–August 2012.

The Teaching Japan K–12 Teachers Workshop, Penn State Asian Studies Program, May 10, 2013. Chinese Pedagogical Workshop, Penn State Asian Studies Program, March 23 and March 30, 2013.

MAJOR AWARDS American Council of Learned Societies Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Dissertation Fellowship in Buddhist Studies, 2017 ($30,000) China and Inner Asia Council (CIAC) of the AAS Small Grant, 2016 ($2000) Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies Summer Language Grant, 2016 ($1600) Princeton University East Asian Studies Program Summer Language Grant, 2016 ($3900) Woodenfish Research Fellowship for Buddhist Studies, 2015 ($1500) Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies Summer Language Grant, 2014 ($2250) Princeton University East Asian Studies Program Summer Language Grant, 2014 ($1500) Princeton University East Asian Studies Program Summer Research Grant, 2013 ($1500) Duncan Fellowship, The Pennsylvania State University, 2003 ($2000) Braddock and Roberts Fellowships, The Pennsylvania State University, 2000 ($2000) Braddock and Roberts Fellowships, The Pennsylvania State University, 1997 ($5000)

MODERN LANGUAGES Chinese—native speaker Japanese—highest level of proficiency (N1) in the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (2013) French—research proficiency German—research proficiency

CLASSICAL LANGUAGES Classical Chinese—full proficiency in Buddhist adapted syntax since Tang Dynasty Classical Tibetan—research proficiency Sanskrit—research proficiency Pāli—research proficiency

PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS American Academy of Religion Association for Asian Studies Society for the Study of Chinese Religions

REFERENCES Stephen F. Teiser, D. T. Suzuki Professor in Buddhist Studies, Princeton University Email: [email protected]

Jacqueline Stone, Professor of Religion, Princeton University

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Email: [email protected]

Jonathan Gold, Associate Professor of Religion, Princeton University Email: [email protected]

Janet Chen, Associate Professor of History and East Asian Studies, Princeton University Email: [email protected]

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