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Alicia M. Turner

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Associate Professor, Department of Humanities, York University
E-mail: turnera@yorku.ca

Alicia Turner is Associate Professor of Humanities and Religious Studies. She is interested in the intersections of religion, colonialism, secularism and nationalism in Southeast Asia, with a particular focus on Buddhism in Burma (Myanmar) over the past 150 years. Her book Saving Buddhism: The Impermanence of Religion in Colonial Burma explores the fluid nature of the concepts of sāsana, identity and religion through a study of Buddhist lay associations in colonial Burma. Her current projects include a jointed written biography of U Dhammaloka, an Irish sailor and agitator turned Buddhist monk, work on the history and concept of Buddhist secularisms and a genealogy of religious difference and tolerance in Burma (Myanmar).

Representative Publications

Saving Buddhism: Moral Community and the Impermanence of Colonial Religion, Southeast Asia—Politics, Meaning and Memory Series. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2014

“Why Are We Surprised When Buddhists Are Violent?” with Dan Arnold, The New York Times, March 5, 2018. Available at https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/05/opinion/buddhists-violence-tolerance.html

“Pali Scholarship ‘in it Truest Sense’ in Burma: The Multiple Trajectories in Colonial Deployments of Religion.” The Journal of Asian Studies, 77 (1), 2018, pp. 1-16

“Myanmar: Contesting Conceptual Landscapes in the Politics of Buddhism.” Kyoto Review of Southeast Asia, 19 (March 2016).

“Religion Making and Its Failures: Turning Monasteries into Schools and Buddhism into a Religion in Colonial Burma.” In Markus Dressler and Arvind Mandair (eds.), Secularism and Religion Making. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011, pp. 226-42.

Keywords: Religion; colonialism; nationalism; secularism; religious tolerance; Buddhism in Southeast Asia; Burma/Myanmar

Upcoming Events

Mar
20
Sat
1:00 pm 姐姐,弟弟 Sister, Brother: A Per...
姐姐,弟弟 Sister, Brother: A Per...
Mar 20 @ 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm
姐姐,弟弟 Sister, Brother: A Performance & Workshop
A pair of siblings have a difficult conversation about what it means to be a daughter and son in a Chinese Canadian family in 姐姐,弟弟 [...]
Mar
26
Fri
11:00 am The Corruption of Development: G...
The Corruption of Development: G...
Mar 26 @ 11:00 am – 12:30 pm
With Sudhir Chella Rajan (Madras Institute of Technology) Nergis Canefe (York University) Pablo Idahosa (York University) Moderator: Viviana Patroni and Anna Zalik (York University) Please [...]
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