Alexander O. Hsu – Keough School

Skill

world religion; Buddhism; Chinese religions; early chinese buddhist scriptures

At Keough School

Alexander O. Hsu is Assistant Professor of Global Affairs Education at the Keough School of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame. He is Director of Undergraduate Studies at Keough School’s Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies and pedagogical adviser Ansari Institute for Global Engagement with Religion. He also manages Faith in History: Trilogues to Improve Religious Literacy with Mahan Mirza at the Ansari Institute.

Course

• Introduction to Buddhism (undergraduate course in Asian studies)
• Engaging Religions: An Introduction to Religion and World Affairs (first cycle world affairs course)
• Asian spiritualities and world affairs (first cycle world affairs course)

Biography

Hsu holds a doctorate in the history of religions from the Divinity School at the University of Chicago. Her research focuses on early Buddhist scriptures from medieval China and employs perspectives from manuscript studies, genre theory, and cultural history to examine how the use of texts reflects transformations in religious reading practices. Hsu’s current book project examines why and how medieval Chinese Buddhists used anthologies to “save” their massive scriptural canon.

Research and publications

Journal article: “Making the Canon Workable: Scaling the Tripiṭaka with a Medieval Chinese Buddhist Anthology.“ (history of religions)

Journal article: “Reconcile with “engaged Buddhism”: provincialize, periodize and politicize the concept.“ (Journal of World Buddhism)