Public Lecture: André Laliberté on Buddhist Philanthropy in China

UBC’s Buddhism and Contemporary Society Program, funded by The Tung Lin Kok Yuen Canada Foundation, is pleased to welcome Professor André Laliberté, for a talk entitled

“The Growth of Buddhist philanthropy in contemporary China,”

on June 16, 2014 at the Institute for Asian Research, UBC, Point Grey campus.

• Date: Monday, June 16
• Time: 4:00-6:00 pm
• Place: Room 120, Institute of Asian Research, UBC

Talk description: One of the most unexpected development of the last two decades in China is the steady growth of Buddhist philanthropy. My talk will present the policy context in which Buddhist institutions were invited by local officials in China to assist them in the provision of disaster relief, support to students, and health promotion. My talk will offer evidence from fieldwork over the last ten years and spend some time to introduce the contributions of different kinds of organizations at the provincial, municipal, and temple-level, as well as Taiwan-based Buddhist institutions.

Bio: André Laliberté (UBC 1999) is full professor at the School of Political Studies, University of Ottawa, where he teaches on the politics of China and comparative politics. He is also a research fellow at Purdue University’s Center for Religion and Chinese Society, the Groupe Societés, Religions, et Laïcités in Paris, and the Centre for the Study of Religion and Culture in Asia at the University of Groningen. He is currently on leave from the University of Ottawa and visiting professor at the Institute for Asian Research at the University of British Columbia. He is a co-investigator for a research team funded by the Social Sciences and Research Council of Canada on ‘Gender, Migration, and the Work of Care’ looking at the transnational care chain across the Pacific. He has done research in Taiwan, the People’s Republic of China, and Hong Kong, and has written on Buddhist philanthropy and the regulation of religion,among others. He has written The Politics of Buddhist Organizations in Taiwan (RoutledgeCurzon 2004), and he has co-edited Secular States and Religious Diversity (UBC Press 2013). Laliberté has received his doctoral degree from the University of British Columbia in 1999.