Stefania Travagnin (史芬妮) teaches at the School of Oriental and African Studies (the University of London). Previously, she was the founding Director of the Centre for the Study of Religion and Culture in Asia and researcher of East Asian religions at the University of Groningen. She holds a MA in Chinese Studies from Ca’ Foscari University (Venice, Italy) and a Ph.D. in the Study of Religion from SOAS, University of London (UK). Travagnin has done extensive field research among Buddhist communities in China and Taiwan, and was visiting scholar in several institutes in Asia like, among the others, Academia Sinica, Sichuan University, National Cheng Chi University. Her research and publications analyze Buddhism and Buddhists in 20th century China and Taiwan, with special attention to reception history of texts and doctrines, female communities, Sangha education, media and technology. She is editor of the books Religion and Media in China: Insights and Case Studies from the Mainland, Taiwan and Hong Kong (Routledge, 2016), Concepts and Methods for the Study of Chinese Religions I: State of the Field and Disciplinary Approaches (with André Laliberté; De Gruyter, 2019), Concepts and Methods for the Study of Chinese Religions II: Intellectual History of Key Concepts (with Gregory Adam Scott; De Gruyter, 2020), Concepts and Methods for the Study of Chinese Religions III: Key Concepts in Practice (with Paul R. Katz; De Gruyter, 2019). Her monograph Yinshun and his Exposition of Madhyamaka: New Studies of the Da Zhidu Lun in Twentieth-century China and Taiwan is forthcoming with Equinox.
Project: (In)visible Nuns and Nunneries: Female Hidden History of Sichuan Buddhism
Darui Long
My name is Darui Long. I am a native of Chengdu. Now I am working in Los Angeles as a scholar of Chinese Buddhist canon. In early 2000, I published a paper on Chinese Buddhist Education in Sichuan. I am interested in what you are doing in my home.
I am now working on a paper for the annual conference of AAR (American Academy of Religion). The paper deals with the frontispiece of woodcut illustration of Liang Huang baochan 梁皇寳懺 I found in the Jagiellonian University Library in Kracow, Poland, Princeton University, and Tangut Scripture, Claremont University collection. I was lucky to get help from scholars in Sichuan Opera Institute. They provided me sources of how Emperor Liang Wudi’s wife — Empress Chi became a python in Sichuan Opera.
In the meantime, I am editor-in-chief of Chinese Buddhist Canon Research Newsletter sponsored by University of Arizona.
I would keep an eye on what you are doing in Sichuan.
All the best wishe
Darui Long (Ph.D.)
Elena Valussi
Thanks for getting in touch Darui!
Let’s continue this conversation on email. Please email me at evalussi@luc.edu so Stefania and I will be able to find out more about your work and tell you more about what we do.
Best
Elena and Stefania