Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Brings Buddhist-Studies Scholar to Hamburg
5 January 2013
Photo: M. Poceski
The Numata Center for Buddhist Studies is pleased to welcome Prof. Dr. Mario Poceski to the University of Hamburg. Professor Poceski, an associate professor in the Department of Religion at the University of Florida (Gainesville, USA), was awarded the prestigious Humboldt Research Fellowship for experienced researchers by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. The fellowship will support Prof. Poceski during his eighteen-month residency at the Center for Buddhist Studies, which will be begin in May 2013 and comprise of three separate research stays.
His large-scale research project will explore the historical growth and transformation of Chan (Zen) Buddhist literature in late medieval China. Its main focus will be on Chan Buddhism’s creative adaptation of classical literary forms and experimentation with novel narrative styles, which led to the creation of several distinctive Chan genres that exerted notable influences on the subsequent development of Buddhism in China and the rest of East Asia. The resulting research is expected to be published in a new book, The Records of Mazu Daoyi and the Making of Classical Chan Literature. It’s publication will serve as a companion to Ordinary Mind as the Way: The Hongzhou School and the Growth of Chan Buddhism (Oxford University Press 2007), Prof. Poceski's groundbreaking study of the history and doctrines of the Hongzhou School of Chan in Tang China.