This website serves the constituency of scholars engaged in the study of Theravada Buddhism. It provides information on research findings, teaching materials, bibliographies, audio-visual resources and offers opportunities in to engage in scholarly discussion.
It is intended to share with the general public some of the activities undertaken by the Theravāda Civilizations Project which has been developed by Juliane Schober at Arizona State University and Steven Collins at the University of Chicago with generous support from the Henry Luce Foundation and its Asia Responsive Grants Initiative.
The project supports collaborative exchanges among scholars based in the US, Canada, Britain, and Southeast Asia with the aim to undertake a thematic study of Theravāda civilizations in South and Southeast Asia. Begun in 2011, the project facilitates conferences (Toronto, 2012, Arizona 2013, and Chiang Mai in 2014); workshops for doctoral students and post-doctoral researchers; and the publication of edited research collections. The work of project scholars draws on approaches from the humanities and social sciences, including history, anthropology, ethnography and textual studies of Pali and vernacular literatures.
In order to bring the transdisciplinary study of Theravada civilizations to a broader community of scholars, the Theravada Civilizations Project initiated a professional group, the Theravada Studies Group (TSG), affiliated with the Association for Asian Studies.
