Roundtable Feature: Buddhist Monarchy in Asia

In this roundtable episode, host Ellie Woodacre is joined by a panel of five experts on monarchy in premodern Asia--including the Indian subcontinent, China and Southeast Asia. This episode captures a vibrant discussion on the impact of Buddhism on the ideals and practice of monarchy in the region, drawing on their respective research.

Speaker Bios: 

Stephanie Balkwill is Associate Professor of Chinese Buddhism at the University of California Los Angeles, where she is also the Director of the Center for Buddhist Studies. She publishes broadly on the connection between women, Buddhist affiliation, and political opportunity in early medieval China. She is the author of The Women Who Ruled China: Buddhism, Multiculturalism, and Governance in the Sixth Century (UC Press 2024) as well as the co-Editor of Buddhist Statecraft in East Asia (Brill 2022)--both are Open Access.

Megan Bryson is Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Chair of the Asian Studies program at the University of Tennessee. Her work focuses on gender, ethnicity, and kingship in East Asian Buddhism, specifically in the regimes of Nanzhao (653–903) and Dali (937–1253) that were based in what is now China’s Yunnan province. Bryson is the author of the book Goddess on the Frontier: Religion, Ethnicity, and Gender in Southwest China (Stanford UP, 2016), co-editor of the volume Buddhist Masculinities (Columbia UP, 2023), and she is currently finishing a book about Buddhist transmission along the Southwestern Silk Road.

Alice Collett: Prior to joining St Andrews, Professor Collett worked at several universities around the world, in teaching, research and senior management roles, including a period as Acting Dean at Nalanda University in India. Her research specialism is ancient Indian religions, with a focus on women. Her publications include Women in Early Indian Buddhism: Comparative Textual Studies (OUP, 2013) and Translating Buddhism: Historical and Contextual Perspectives (SUNY, 2021).  

Bruno Shirley is a historian of medieval Sri Lanka, interested in ideas about and practices of religion, politics, and gender. He is currently a research fellow in Buddhist Studies at Heidelberg University. 

Trent Walker is assistant professor of Southeast Asian studies and Thai Professor of Theravada Buddhism at the University of Michigan. Prior to moving to Ann Arbor, he completed postdoctoral fellowships at Chulalongkorn University in Thailand and the Ho Center for Buddhist Studies at Stanford University. A specialist in Southeast Asian Buddhist music, literature, and manuscripts, he is the author of Until Nirvana's Time: Buddhist Songs from Cambodia (winner of the 2024 Khyentse Foundation Prize for Outstanding Translation) and co-editor of Out of the Shadows of Angkor: Cambodian Poetry, Prose, and Performance through the Ages.