Jin Y. Park

Associate Professor
Department of Philosophy and Religion

• Additional Positions at AU

  Director, Asian Studies Program, CAS
  
• Jin Y. Park is Associate Professor of Philosophy and Religion and Founding Director of Asian Studies Program at American University. Park specializes in East Asian Buddhism (especially Zen and Huayan Buddhism), philosophy of religion, postmodernism, deconstruction, Buddhist ethics, Buddhist-postmodern comparative philosophy, and Buddhist encounter with modernity in Korea. Park’s research in Buddhism focuses on the Zen and Huayan schools of East Asian Buddhism on language, violence, and ethics. In her comparative study, Park reads Zen and Huayan Buddhism together with postmodern thought in Continental philosophy. Park also has a keen interest in Korean Buddhism's encounters with modernity; how Buddhism has transformed in modern time, how different gender responded differently, and how to conceptualize “Buddhist modernity” have been some of main themes of her inquiry. Her most recent publication, Reflections of a Zen Buddhist Nun: Essays by Zen Master Kim Iryop (2014), is a translation of a twentieth century Korean Buddhist nun/ thinker Kim Iryop's first book Onu sudoin ui hoesang (1960). Her monograph, Buddhism and Postmodernity: Zen, Huayan, and the Possibility of Buddhist-Postmodern Ethics (2008), discusses Buddhism and continental philosophy on the topics of, among others, self, language, and violence. In this book, Park offers the "ethics of tension" as a potential ethical paradigm that can be drawn from Buddhism and postmodern philosophy. Park is also editor of volumes: Buddhisms and Deconstructions (2006), Merleau-Ponty and Buddhism (co-edited, 2009), Comparative Political Theory and Cross-Cultural Philosophy (2009), and Makers of Modern Korean Buddhism (2010). Park is founding co-chair of International Society for Buddhist Philosophy. She is a member of the Board of Directors at the American Academy of Religion and also serves on its Program Committee. Park is a recipient of several privileged grants and fellowships.

• Degrees

  PhD, SUNY Stony Brook; MA, New York University; MA, Yonsei University; BA, Yonsei University (Seoul, Korea)
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