Charles Stephen Hallisey
Curriculum Vitae

Address:
Languages and Cultures of Asia
University of Wisconsin-Madison
1248 Van Hise Hall
1220 Linden Drive
Madison, WI 53706
(608) 262-4943

Birthdate: May 6, 1953

Education:

Ph.D. The Divinity School, The University of Chicago, 1988 (History of Religions).

Dissertation: "Devotion in the Buddhist Literature of Medieval Sri Lanka."
Advisor: Frank E. Reynolds. Readers: Ronald Inden, Joseph Kitagawa.

A.M. University of Pennsylvania, 1980 (South Asian Studies).

Master's paper: "A Trace of the Buddha: Veneration of the Footprint of the Buddha on Adam's Peak." Advisor: Ernest Bender

M.Div. Harvard Divinity School, 1978 (Theological Studies).

A.B. Colgate University, 1975 (Religion).

Academic Employment:

Associate Professor, Languages and Cultures of Asia, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2001-present
Visiting Associate Professor, Languages and Cultures of Asia, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2000-2001.
John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Humanities, Committee on the Study of Religion and the Department of Sanskrit and Indian Studies, Harvard University, 1996-2001.
Assistant Professor of Buddhist Studies, Harvard University, 1991-1996.
Head Tutor (Director of Undergraduate Studies), Comparative Study of Religion, Harvard University, 1992-1994.
Assistant Professor, Department of Theology, Loyola University of Chicago, 1988-1991.
Instructor, Department of Theology, Loyola University of Chicago, 1985-1988.
Instructor, Department of Religion, Swarthmore College, 1979.
Instructor, Department of Religious Studies, University of Pennsylvania, 1979.

Academic Honors and Grants:

Teaching:

Faculty Development Grant, International Institute, University of
Wisconsin-Madison, March 2004.
Graduate Student Council, Harvard University, Excellence in Mentoring Doctoral Students Award, 1999.
Petra T. Shattuck Award for Excellence in Teaching, Harvard Extension School, Harvard University, 1996.

Research:

Research Associate, Center for South Asian and Indian Ocean Studies, Tufts University, July 1996- January 1997.
National Endowment for the Humanities Collaborative Project (on "Literary
Cultures in History: Reconstructions from South Asia," Sheldon Pollock,chair), 1995-1998.
National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship for University Teachers, 1994-95.
Harvard University President's Leave for Untenured Faculty, 1994-95.
Dartmouth Humanities Institute, Dartmouth College, Sept.-Dec. 1994.
Loyola Endowment for the Humanities, Faculty Development Award, Summer, 1990.
Research Associate, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, 1989-1990.
American Council of Learned Societies Research Fellowship for Recent Recipients of the Ph.D., 1989-90.
Loyola University Research Leave of Absence with Salary, 1989-90.
Loyola University Research Stimulation Fund Award, 1989.
American Academy of Religion Research Assistance Grant, 1988-89.

Positions requiring scholarly competence:

Teaching:

Lilly Workshop for Teaching Religion, 1991-92.

Positions in Professional Organizations:

American Academy of Religion (Program Committee Member, 1992-1994, 1995-1997).
Sri Lanka Studies Group, Association for Asian Studies (Chair, 1991-1995).

Editorial Work and Board Memberships:

Associate Editor, Encyclopedia of Religion, Second Edition, Macmillan Press.
Series Editor, Religious Life in History, a series of introductions to different religious traditions published by Wadsworth (1992-2002)
Editorial Board, Journal of Religious Ethics.
Board of Editors, Journal of Buddhist Ethics (1994-1999).
Board Member, International Committee for the Preservation of Burmese Manuscripts.
Co-Director, Harvard Buddhist Studies Forum (1994-2001).
Steering Committee, The Fifth International Sri Lanka Conference, Durham, New Hampshire, August, 1995.

Fellowship and Grant Reviewer:

American Institute for Sri Lankan Studies
Fulbright Fellowships (national review committee for South Asia)
American Philosophical Society
National Endowment for the Humanities

Faculty Organizer or Advisor for Workshops:

"Reading: Ethics, Images, and Social Practices," University of
Wisconsin-Madison, November, 2003.
"Islamic Arts and Modernity in South and Southeast Asia," University of
Wisconsin-Madison, June, 2003.
"The Use of Manuscripts in Buddhist Studies," Harvard University, May, 2000.
"East of India: Rethinking Buddhist Studies from the Vantage Point of
of the Nichiren and Pure Land Traditions of Japan," March, 1999.
First "Buddhist Studies Graduate Student Conference," Harvard University,
December, 1997.

Other:

Expert consultant and writer, "Blue Collar and Buddha," a prize-winning documentary about Lao refugees in Rockford, Illinois, 1987.

Publications:

Books:

A Glossary of Proper Names, in The Catalogue of the Hugh Nevill Collection of Sinhalese Manuscripts in the British Library, Vol. 7 (London: The British Library, 1995).

 

Articles:

"The Surprise of Scripture's Advice," in Religious Identity and the Problem of Historical Foundation, edited by Judith Frishman, Willemien Otten, and Gerard Rouwhorst (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 2004).

"Trajectories in Buddhist Ethics", in A Companion to Religious Ethics, edited by William Schweiker (Oxford: Blackwell's, 2004).

"A Biography of the Buddha translated from the Sangitiyavamsa", in Buddhist Scriptures, edited by Donald Lopez (New York: Penguin, in press).

"Works and Persons in Sinhala Literary Culture," Literary Cultures in History: Some Reconstructions from South Asia, edited by Sheldon Pollock (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003).

"Buddhism," The Life of Virtue, edited by Jacob Neusner (San Francisco: Wadsworth, 2001).

"Buddhism," Work and What We Owe Others, edited by Jacob Neusner (San Francisco: Wadsworth, 2001).

"Buddhism," Death and the Afterlife, edited by Jacob Neusner (Cleveland: Pilgrim Press, 2000)

"Buddhism," Women and Families in World's Religions, edited by Jacob Neusner (Cleveland: Pilgrim Press, 2000).

"Buddhism," Evil and Suffering in the World's Religions, edited by Jacob Neusner (Cleveland: Pilgrim Press, 1999).

"Buddha in his Time and Ours," The World and I, 10 (1999).

Joachim Wach's Master and Disciple" Revisited; A Contemporary Symposium,"(with Frederick Denny, Margaret Miles, and Earle Waugh), Teaching Theology and Religion, Vol. 1 (1998), 13-19.

"Introduction" to Hammalava Saddhatissa, Buddhist Ethics, Third Edition, (Boston: Wisdom Publications, 1997), xi-xviii.

"Response to Kevin Schillbrack," Journal of Buddhist Ethics, Vol. 4 (1997), an electronic journal.

"Ethical Particularism in Theravada Buddhism," Journal of Buddhist Ethics, Vol. 3 (1996), an electronic journal.

"Narrative, Sub-ethics, and the Moral Life: Some Evidence from Theravada Buddhism," (with Anne Hansen), Journal of Religious Ethics, 24.2 (1996), 305-328.

Twenty-three entries on Buddhism, including Buddhas and Theravada, for the Harper Collins Dictionary of Religion, edited by Jonathan Z. Smith, (San Francisco: Harper Collins, 1995).

"Roads Taken and Not Taken in the Study of Theravada Buddhism," in Curators of the Buddha, edited by Donald Lopez (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995), 31-62.

"Auspicious Things" and "The Advice to Layman Tundila," in Buddhism in Practice, edited by Donald Lopez (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995), 302-313; 412-426.

"In Defense of Rather Fragile and Local Achievement: Some Reflections on the Work of Gurulugomi" in Religion and Practical Reason, edited by David Tracy and Frank Reynolds (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1994), 121-162.

"Nibbanasutta: An Allegedly Non-Canonical Sutta on Nibbana as a Great City," Journal of the Pali Text Society, Vol. XVIII (1993), 97-130 (a slightly revised and corrected version of "The Sutta on Nibbana as a Great City.").

"Recent Work on Buddhist Ethics," Religious Studies Review, Vol. 18 (1992), 276-285.

"Religion," "God," and "Mysticism," three short entries for the Oxford Illustrated Encyclopedia, Vol 7.

"The Sutta on Nibbana as a great City," in Buddhist Essays: A Memorial Volume in Honour of Venerable Hammalawa Saddhatissa, edited by Pollamure Sorata Thera, Lakshman Perera, and Karl Goonesena (London: Sri Saddhatissa International Buddhist Centre, 1992) 38-67.

"Buddha," St. James Guide to Biography, edited by Paul Schellinger (Chicago and London: St. James Press, 1991), 99-101.

"Tundilovada: An Allegedly Non-canonical Sutta," Journal of the Pali Text Society, Vol. XV (1990), 155-196.

"Apropos the Pali Vinaya as a Historical Document: A Reply to Gregory Schopen," Journal of the Pali Text Society, Volume XV (1990), 197-208.

"Councils as Ideas and Events in the Theravada," The Buddhist Forum, II (1991), 133-148.

Twenty short entries on South Asian and Southeast Asian Buddhists for Who's Who of Religions, London: Macmillan, (1991).

"The Comparisons of Bruce Lincoln," Religious Studies Review 14.1 (January, 1988), 17-22.

"Catholic Theology and the Study of Religion in South Asia" (with Francis X. Clooney, S.J., Paul Griffiths, and James Laine), Theological Studies 48 (1987), 677-710.

"Mircea Eliade (1907-1986)," Buddhist Studies Review 4.1 (1987), 65-67.

"Buddha" (with Frank E. Reynolds), in The Encyclopedia of Religion, edited by Mircea Eliade, 2: 319-333. Reprinted as "The Buddha," in Buddhism and Asian History, edited by Joseph M. Kitagawa and Mark D. Cummings (New York: Macmillan, 1989), 29-49.

"Buddhism: An Overview" (with Frank E. Reynolds), ibid., 2: 334-351. Reprinted as "Buddhist Religion, Culture, and Civilization," in Buddhism and Asian History, edited by Joseph M. Kitagawa and Mark D. Cummings (New York: Macmillan, 1989), 3-28.

"Dutthagamani" (with Frank E. Reynolds), ibid., 4: 519-520.

"Paramitas," ibid., 11: 196-198.

"Religion and the Search for Meaning: A Report on an Introductory Course in Religious Studies" (with Stephen Dunning), Bulletin, Center for the Study of World Religions, Harvard University, Spring, 1979, 12-14.

Reviews:

More than thirty-five book reviews in various academic journals including Journal of the American Oriental Society, Journal of Asian Studies, Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies, Theological Studies, Philosophy East and West, and Religious Studies Review.

Papers and Presentations:

"TransBuddhism and Ethics: Changing Contours of Ethical Reflection in Buddhist Sri
Lanka and Southeast Asia," Smith College, March, 2004.

"On the Miraculous Biography of the Buddha," University of Chicago, March, 2004

"Learning Paisaci: On the Notion of 'Context" in a Critical Philology," University of
Chicago, March 2004.

"On H.L. Seneviratne's The Work of Kings, Annual Meeting, American Institute for Sri
Lankan Studies, April, 2003.

"Democracy from the Heart: in honor of Sulak Sivaraksa," Harvard University, March,
2003

"The Problem of Justice for All: Buddhism, Civil Society, and the State in Contemporary Sri Lanka."
Second Tessa Bartholomeusz Memorial Lecture, Florida State University, April,
2003.

"Buddhisms beyond Buddhism: the image of Buddhism in some contemporary Urdu Literature," Stanford University, March, 2002.

"Scripture in Comparative Perspective," keynote address, Utrecht University, August,
2001.

"The Vow in Comparative Perspective," International Association for Shin Buddhist
Studies, Kyoto, August, 2001.

"The Silent Pull of Misery: Understandings of Suffering in Theravada Buddhism," University of Wisconsin--Milwaukee, November, 2000

"Historiography as an Ethical Genre in Theravada Buddhism," Rice University, October, 2000.

"Shinran's Vision of Ethics," Chikushi College, Fukuoka, Japan, June, 2000.

Roundtable Discussant, "National Space and South Asian History, Annual Meetings,
Association for Asian Studies, April, 1999.

"Sense of Civil Responsibility in Contemporary Buddhism," Washington and Lee
University, November, 1998.

Discussant, Panel Discussion on "Curators of the Buddha", Annual Meetings of the American Academy of Religion, November 1997

."Ethical Particularism in Theravada Buddhism," Annual Meetings of the American Academy of Religion, November 1995.

Roundtable Participant, "What do Buddhist Transmission Rituals Transmit, and How" Annual Meetings of the American Academy of Religion, November 1995.

"Buddhist Moral Psychology in the Indian World of Ritual," University of California at Santa Barbara, June, 1995.

"Thanksgiving in Sinhala Buddhism," presented at a Consultation on Thanksgiving in the World Religions, Kyoto, Japan, April 1995.

"The Role of Narrative in Theravada Buddhist Ethics," with Anne Hansen at the University of Chicago Buddhism Workshop, February, 1995.

"The Cultural Politics of Sinhala Poetry," presented at a conference on Literature and Empire, University of Chicago, October 1994.

"Lord Buddha and the Comparative Study of God," Harvard University, February 1994; Boston Society for Comparative Theology, April, 1994.

"Buddhist Universalism and Sinhala Self-Consciousness," Annual Meetings, Association for Asian Studies, March 1994.

"Rebirth and the Sense of Community in Thai Buddhism," Annual Meetings, American Academy of Religion, November, 1993.

"On the Origins of Buddhist Ethics," Driyakara Institute of Higher Philosophy, Jakarta, Indonesia, September, 1993.

"Books and Relics as Icons of Longevity," at the Annual Meetings, American Academy of Religion, November, 1992.

"Books, Relics, and the Sense of Tradition in Theravada Buddhism," at Southeast Asia Seminar, Harvard University, November, 1992.

"The Art of Buddhist Narrative," at the Buddhist Studies Forum, Harvard University, October, 1992.

"Respondent to panel on "The Art of Buddhist Narrative," New England Association for Asian Studies, September, 1992.

"Buddhist Studies in the United States," at University of Sri Jayawardanapura, Sri Lanka, August, 1992.

"Inner Debate in Vessantara," at Buddhism Workshop, University of Chicago, May, 1992.

"Practical Theories: What do they have to do with me?" in a conference on Comparative Philosophy at the University of Chicago, May, 1992.

Roundtable Participant, "South India and Sri Lanka in the Longue Duree, Annual Meeting, Association for Asian Studies, Washington, D.C., April, 1992.

"Writing on the Tongue: Some Comments on the Oral Transmission of the Buddhist Scriptures," Mid-west American Academy of Religion, Terre Haute, Indiana, March, 1992.

Respondent to panel on "Jains and Others" at the Wisconsin Conference on South Asia, Madison, Wisconsin, November, 1991.

Roundtable Participant, "Progress in Sri Lankan Studies," Annual Meetings, Association for Asian Studies, New Orleans, March, 1990.

"Varieties of Puja in Theravada Buddhism," paper presented at the Oriental Institute, University of Oxford, May, 1990.

"Councils in the Later Theravada," Annual Meetings, Association for Asian Studies, March, 1989.

"Siri Sanga Bo and the Ambiguities of Buddhist Kingship in Medieval Sri Lanka," University of Chicago Buddhism Workshop, January, 1989.

"Motherhood as Trope in Theravada Buddhism," Annual University of Wisconsin South Asia Conference, November, 1988.

"World Religions as a Source for Catholic Theology - A Case Study: Buddhist Interpretations of Worship," Annual Meeting, Catholic Theological Society of America, St. Louis, June, 1988.

"King Siri Sanga Bo: The Hagiography of Kingship in Medieval Sri Lanka," American Academy of Religion, Mid-west Regional Meeting, Columbus, Ohio, April, 1988.

"Words Make the Man: The Epithets of the Buddha in Theravada," Annual Meetings, American Academy of Religion, Boston, December, 1987.

"Form and Substance in Buddhist Abhiseka," Annual Meetings, American Academy of Religion, Boston, December, 1987.

Respondent to Panel, "History and Nationalism in Sri Lanka," at Chicago Anthropology Symposium, May, 1987.

"Story Literature in the Development of the Later Theravada," Midwest Conference on Asian Affairs, Bloomington, October, 1986.

"Devotion and the Ideology of Renunciation in South Asia," paper presented at the South Asia Seminar, University of Chicago, May, 1986.

"Religion for Ordinary People: The Sociology of Medieval Sinhala Buddhism," Midwest Conference on Asian Affairs, Miami, Ohio, October, 1985.

"Devotion in the Theravada Buddhist Tradition," lecture given as part of the Celebrations of the 25th Anniversary of Chapel House and the Fund for the Study of the Great Religions, Colgate University, September, 1984.

"Religious Studies and the Study of Sri Lanka: A Review of Problems, Prospects, and Priorities," Annual Meeting, Sri Lanka Studies Group, Association of Asian Studies, Chicago, March, 1982 (Typed transcript of comments distributed to the Sri Lanka Studies Group, February, 1987).

"The Sripada Pilgrimage," American Academy of Religion, Mid-Atlantic Regional Meeting, Princeton, N.J., May, 1980.