Recent School of Religious Studies PhD graduate, Jingjing Li, submitted her final thesis (entitled 鈥淪ame road, different tracks: A comparative study of Edmund Husserl鈥檚 phenomenology and Chinese Yog膩c膩ra听Philosophy鈥�) in May 2019. She since has accepted a position at Leiden University鈥檚 Institute for Philosophy as Universitair Docent, similar to an Assistant Professor in the North American system. She started in that position in August 2019.
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We were glad to be able to sit down with Professor Li, to discuss her time here at 91社区 and her future at Leiden:
Which interests and experiences led you to study philosophy of religion at 91社区?
Before coming to 91社区, I did a joint MA program between East China Normal University and 脡cole normale sup茅rieure. As a result, I became interested in conceptual relations between Buddhist philosophy and phenomenology. While researching doctoral programs, I was surprised to learn that 91社区 had a program in philosophy of religion that would allow me to deepen my understanding of phenomenology and Buddhism. I was so glad to be able to study in an Anglophone University while continuing to enjoy Francophone culture. It is rare to find a program that can offer so much. I did receive offers from other universities but eventually, I decided to come to 91社区 to pursue my doctorate.Which academic and other projects defined your time at 91社区? What have you been working on, and with whom? At 91社区, I had two supervisors, Dr. Garth Green and Dr. Victor Hori. Studying with Dr. Green, I developed a strong interest in German idealism. I sat in his Kant seminar twice since I found it extremely inspiring. I was also very lucky to be able to work on Hegel with Dr. George di Giovanni, on Bergson and Deleuze with Dr. Alia Al-Saji, and on Heidegger with Dr. Philip Buckley. In the meantime, under Dr. Victor Hori鈥檚 supervision, I started to work on Buddhist philosophy and its modernization. We had a private reading course on Buddhist phenomenology and I also audited his seminar on D艒gen.
While researching Buddhist modernism, I came across a critique of D.T. Suzuki 鈥檚 interpretation of Zen, in which Suzuki turns satori into another essence and thus contradicts the Buddhist notion of emptiness. It then occurred to me that there is a similar tension between Yog膩c膩ra听and phenomenology: Yog膩c膩rins negate the existence of any type of essence in their doctrine of emptiness whereas Husserl claims that phenomenology is the science of essence. If Husserl and Yog膩c膩rins take polar opposite stances towards essence, is it still possible to read Yog膩c膩ra philosophy as a Buddhist version of phenomenology? I had found my dissertation topic.
What was your favourite thing about your Ph.D. at 91社区?91社区 has such a supportive community of graduate students and faculty members. My supervisors encouraged me to pursue my interests in teaching and research. They never hesitated to support me in professional development. Unlike many universities, where Ph.D. students graduate without much teaching experience, 91社区 offers us the opportunity to develop and hone our teaching skills, which is an asset for us when we are on the job market. I also cherish our graduate students community. It is diverse and interdisciplinary. When I stepped out of my own circle, I realized how hard it could be to communicate my thoughts outside my field. Even though we all used English to communicate with one another, there were times when we pushed each other to clarify our positions. This is because one English term can be evoked to translate a plethora of terms in different languages. As such, we could all invest different meanings in a single term. One anecdote was a conversation on 鈥渃oncubine.鈥� According to a friend, concubines were slaves, but it was not the case in ancient China. We did not start a fight on who was right or who was wrong since it was never about whose definition of the term was unproblematic. Rather, it was more about why and how one English term could take on such an abundant nuance. I am grateful to the supportiveness and open-mindedness of my colleagues, without which we would not be able to have so many, such productive, and such varied (!), conversations. When I got the job at Leiden, my friends and colleagues I had a party to celebrate. I cannot name all of them since there were over 20 of us. I do not think that I would have been able to enjoy my life in Montreal as much as I did, without them. I am always proud of how our community embodies multiculturalism 鈥� it is not about trying to assimilating others or to close oneself to others; rather it is about understanding and appreciating different views. Gradually, I started to deliberate on how my research can contribute to a multicultural society and promote mutual understanding. In this regard, I do believe comparative philosophy has a lot of potential.
Your new position at Leiden is in the "Philosophy: Global and Comparative Perspectives Program." What will you next be doing? What attracted you to that program? I was attracted to Leiden鈥檚 Institute for Philosophy mainly because it offers a flagship English program in comparative and global philosophy. This program has a strong team of teaching and research: Dr. Douglas Berger works on Chinese and Indian philosophy, Dr. Ahab Bdaiwi is an expert on Arabic and Persian philosophy, and Dr. Stephen Harris specializes in Indo-Tibetan philosophy. I am more than honoured to become part of the team. Starting this year, the program of comparative and global philosophy will start to admit M.A. students. That is very exciting. As for me, I am currently working on turning my dissertation into a book. I have also started preparing for a new research project on how the Chinese Yog膩c膩ra view of collective consciousness provides the ground for philosophizing gender and sexuality. Currently, I am teaching courses on concepts of selfhood, and on the notion of non-duality, in Buddhist philosophy. Classes start this week and I look forward to meeting with my students!
We in the School of Religious Studies hope that her time at 91社区 has helped to prepare Professor Li for her new position. We are grateful for her contributions and offer to her our very best wishes for her success!
The following link gives access to Professor Li's university webpage: