Prof. Jessica L. Main

She wrote her PhD dissertation (McGill 2012) on the topic of descent-based discrimination, human rights, and Jōdo Shinshū Buddhism in Japan, looking especially at the problem of caste-based discrimination in Pure Land Buddhism against the burakumin. She is currently working on a manuscript on this topic entitled, No Hatred in the Pure Land: Burakumin Activism and the Shin Buddhist Response in Interwar Japan (forthcoming, Pure Land Buddhist Studies Series, University of Hawai’i Press). She is a member of the steering committee for the International Association of Shin Buddhist Studies (IASBS). Her broader research interests include modern Buddhist ethics, social action, and institutional life in East and Southeast Asia, particularly in the areas of sectarian social policy, chaplaincy, physical culture, and professional or role-based ethics.