Hsiao-Lan Hu

Hsiao-Lan Hu is associate professor of Religious Studies and Women’s & Gender Studies at the University of Detroit Mercy, an urban university in the Jesuits and Mercy traditions, and the Vice President of Lansing Buddhist Association, a non-sectarian practice community that has members of many different ethnicities, social classes, and dual belongings. She teaches broadly in the fields of Asian religions, women and gender issues in world religions, and comparative religious ethics and contemporary social issues such as globalization. Her monograph This-Worldly Nibbāna: A Buddhist-Feminist Social Ethic for Peacemaking in the Global Community (State University of New York Press, 2011) is an interdisciplinary study that combines the philosophy and sociology of early Buddhism, engaged Buddhism, poststructuralist feminist theory, liberation theology, socio-economic studies on globalization, and peace studies. Her other recent publications related to religious diversity include “Pluralistic Pedagogy for Pluralism” in Teaching Interreligious Encounters: Comparative Theology and Theologies of Religious Pluralism, “Deconstructing Fixed Identity Categories and Cultivating Appreciation for Diversity: Teaching Buddhism and Feminism” in Teaching Buddhism, “Three Teachings in One” in The World Book of Faith: Spiritual Thinkers from Around the World, and “Avalokiteśvara’s Embrace of Diversity: Respect and Empathy” in Compassion and Social Justice: The Fourteenth Sakyadhita International Conference on Buddhist Women.