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YCAR receives $500K donation to support student engagement in Hakka research

York Centre for Asian Research YCAR

The York Centre for Asian Research (YCAR) recently received a $500,000 donation from Canadian philanthropist, author and business woman Vivienne Poy to create an endowment to support student engagement in Hakka research and scholarship. This generous gift plants a seed for the growth of a Hakka Scholars Network to develop Hakka research and scholarship at York University and promote this scholarship in Canada and internationally.   

“This is the first Hakka Studies initiative outside of Asia and further stimulates the study of Asia and Asian Diaspora that is at once cross-regional and local in its engagement with Asian Canadian communities,” said Abidin Kusno, YCAR director.  

Vivienne Poy
Vivienne Poy

An accomplished entrepreneur, fashion designer, historian and author, Poy was the first Canadian of Asian descent to be appointed to the Senate of Canada (1998–2012). She had been supportive of YCAR’s initiatives with the establishment of the Vivienne Poy Asian Research Award, and donated the proceeds of her book Profit, Victory and Sharpness: The Lees of Hong Kong to YCAR, in support of graduate student research on Asia and the Asian Diaspora.  

The reason for choosing to support students engaging with Hakka Research and scholarship, according to Poy, is that Hakka is a subgroup of the Han Chinese with a distinct culture.  

“Their historic villages were circular fortresses built with very thick walls for defence. Hakka women are known for their unbound feet, strength and resilience,” said Poy. “The Hakkas have contributed globally over centuries, and many have risen to prominence at home and in their countries of adoption, a fact that is not widely known. As a Hakka descendant on my mother’s side, it is of great interest to me to support scholarly research on this group.”

Poy kicked off the initiative with the aspiration that it will soon develop into a multi–faceted program. As students represent the future, she decided to establish the Vivienne Poy Hakka Graduate Research Award as part of her donation. 

“The annual award will encourage York’s graduate students to conduct research on topic(s) related to Hakka cultures, histories and geographies anywhere in the world,” said Kusno. The inaugural award will be given out in the Fall 2020 term.  

Together with the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, YCAR will launch the Hakka Scholars Network with an event this fall. The network also has an ambitious plan for eight research and teaching initiatives that YCAR and its York-based and external partners, hope to develop incrementally over the next 10 years.  

“The Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies is delighted to support the establishment of Hakka Scholars Network Fund at YCAR,” said Lily Cho, associate dean, Global & Community Engagement for the Faculty. “We know how important it is to prepare our students for the global economy by offering them a chance to experience the world. This fund will be crucial to opening up our undergraduate student experience to complexities and richness of Hakka culture, identity, and history. The Hakka Scholars Network Fund illuminates a world of diasporic culture and connection that builds on York’s long-standing commitment to Hakka communities.”   

Over the next two years, a committee comprised of York and external members will develop a summer study abroad course, which aims to bring York undergraduate-level students to a part of the world where they will learn and experience aspects of Hakka cultures, histories and geographies. This course, which is planned to be first held in Summer 2022, will include field study to explore specific locales where students will develop community-based research projects and present them in a conference or an exhibit.  

The inaugural Hakka symposium will be held in 2022 to bring together researchers focusing on Hakka studies to share the latest knowledge and research and grow the academic field. In the longer term, the Hakka Scholars Network Committee will be seeking support to establish a Chair in Hakka Studies as well as a funded visiting scholar opportunity, a language and cultural training program, an undergraduate scholarship for students interested in Hakka studies as well as a virtual archive of Hakka diaspora. 

Although Hakka studies at York may be in a nascent phase, there is a long association between the University and Hakka scholars and community members. The first Toronto Hakka Conference was held at York University in 2000 and YCAR will co-host the sixth edition, which will take place on Keele campus in July 2021 (rescheduled from 2020 due to COVID-19).  

According to Keith Lowe, co-founder of the Toronto Hakka Conference and member of YCAR’s External Advisory Council, “The donation from Dr. Poy marks a new growth of the Toronto Hakka Conference, especially in its engagement with the University since the first conference in 2000.” 

LA&PS course directors: Nominate your students’ work for the Writing Prizes

Course directors in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies (LA&PS) are invited to nominate a student’s paper for the annual LA&PS Writing Prizes until the June 7 deadline.

The Writing Prizes are open to all kinds of writing (except creative writing) from undergraduate students enrolled in LA&PS courses, including case studies, administrative/executive reports, reviews of all kinds, non-fiction prose and formal essays. There are five categories: first through fourth year and also Undergraduate Thesis/Major Research Project.

Any course director in LA&PS may nominate a paper (one per course) in the appropriate category. Submissions should be in Word format and include both a clean copy of the paper and a copy of the submission’s associated assignment sheet. Please note: under normal circumstances, the competition will not accept multiple papers from the same class. Only the first paper submitted per course will be considered.

Nominate your student’s paper using the year level of your course (not of your student). For example, a fourth year student writing in WRIT 2004 would be nominated in the second-year category. Eligible papers will come from courses offered during the Summer 2019, Fall 2019, and Winter 2020 terms.

Fall/Winter 2019 entries will be accepted until June 7. For first- and second-year categories, two honourable mentions and one winner will be chosen in each category. For third- and fourth-year categories, three honourable mentions and one winner will be chosen in each category. Winners and honourable mentions will be contacted by the Faculty in Fall 2020.

This competition is adjudicated by full-time faculty from the Writing Department. Questions about the nomination form or about the process for adjudicating these awards should be directed to Jon Sufrin at jons@yorku.ca or calling ext. 77473.

New book from York authors traces origins and diaspora of Italian cuisine

Italian Foodways Worldwide: The Dispersal of Italian Cuisine(s)
Italian Foodways Worldwide: The Dispersal of Italian Cuisine(s)

Two associate professors of Italian studies in York University’s Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, Roberta Iannacito-Provenzano and Gabriele Scardellato, have co-edited a new book titled Italian Foodways Worldwide: The Dispersal of Italian Cuisine(s) (Soleil Publishing, 2020).

“The important observation that ‘we are what we eat’ has profound implications for cultural identity not only for countries of immigration, where diverse foodways come into contact, but also for those from where the exported foodways originate,” said Iannacito-Provenzano.

Roberta Iannacito-Provenzano
Roberta Iannacito-Provenzano

In this light, the volume brings together scholarly papers on a variety of topics related to the culture and representation of Italian cuisine, ranging from menus and feasts in Toronto from the Fascist period, Italian foodways in Britain during the Second World War, Italian cookbooks, the Catelli Pasta Company, menus from Italian restaurants in Tokyo, Italian food branding in North America, the Mediterranean diet, foodways and film, food, immigration and ethnic identity in Ontario and Argentina, the first Italian restaurant in Calgary and the history of the famous Vesuvio restaurant in Toronto.

Gabriele Scardellato
Gabriele Scardellato

“In their global dispersal, both before and after unification, Italians may have carried with them only a memory of a cuisine but, wherever they settled, enclaves or Little Italies were established and efforts to recreate the memory began,” explained Scardellato. “That re-creation, however, always happened in the presence of other cultures and other foodstuffs. At the same time, the culture(s) of origin were far from static with regard to so-called ‘traditional’ cuisine.”

Iannacito-Provenzano and Scardellato acknowledged the support of York University’s Mariano A. Elia Chair in Italian-Canadian Studies in making this project possible.

Those interested in more information and purchasing options can email Iannacito-Provenzano (roberta@yorku.ca) or Scardellato (gpscar@yorku.ca).

Lisa Farley’s examination of psychoanalysis and childhood development receives Outstanding Book Award

Books
Lisa Farley
Lisa Farley

York University Associate Professor Lisa Farley‘s book, Childhood Beyond Pathology: A Psychoanalytic Study of Development and Diagnosis, has been selected as the winner of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) 2020 Outstanding Book Award.

In the book, published in 2018, Farley describes how concepts from psychoanalysis can help shed light on questions in childhood development.

She examines debates in the fields of education, childhood studies and psychology that argue over how children should be treated and who they should become. In focusing on times when adults disagree, she critiques the notion of a singular expert who can settle questions about a child’s detour from normative scripts of development.

“Winning the AERA Outstanding Book Award is a wonderful surprise,” Farley said. “The awarding Division B (Curriculum Studies) is comprised of courageous scholars, many of whom I have admired since attending my very first AERA conference in 2002.”

Cover of Lisa Farley's new book
Childhood Beyond Pathology: A Psychoanalytic Study of Development and Diagnosis

“I continue to be inspired by colleagues in the curriculum community and I am grateful for this recognition,” she continued. “I am particularly proud that psychoanalysis – the theoretical framing of my book – has been noted as a generative discourse in the context of historical, political, philosophical and social inquiries into education, childhood and development.”

Although generally intended for a scholarly audience, Farley is confident her book is relevant to a wide array of people because it addresses issues that so many teachers face, including the problem of diagnosis, issues of ableism and disability, anti-Black racism in schooling and society, ongoing legacies of colonial history and transgender childhoods.

The Outstanding Book Award was established to acknowledge and honour each year’s best book-length publication in education research and development. To have been considered for the 2020 Outstanding Book Award, a book must be concerned with the improvement of the educational process through research or scholarly inquiry, must have a research base and must have a 2018 or 2019 copyright date.

Farley joined the Faculty of Education at York University in 2007. Her research considers the uses of psychoanalysis in conceptualizing dilemmas of historical representation, pedagogy and childhood.

Childhood Beyond Pathology: A Psychoanalytic Study of Development and Diagnosis is available for purchase from SUNY Press.

New book on breast cancer shifts narrative away from happy survivor

Serious Mature Women

Professor Emilia Nielsen, from the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, has published a book about breast cancer that tackles the issue in a very different way. Disrupting Breast Cancer Narratives: Stories of Rage and Repair (University of Toronto Press, 2019) explores what she calls the “politically insistent narratives of illness” and refutes the optimism of pink ribbon culture. Instead, she digs deep and investigates the anger around breast cancer; discusses the ways emotion, gender and sexuality become complicated, relational and questioning; and unpacks the culture of disease in a unique way.

Emilia Nielsen and her book. Image reproduced with permission of U of T Press
Emilia Nielsen and her book. Image reproduced with permission of U of T Press

Nielsen talks with Brainstorm about this new publication, which was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Q: Tell us about the genesis of your new book.

A: This is a revision of my doctoral research, which I defended in 2013. The idea started with my being disturbed about the way that all cancer stories seemed to be so similar. I was curious about the lack of discernible anger attached to breast cancer.

I didn’t want to critique the stories themselves – coming from real women with breast cancer. Instead, I wanted to better understand the conditions through which breast cancer stories emerge. I wondered why we see so many public sharings of happy, positive, hopeful breast cancer stories.

Q: Please expand on the similarities. How did you unearth them?

A: I discovered Judy Segal’s work, published roughly 10 years ago. She critiqued what she called the standard story: “I found a lump – I was scared – I stayed strong – I battled through the treatment – Now I’ve emerged and I’m better than before.”

My antennas went up and I thought: I bet it’s way more complicated than that. This necessitated that I go into illness narrative scholarship, to go beyond the commonly circulated personal stories to examine the cultural politics of breast cancer. Here, you start to see the influence of the corporatization of breast cancer, the marketing of pink ribbon products, the support groups that have a ‘good-vibe-only’ approach, etc.

The mainstream breast cancer narrative of triumph: “I found a lump – I was scared – I stayed strong – I battled through the treatment – Now I’ve emerged and I’m better than before.”
The mainstream breast cancer narrative of triumph: “I found a lump – I was scared – I stayed strong – I battled through the treatment – Now I’ve emerged and I’m better than before.”

Q: You moved toward a more disruptive narrative?

Audre Lorde’s book, The Cancer Journals (1980). Source: Wikipedia

A: Yes, I sought to look at all those disruptive voices, those stories that are a bit different. Audre Lorde’s book The Cancer Journals (1980) was influential to me here. It was a prophetic text because it urged women to claim all the emotions. I was interested in the angry, sad, despairing stories; the stories that include the examination of the possible environmental causes of cancer; the stories that ask questions.

Hope is a powerful emotion. But it’s made more powerful when combined with anger because anger contains within it the desire to change the structural forces that allow cancer to emerge or for treatments to be difficult. Being angry can allow things to happen.

After I apprehended this, I went about finding these stories from the 1980s to the present day. Allowing space and visibility for disruptive breast cancer narratives has grown, especially in the last five years. I’ve seen a shift, which has been wonderful to witness.

Q:  Why is it so important to refute the “tyranny of cheerfulness?”  

A: Cheerfulness, which is highly gender socialized [girls = nice], can come with a cost to claiming full emotional experience of the real gravitas of a breast cancer diagnosis. The tyranny of cheerfulness, coined by Samantha King, is really saying: hold your tongue; don’t say that; don’t ask a question. But we’re losing out what it truly means to be diagnosed and treated for cancer. We’re losing valuable information on the patient experience.

What I’ve gleaned from conversations with doctors is that yes, the crying, angry patient is harder to address than the non-crying, non-angry patient. But doctors also want to know the truth of their patient’s experience.

Q: The book’s third chapter contains ‘angry stories.’ Could you tell us a few that stuck out in your mind?

A: Barbara Ehrenreich’s 2001 essay “Welcome to Cancerland” breaks down the problem with the commodity culture that has emerged around breast cancer, but she doesn’t shield us from her own anger – not at doctors, nurses or cancer survivors, but at the culture we’ve allowed to grow that seems inseparable from the marketplace.

She lets us into her world as she navigates from the first moment when she sits in her doctor’s office, preparing for a mammogram, to biopsy then treatment. It’s a stronger story, a more effective and truthful story, because the anger, which mobilizes her, is so present. It’s not an obstacle to clear thinking; it’s a vehicle.

The tyranny of cheerfulness means we’re losing valuable information on the patient experience. Doctors want to know the truth about these experiences

Q: Your approach is interdisciplinary. Can you tell us about this?

A: I joined York in 2018 in the Health & Society program. I was hired with a specialty in arts, medicine and healing. My approach brings various disciplines together. My goal is to move beyond disciplinary knowledge. I prefer to take a problem and then assemble around that problem methodologies that are most appropriate.

Q: How have you found York University, given its strength in interdisciplinary work?

A: York has an appetite for this kind of work; it’s almost expected that if you’re at York, you’ll be doing something interdisciplinary. When I accepted this job, people said, “Yes, York University, of course that makes a lot of sense.”

At York, I can write a critical-creative paper and also have poetry as a research outcome. At other institutions, something like poetry would be considered as icing on the cake; but at York, research-creation is the cake itself.

To learn more about Nielsen, visit her Faculty profile page. To find the book, visit the publisher’s website.

To learn more about Research & Innovation at York, follow us at @YUResearch; watch our new video, which profiles current research strengths and areas of opportunity, such as Artificial Intelligence and Indigenous futurities; and see the snapshot infographic, a glimpse of the year’s successes.

By Megan Mueller, senior manager, Research Communications, Office of the Vice-President Research & Innovation, York University, muellerm@yorku.ca

York researchers speak on flood and wildfire management, evacuation during a pandemic

car flooding
car flooding

As Canada heads into flood and wildfire season, how does the current situation with COVID-19 stretch resources to effectively plan for and manage these potential disasters, as well as react and organize evacuations if necessary?

Three professors from the Disaster & Emergency Management (DEM) Program in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies are available to discuss how dealing with a pandemic could affect efforts to manage a disaster or emergency and what can be done.

Nirupama Agrawal

Associate Professor Nirupama Agrawal says early warning systems and the use of prediction modelling could help with advanced planning and management. She emphasizes the necessity for coordination of efforts of various stakeholders from local, provincial and federal levels if necessary, including the healthcare system, disaster management organizations, community organizations and subject matter experts.

In Alberta, the Athabasca River in Fort McMurray is currently ice-jammed, and due to the concern of flooding, gas is being shut off to Grayling Terrace. The heat or hot water will not be available for residents if they do not evacuate. With the evacuation order in place, physical distancing and the risk of contracting the coronavirus will be challenging for the emergency management professionals to navigate. Similar concerns are around northern communities in Ontario that are evacuated annually due to floods.

Complexities due to COVID-19 include potential flooding in places like the Toronto Islands as Lake Ontario levels rise. “Frequent and prolonged floods cause water-borne diseases that can have devasting compounding effects with COVID-19, which is known for diarrhea and nausea,” says Agrawal.

Eric Kennedy
Eric Kennedy

Assistant Professor Eric Kennedy talks about how wildfire management strategies need to be adapted as a result of COVID-19 and how agencies are preparing for these overlapping disasters given the active wildfire season forecasted. Firefighting often involves a lot of people working together in close quarters, which is a difficult model given constraints under the pandemic.

“Wildfire management agencies are preparing for a unique wildfire season,” says Kennedy. “Many of the normal strategies – from operational headquarters to tents in the field – need to be considered in light of the pandemic.”

Assistant Professor Aaida Mamuji says the current public health measures will make management of evacuations, especially those of a large scale, particularly challenging. Whether it’s transportation that respects physical distancing or the effective management of evacuation centres and group lodging facilities in a way that limits the potential spread of disease, adherence to current guidelines will be difficult.

Aaida Mamuji

At the same time, options such as staying with friends or family may not be possible due to restrictions.

Mamuji says emergency managers and social services need to plan ahead for those communities most at risk of flooding or wildfires. They should be creative in terms of lodging, realize that personal protective equipment for evacuees will be needed, and ensure that additional supports are available.

“It’s important to have mental health supports available as the stress of compounded disasters is unimaginable,” says Mamuji.

York Professor Lily Cho to host Massey College Book Club Gala

Books

York University English Department Professor Lily Cho has been named the incoming Chair of the Massey Book Club Committee, a book club organized by University of Toronto’s Massey College.

Lily Cho
Lily Cho

Cho will host and moderate this year’s Book Club Gala, which has been moved to an online format and takes place on May 1 at 7 p.m.

This year’s gala is “An Evening with Massey College Senior Fellow Margaret Atwood in Conversation with University of Toronto Writer-in-Residence Susan Swan.” Swan, York University professor emerita and former York Robart Scholar for Canadian Studies, will discuss with Atwood her book The Testaments by livestream.

This event is free and open to all, but registration is required at https://paperless.ly/34Jv3al.

In addition to being an associate professor, Cho is also the associate dean, Global and Community Engagement, and interim associate dean, Graduate Studies and Research.

Student-run publishing house at York announces two new books

FEATURED image Book Launch

York University students are behind the publication of two new books published books though the fourth-year writing course Book Publishing Practicum, which is offered as part of the Professional Writing Program.

The course gives students an opportunity to learn about publishing through the operation of Leaping Lion Books, a student-run publishing company, which is supervised by Professor Mike O’Connor.

In March, Leaping Lion Books announced the release of two mystery novels: Poetic Justice by Arthur Haberman and The Human Variable by Chris Racknor.

The course, WRIT 4004, puts students in charge of all aspects of publishing – from editing and printing to promotion and communications.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the book launch events scheduled to take place at the University’s Bookstore for these publications were cancelled; however, details on these books and their authors are available on the company’s Facebook page.

About the books

Poetic Justice by [Arthur Haberman]Poetic Justice by Arthur Haberman

In the third installment of Arthur Haberman‘s Toronto Justice Series, homicide detective Danny Miller returns with a new mission: bring justice to those who can’t achieve it themselves. This mission may hit closer to home than he realizes.

Set in Toronto, Miller and his team are faced with murder, fraud, and the tangled world of corporate crime. Delve into the multi-faceted world of law and justice through the eyes of Toronto’s leading detective and a unique cast of characters that represent the city in all its beauty, inclusion, and, of course, criminal activity.

Previous books in this series, also published by Leaping Lion Books, include: Social Justice and Wild Justice.

Haberman is professor emeritus of history in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies.

52269130. sy475 The Human Variable by Chris Racknor

Disgraced physicist Shawn Ronin is compelled to solve problems. But it turns out that human problems are far more complicated than anything found in a lab.

Shawn can’t move on after his ivory tower life came crashing down around him. When presented with the opportunity to help another professor avoid the same fate, he can’t refuse. However, not everything is as it seems. Finding himself smack in the middle of a university scandal, he uncovers more than just misconduct as he embraces the ego-driven drama of researchers in a world he once knew so well. None of his once Nobel worthy papers can help him now. He’ll soon find out if he has what it takes to be a private investigator.

Shawn Ronin serves up cynicism with a side of empathy. The Human Variable brings to life the complicated web of academic problems and self-serving lies, all being unraveled by a man so used to solving the world’s problems that he doesn’t know how to ask for help with his own.

Racknor has a PhD in physics and lives in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. In addition to being an author, Racknor has been an astronomy teacher, physicist, competitive strongman, varsity rugby player, and stay-at-home dad.

Doctoral student studies political ecology of disaster response in Philippines

YCAR student documentary
A still image from the documentary series Barangay Magiting (Village Heroes)

Which is the greater disaster? Is it threat of typhoons, volcanoes or floods? Or is it the human tragedies for those living in regions of the world prone to repeated natural disasters?

Chaya Ocampo Go

York Centre for Asian Research (YCAR) graduate associate (Department of Geography) Chaya Ocampo Go’s doctoral research project focuses on the political ecology of disaster response in the Philippines. She argues that “while the Philippines ranks most vulnerable to the spectacular crises of disasters and climate change, slow, chronic and silent forms of violence experienced by marginalized communities do not define disasters in the country today.”

Her work looks at the politics of community-based disaster management in three communities, or barangays, in the Southeast Asian nation. She created a short documentary series – Barangay Magiting (Village Heroes) – that focuses on the three case studies that she is using in her for her dissertation. The sites range from the Philippine capital of Manila, to the farming municipality of Santa Cruz in Zambales (both on the northern island of Luzon), to the fishing community of Medellin on the island of Cebu. These videos focus on how disaster management is practiced by civil society organizations and grassroots women leaders.

A still image from the documentary series Barangay Magiting (Village Heroes)

Originally premiering on her website, www.chayago.com, Ocampo Go describes her work:

“From the lived experiences of an urban poor community, a farming village and an island of fisherfolk, each video asks: What is a disaster? And how do women grassroots leaders serve as front line responders in their own communities? The videos served as a creative experiment for my research team and I to shift our representation of disasters and disaster response away from media’s fast-paced and short-lived coverage, to the slower rhythms of daily emergencies and people’s quiet efforts to transform them. We intend for the videos to serve as a means of engaging a wider non-academic public on the topic and to advocate for radical possibilities for de-naturalizing and re-politicizing disaster response.”

Ocampo Go and members of her research team – Grace Pimentel Simbulan and Relyn Angkuan Tan – created the videos during the former’s fieldwork period (September 2018 to March 2019). To see the videos, visit:

Ocampo Go’s research is supported by the Vivenne Poy Asian Research Award at YCAR and a Doctoral Research Award from the International Development Research Centre.

New biography reconsiders how Buddhism became a modern, global religion

The Irish Buddhist
The Irish Buddhist

A new book authored by York University Associate Professor Alicia Turner, along with Laurence Cox of Maynooth University and Brian Bocking of University College Cork, follows an audacious character of history while offering a window into the worlds of ethnic minorities and diasporas, transnational networks and social movements.

The Irish Buddhist (Oxford University Press, 2020) tells the story of U Dhammaloka, an extraordinary Irish emigrant and sailor who became one of the first Western Buddhist monks and an anti-colonial activist in early 20th century Asia.

Born in Dublin in the 1850s, Dhammaloka energetically challenged the values and power of the British Empire and scandalized the colonial establishment of the 1900s. He rallied Buddhists across Asia, set up schools, published on a grand scale and argued down Christian missionaries – often using Western atheist arguments.

He was tried for sedition, tracked by police and intelligence services, and died at least twice.

His story illuminates the forgotten margins and interstices of imperial power while touching on themes ranging from the complexities of class, ethnicity and religious belonging in colonial Asia to the fluidity of identity in the high Victorian period.

Alicia Turner
Alicia Turner

According to Turner, the story of the pan-Asian Buddhist revival movement and Buddhism’s remaking as a world religion has too often been told “from above,” highlighting scholarly writers, middle-class reformers and ecclesiastical hierarchies. She says that through turns fraught, hilarious, pioneering and improbable, Dhammaloka’s adventures “from below” highlight the changing and contested meanings of Buddhism in colonial Asia.

Kate Crosby, a professor of Buddhist Studies at King’s College in London, called the book extraordinary, and not simply a gripping story. “It is an education into the lives, ingenuity and resilience of the usually undocumented, ordinary people living precarious lives on the margins of society across the globe at the height of Empire,” she said.

The Irish Buddhist was released on March 31. While the book’s publishing house is currently closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic making physical copies unavailable, electronic versions are available and on sale.

Turner is associate professor of humanities and religious studies. She is interested in the intersections of religion, colonialism, secularism and nationalism in southeast Asia, with a particular focus on Buddhism in Burma (Myanmar) over the past 150 years.