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Dr Wendi Adamek

BA (Int'l Relations), MA (East Asian Studies), PhD (Religion), Stanford University.
Lecturer in East Asian Buddhism
Room S336, John Woolley Building A20

Phone: 9351 3083

Wendi Ademek is lecturer in East Asian Buddhism at the University of Sydney and has been a Fulbright Fellow at Kyoto University (1990) and Peking University (2004), as well as a Stanford Humanities Center Fellow (2009). Her research and teaching areas are in East Asian Buddhism, Chinese Religions, and Cultural Studies.

Research Areas

  • Chan/Zen Buddhism
  • Daoism
  • Chinese Buddhist Art and Archaeology
  • Dunhuang Studies
  • Religion and the Environment
  • Cultural Studies

Selected publications

Books

  • The Teachings of Master Wuzhu: Zen and Religion of No-Religion. Columbia University Press, 2011.
  • The Mystique of Transmission: On an Early Chan History and its Contexts. Columbia University Press, 2007. (Winner of the American Academy of Religion Award for Excellence in Textual Studies, 2008)

Articles and Book Chapters

  • “A Niche of Their Own: The Power of Convention in Two Inscriptions for Medieval Chinese Buddhist Nuns.” History of Religions, 49.1 (2009): 1-26.
  • “The Literary Lives of Nuns: Poems Inscribed on a Memorial Niche for the Tang Nun Benxing.” T’ang Studies, 27 (2009): 40-65.
  • “Merit Cultivation Practices and Image-Making in the Northern Dynasties.” In Leopold Swergold and Eileen Hsu, eds., Treasures Rediscovered: Chinese Stone Sculpture from the Sackler Collections at Columbia University. Wallach Art Gallery, Columbia University, 2008.
  • “The Impossibility of the Given: Representations of Merit and Emptiness in Medieval Chinese Buddhism.” History of Religions, 45.2 (2005): 135-181.
  • “The Lidai fabao ji (Record of the Dharma-Jewel Through the Generations).” In Steven Heine and Dale S. Wright, eds., The Zen Canon. Oxford University Press, 2004: 81-106.
  • “Imagining the Portrait of a Chan Master.” In Bernard Faure, ed., Chan Buddhism in Ritual Context. Curzon Press, 2003: 36-73.
  • “Robes Purple and Gold: Transmission of the Robe in the Lidai fabao ji.” History of Religions, 40.1 (2000): 58-81.
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Areas of Teaching

  • Chan/Zen Buddhism
  • Chinese religions
  • East Asian Buddhism
  • Ecology and religion
  • Daoism
  • Women and Buddhism
  • “Gift” studies, networks, and religion
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Selected Presentations

  • "Meeting the Inhabitants of the Necropolis at Baoshan.” International Association of Buddhist Studies XVIth Congress, Jinshan, Taiwan, June 20-25, 2011.
  • “Echoes of the Northern Qi at Baoshan.” Symposium, “Art and Material Culture of the Northern Qi Period in China, 550-77,” Freer Gallery, Smithsonian Institute, Washington, D.C., June 3-5, 2011.
  • “Zen and the Environment: It’s Not What You Think.” Buddhist Studies Seminar, Columbia University, 12/2/10.
  • “Dimensions of Endtime.” Conference, “Cultural Crossings,” University of Virginia, March 11-13, 2010.
  • “Practicescape at Baoshan.” Center for Buddhist Studies, U.C. Berkeley, 1/21/10; Religious Studies Colloquium, Stanford University, 11/19/09.
  • “Where’s the Merit?” Conference, “Zen at 50,” San Francisco Zen Center, 8/28/09.
  • “Buddhism: Part of the Problem, Part of the Solution?” Interfaith panel discussion, “New Voices in Religious Environmentalism,” Columbia University, 4/26/09.
  • “Relations between Humans and Non-Humans in the Work of Hagiography.” Workshop, “Tibetan Auto/Biography,” Princeton University, April 17-19, 2009.
  • “The Merit of No-Merit: The Relationship of Histories and Pieties in the Reproduction of Chan Texts.” Conference, “Studies on the Tripitaka Koreana and Its Corresponding Dunhuang Manuscripts,” Seoul National University, April 20-21, 2009.
  • “Two Poems by the Nun Benxing.” Fifth Annual Chinese Medieval Studies Workshop, Columbia University, May 2008.
  • “Attending the Cremation of a Korean Buddhist Abbot.” Religion Unwound Talks, Columbia Religion Department, April 2008.
  • “The Literary Lives (and Deaths) of Buddhist Nuns at Baoshan.” Harvard University, East Asian Languages and Civilizations Department, February 2008.
  • “Visonary Experience and Skepticism in Medieval Chinese Buddhism.” Buddhist Studies Seminar, Columbia University, March 2007.
  • “Questions Regarding the Reliquary Niches for the Monks Huijing and Huixiu of Cirun Temple at Baoshan.” Fourth Annual Chinese Medieval Studies Workshop, Columbia University, December 2006.
  • “The Multiple Uses of Daoism in Eighth Century Buddhist Sectarianism.” Buddhist Studies Seminar, Columbia University, November 2003.
  • “Inscriptions for Nuns at Baoshan.” Conference, “Tang-Song Women in the Context of Historical Studies,” Peking University, June 2001; also presented at the conference “New Perspectives on the Tang,” Princeton University, April 2002, and the Buddhist Studies Forum at Harvard University, April 2002.
  • “Imagining a Chan Master.” Buddhist Studies Seminar, UC Berkeley, February 2002.
  • “The Impossibility of the Given: A Look at Chinese Buddhist Donor Inscriptions.” Panel, “Memory and the Written Record,” Association for Asian Studies Annual Meeting, Boston, March 1999. Also presented at the conference “Merit, Opulence, and the Buddhist Network of Wealth,” Peking University, June 2001.
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