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Photograph of Jin Y Park

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Jin Y Park Professor and Department Chair, Philosophy & Religion Philosophy and Religion

Contact
Jin Y Park
(202) 885-2919 (Office)
CAS | Philosophy/Religion
Battelle-Tompkins 118
Office Hours (Spring 2023)
Tuesday 2:00-4:00 pm
Degrees
PhD, State University of New York at Stony Brook; MA, New York University; MA, Yonsei University; BA, Yonsei University (Seoul, Korea)

Bio
Jin Y. Park is a Professor and Department Chair of Philosophy and Religion at American University. She also served as the Founding Director of the Asian Studies Program from 2013 to 2020. Park specializes in East Asian Buddhism, Buddhist and comparative ethics, intercultural philosophy, and modern East Asian philosophy. Her research focuses on gender, violence, the politics of discrimination, and narrative philosophy. Marginality has been a consistent theme in her work, addressing the marginalization of the non-West and non-Western philosophy, women’s philosophy, and alternative forms of philosophizing. Her scholarship seeks to reveal power structures in philosophy and aims to amplify the voices of those at the margins.

Park currently serves as President of the American Academy of Religion and President of the North American Korean Philosophy Association. She previously served as President of the Society for Asian and Comparative Philosophy from 2018 to 2019.

Park’s research in Buddhism focuses on the Zen and Huayan schools of East Asian Buddhism, with particular attention to issues of language, violence, and ethics. In her comparative studies, she engages Zen and Huayan Buddhism alongside postmodern thought in Continental philosophy, with a special focus on Jacques Derrida’s deconstruction.

Park’s research on modern East Asian philosophy explores the emergence of philosophy in East Asia and the East-West encounter during this period.

In her monograph Buddhism and Postmodernity: Zen, Huayan, and the Possibility of Buddhist-Postmodern Ethics (2008), Park discusses Buddhism and continental philosophy on the topics of, among others, self, language, and violence. In this book, Park offers the "ethics of tension" as a potential ethical paradigm drawn from Buddhism and postmodern philosophy.

Reflections of a Zen Buddhist Nun (2014), is a translation of a book published in Korean in 1960 by Kim Iryŏp (1896-1971), a writer, first-generation Korean feminist, Buddhist nun, and philosopher. In this book, Kim Iryŏp offers a creative interpretation of Buddhist philosophy and practice.

In Women and Buddhist Philosophy: Engaging Zen Master Kim Iryop (2017), Park proposes a new mode of philosophizing based on the discussion of Kim Iryŏp’s life and philosophy.

Park is also the editor of volumes: Buddhisms and Deconstructions (2006), Merleau-Ponty and Buddhism (co-edited, 2009), Comparative Political Theory and Cross-Cultural Philosophy (2009), and Makers of Modern Korean Buddhism (2010).
See Also
Department of Philosophy and Religion
For the Media
To request an interview for a news story, call AU Communications at 202-885-5950 or submit a request.

Teaching

Spring 2024

  • PHIL-380 Colloquium in Philosophy: Nonviolence: Phil and Practice

Scholarly, Creative & Professional Activities

Selected Publications

Books

For a comprehensive list of Book Chapters and Journal Articles, see my Academia.edu.

Selected Recent publications (Book chapters and Journal articles)

2024-2019

 

  1. “Gateless Barrier and the Locus of Truth.” In Readings of the Gateless Barrier, edited by Jimmy Yu. New York: Columbia University Press. (in print).
  2. “Moral Minimalism and Engaged Global Citizenship: A Buddhist Perspective.” In Formulating a Minimalist Morality for a New Planetary Order: Alternative Cultural Perspectives, edited by Roger T. Ames, J. Y. Lim and S. Y. H Yang. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. (in print).
  3. “Miguk Pulguo” (American Buddhism). Pulgyo Munhwa 278 (Oct 2023): 11-16.
  4. “Meditation and the Attainment of the Mind.” (trans.) In A Sourcebook in Global Philosophy, edited by Mohammed Rustom, Equinox Publishing. (in print)
  5. “Nothingness and Self Transformation: Kim Iryŏp, Tanabe Hajime, and Jacques Derrida on Religious Practice.” In Philosophy of Religion after <Religion>, edited by Michael Ch. Rodgers and Richard Amersbury. Tübingen, Germany: Mohr Siebeck, 2023, 107-12
  6. “Silchonjŏk, haech’ŏjŏk, kŭrigo, chonjaejŏk: Kim Hyŏnghyo ch’ŏrhak esŏ haech’e ŭi ŭimi” [Existential, deconstructive, and existing: meaning of deconstruction in Kim Hyŏnghyo’s philosophy]. In Simwŏn Kim Hyŏnghyo ŭi ch’ŏrhak chŏk sayu wa salm [Simwŏn Kim Hyŏnghyo’s philosophy and life], edited by Simwŏn sasan yŏn’guhoe. Seoul, Pogosa, 2023, 87-109.         
  7. “Action and Praxis.” In Key Concepts in World Philosophies: A Toolkit for Philosophers, edited by Sarah Flavel and Chiara Robbiano. London: Bloomsbury Academics, 2023, 13-19.
  8. “Nonviolence and Ethical Imagination.” World Environment and Island Studies 12, No. 4 (December 2022): 237-240.
  9. “What Do Zen Masters Teach Us Today?: The Case of Sŏn Master Hyeam Sŏnggwan.” In New Perspectives in Modern Korean Buddhism: Institution, Gender, and Secular Society, edited by Hwansoo Ilmee Kim and Jin Y. Park. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2022, 21-46.
  10. “Gender and Dharma Lineage: Nuns in Korean Sŏn Buddhism.” In Approaches to Chan, Sŏn, and Zen Studies, edited by Albert Welter, Steven Heine, & Jin Y. Park. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2022, 239-262.
  11. “Synchronic and Diachronic Approaches to Korean Buddhism via Hangzhou: Ŭich’ŏn’s Hwaŏm Buddhism and Hangzhou Gaoli si.” International Journal of Buddhist Thought and Culture 32, no 1 (June 2022): 51-82.
  12. “Authentic Time and the Political: Steven Heine on Dōgen, Heidegger, and Bob Dylan." In The Theory and Practice of Zen Buddhism: A Festschrift in Honor of Steven Heine, edited by Charles S. Prebish, On-Cho Ng. Bloomsbury, 2022: 313-33
  13. "An Examined Life: Women, Buddhism, and Philosophy in Kim Iryŏp.” Journal of World Philosophies 5 (Winter 2020): 176-18
  14. “Hyeam Sŏnsa ŭi Sŏn sasang kwa Han’guk Pulgyo ŭi segyehwa” (Sŏn Master Hyeam’s Buddhist thoughts and the globalization of Korean Buddhism). Hyeam Sŏnsa ŭi Sŏn Sasang kwa Segyehwa (Sŏn Master Hyeam’s Buddhist thoughts and globalization). Hyeam Sŏnsa muhwa chinhŭnghoe, ed. Seoul: Sihwaŭm, 2020, 97-136.    
  15. “Doing Philosophy at the Margin.” American Philosophical Association’s Newsletter on Asian and Asian American Philosophers and Philosophies 20, no 1 (Fall 2020): 55-57.

Professional Services

PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES

Grants and Sponsored Research

  • The Uberoi Foundation Religious Studies Grant
  • Academy of Korean Studies, Laboratory for the Globalization of Korean Studies, Co-Researcher, on the project "Traces of Reason: The Korean Approach to Logic and Rationality and Its RElation to Buddhist Traditions from India and China"
  • Mellon Fellowship
  • American Academy of Religion Individual Research Grant
  • Korea Foundation Advanced Research Grant
  • Academy of Korean Studies, Translation of Korean Buddhism Grant
  • Korea University, International Center for Korean Studies, Korean Studies Publication Series Grant