Institution Type:   University of Toronto – Scarborough, Humanities
Location:   Ontario, Canada
Position:   Visiting Scholar, Visiting Professor

The Department of Humanities in the University of Toronto Scarborough (UTSC) invites applications for the position of Tung Lin Kok Yuen Visiting Professor in Buddhist Studies. This initial call for applications is for visiting professors to be in residence during one or two academic terms in 2011-12 and 2012-13.  Applicants are expected to specialize in any aspect of Buddhist Studies (including but not limited to anthropology, history, literature, philosophy, creative and performing arts), with demonstrable mastery of one or more relevant modern languages of Asia for their research and/or at least one of the classical languages of Buddhism. Applicants should be at least 5 years past completion of the PhD (or comparable seniority in the arts), with a strong publication record and/or comparable career accomplishments. Applications will be assessed primarily in terms of the applicants profile and fit with our academic programs. Compensation will be competitive, depending on the candidate’s qualifications and experience.

The University of Torontos unique tri-campus structure (with campuses downtown and in Scarborough and Mississauga, all located in the Greater Toronto Area) gives faculty and students associated with any of the campuses equal scholarly privileges across the whole university. Accordingly, visiting scholars appointed as TLKY Visiting Professors will be expected to collaborate with faculty and students on the UTSC campus, especially in the interdisciplinary program in Global Asia Studies, and on the other campuses including, for example, in the Centre for Religious Studies and the Asian Institute on the St George campus, and in the Department of Historical Studies on the Mississauga campus. Given the long history of Buddhist Studies at the University of Toronto, the libraries are not just one of the largest and best-equipped systems in North America but also have a strong collection of materials for Buddhist Studies.

The Greater Toronto Area is home to one of the most densely populated and complex Buddhist communities in the world, with around a hundred temples, monasteries, and centres teaching in dozens of languages. This thriving diversity of practice, culture and teachings offers a unique opportunity for the university’s Buddhist Studies and Global Asia programs to foster wider university-community linkages.

The university envisages that the distinguished visitors would engage in the life of the department and would have the following specific academic responsibilities:

*To reside in Toronto for a minimum stay of between 13-15 weeks (one term). Salary and allowances would be commensurate with similar international fellowships and the candidates scholarly profile.

*To teach one upper-level undergraduate course at UTSC per term, usually a seminar course which runs for 12 weeks, with 2 hours of class meeting per week, or in exceptional circumstances, a condensed course over 8-10 weeks, with 3 hours of class meeting per week.

*To guide a specialized workshop over 1-2 days. The theme, format, and projected enrolments would be at the discretion of the visitor, in consultation with other faculty. It is desirable that this workshop be held at UTSC under the platform of the Global Asia Studies program. It would be open to senior undergraduate and graduate students from all three UofT campuses.

*To deliver one public lecture at UTSC on an academic topic pertaining to Buddhist Studies broadly defined, with a wider target audience, as part of the TLKY Perspectives on Buddhist Thought and Culture series.

For further information please see:

http://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/~humdiv/index.html and

http://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/~humdiv/prg_bs.html (under construction).

Applications, consisting of a statement of interest with some indication of how you might contribute to our programs (at most two pages) and a curriculum vitae,should be sent to Buddhist_studies_search@utsc.utoronto.ca .

If electronic submission is not possible, applications may be mailed to

Professor Bowen, Chair
Department of Humanities
University of Toronto Scarborough
1265 Military Trail
Toronto, ON M1C 1A4, Canada.

The committee will begin reading applications starting March 15th 2011.