HARDIE, Catherine (Dr.)

Profile

• Assistant Professor, Department of Translation, Interpreting and Intercultural Studies, Hong Kong Baptist University

Education

• DPhil in Anthropology, University of Oxford (2019)
  Thesis: Tibetan Buddhist Spiritual Capital in Contemporary China
• MPhil in Social Anthropology, University of Oxford (2012)
• M.A. in Asian Studies (Chinese Studies), University of Hawai’i at Mānoa (2010)
  Graduate Certificate International Cultural Studies
• Bachelor of Arts/Law (BA/LLB hons), University of Melbourne (2004)
  Diploma of Modern Languages (DML)

Honours, Awards and Grants

• GRF grant (2020-2022) for project: “Digitally mediating Tibetan Buddhism for Han Chinese audiences: a study of the missionary milieu of Sinophone Tibetan Buddhism on WeChat.”
• Chiang Chingkuo Foundation Dissertation Scholarship (2015-2016)
• Clarendon Scholarship, University of Oxford (2010–2014)
• East West Center Graduate Degree Fellowship (2008-2010)

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My undergraduate course teaching has been chiefly in the area of intercultural studies, with a focus on religion and cultural translation, as well as Tibetan culture and language. At the research postgraduate level, I teach a research methodology module on ethnography. I also supervise projects at BA and PhD levels.

The courses and/or modules that I teach at HKBU include the following:

BA
– Religion and Translation Across Time and Space
–  Introduction to Tibetan Culture and Language

MPhil/PhD

– Essential Readings
– Research Postgraduate Seminars
– RPG Research Methodology Seminar in the Arts and Humanities: ethnography

1. HARDIE, C. (under contract, 2022), “The Transmission of Tibetan Buddhism in Han China” Oxford Encylopedia of Buddhism, Oxford University Press. Oxford, Oxfordshire.
2. HARDIE, C. (forthcoming, 2022), “Innovations in Lay Buddhist Education in New Era China’s Sinophone Tibetan Buddhist milieu: the rise of the Larung textual community” in David Wank and Zhe Ji (eds.), The Metamorphosis of Buddhism in New Era China.
3. HARDIE, C. (2021) “Liberating Lives” in Holly Gayley (ed.), Voices from Larung Gar: Shaping Tibetan Buddhism for the Twenty-first Century, Shambhala Publications. Boulder, Colorado.
4. HARDIE, C. (2019) “Khenpo Tsultrim Lodrö’s appeal to contemporary Tibetan religious practitioners to abandon meat and practice non-killing” in Geoffrey Barstow(ed.), The Faults of Meat: Tibetan Buddhist Writings on Vegetarianism, Wisdom Publications. Somerville, Massachusetts.

Research Interests

My research to date has focused on contemporary Sino-Tibetan Buddhist religiosity, particularly in mainland China. My doctoral dissertation, Tibetan Buddhist Spiritual Capital in Contemporary China (2019) was based on long-term ethnographic fieldwork and explored Chinese lay involvement in Tibetan Buddhism and the forms of Sino-Tibetan religious identity, practice, discourse and community that have evolved in recent decades. I am currently working on a book manuscript that is grounded in my doctoral research and focused on an influential Tibetan Buddhist community in Eastern Tibet and its multi-faceted missionary impact in Han China.

Since 2020, I have also started investigating the Sinophone ‘missionary milieu’ of Tibetan Buddhism on mainland China’s digital media platforms, the subject of my GRF funded project. I am not only interested in issues such as how Tibetan Buddhism is being constructed as an object of knowledge and religious consumption for Han Chinese audiences in these digital spaces, but also how individual religious stakeholders, through their generation and curation of online content, creatively and reflexively engage in Tibetan Buddhism’s grassroots ‘sinicisation’. I am also keen to explore this how this important arena of missionary activity can contribute to the theorisation of Tibetan Buddhism’s indigenisation in contemporary Han Chinese society.

Research Specialization

• Contemporary Sino-Tibetan religious interactions
• Anthropology of Buddhism
• Religious globalisation and cultural translation

Extensive experience since 2015 in Chinese-English and Tibetan-English consecutive interpreting, particularly in Buddhist teaching contexts.

1. HARDIE, C. (2021) “Liberating Lives” in Holly Gayley (ed.), Voices from Larung Gar: Shaping Tibetan Buddhism for the Twenty-first Century, Shambhala Publications. Boulder, Colorado.

2. HARDIE, C. (2019) “Khenpo Tsultrim Lodrö’s appeal to contemporary Tibetan religious practitioners to abandon meat and practice non-killing” in Geoffrey Barstow (ed.), The Faults of Meat: Tibetan Buddhist Writings on Vegetarianism, Wisdom Publications. Somerville, Massachusetts.