Keynote speakers

Conference keynote speakers

Keynote: Michiko YUSA, Professor Emerita at Western Washington University, retired after four decades of teaching in September 2020, in the middle of Covid-19 lockdown.

She received her Ph.D. in 1983 (dissertation on Nishida & Jacques Maritain) from the Department of Religious Studies at the University of California Santa Barbara, where she worked closely with Professors Raimon (or Raimundo) Panikkar and Ninian Smart. 

Her publications (books) include: Zen and Philosophy: An Intellectual Biography of Nishida Kitarō (2002); Japanese Religious Traditions (2002), Denki Nishida Kitarō [A biography of Nishida Kitarō] (1998), Basic Kanji with Matsuo Soga. The edited volumes include: The Bloomsbury Research Handbook of Contemporary Japanese Philosophy (2017, paperback 2019). Co-edited volumes include: Isamu Noguchi and Skyviewing Sculpture: Proceedings of Japan Week 2003 (2004); and CIRPIT Review 5 (2014)—a special issue dedicated to the thoughts and legacy of Raimon Panikkar. 

Her publications of the last several years include: 

• "Exploring the 'Logic' of Topos with Sun Wukong," Globalizing Japanese Philosophy as an Academic Discipline, ed. C. Y. Cheung & W. K. Lam (2017); 
• "Bashō and the Art of Eternal Now," New Essays in Japanese Aesthetics, ed. A. M. Nguyen (2018); 
• "Panikkar and the Silence of the Buddha," Raimon Panikkar: A Companion to His Life and Thought, ed. P. C. Phan & Y. Ro (2018); 
• "Dōgen on the Feminine Presence: Taking a Fresh Look into His Sermons and Writings," Religions 9 (2018); 
• "Francis of Assisi, Ramon Llull, Nicholas of Cusa, and Raimon Panikkar: The Tradition of Intrareligious Dialogue," CIRPIT Review (2018); 
• "Espacio interior y exterior: Raimon Panikkar y Nishida Kitarō," trans. by R. Bouso, Theoría: Revista del Colegio de Filosofia, 36 (2019);
• "Raichō: Zen and the Female Body in the Development of Japanese Feminist Philosophy," The Oxford Handbook of Japanese Philosophy, ed. B. Davis (2020); 
• "Japanese Buddhism and Women: The Lotus, Amida, and Awakening," The Dao Companion to Japanese Buddhist Philosophy, ed. G. Kopf (2019); 
• "D. T Suzuki and the 'Logic of sokuhi,' or the 'Logic of Prajñāpāramitā', "The Dao Companion to Japanese Buddhist Philosophy, ed. G. Kopf (2019); 
• "'Docta ignorantia' and 'hishiryō': 'The Inexpressible' in Cusanus, Dōgen, and Nishida," Cosmopolitan Civility: Global-Local Reflections with Fred Dallmayr, ed. R. Abbey (2020); 
• "I-Thou Relation," Key Concepts in World Philosophies, ed. S. Flavel & C.  Robbiano (2023); 
• "Encuentro entre Oriente y Occidente en el arte y la filosofía: Nishida Kitarō, Fujioka Sakutarō y Hishida Shunsō"  ["East-West Encounter in Art and Philosophy: Nishida Kitarō, Fujioka Sakutarō and Hishida Shunsō"], trans. D. Grecco, Theoría: Revista del Colegio de Filosofía, 45 (December, 2023).

She was the past president of the Society for Asian and Comparative Philosophy, 2006-2007, and the Program Chair for the American Academy of Religion, 2012-22.  

She was awarded the Japan Foundation Research Fellowship, 1993-94; appointment to the Roche Chair for Interreligious Dialogue, Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture, 2016-17; the Kanazawa University International Prize, 2019; and the Compass Award of the Comparative and Continental Philosophy Circle, 2023.

For a semi-autobiographical essay that describes the influences of Raimon Panikkar, Ninian Smart, and Kyoto School thinkers such as Nishitani and Ueda on her research and thinking, see her "Intercultural Philosophical Wayfaring: An Autobiographical Account in Conversation with a Friend," The Journal of World Philosophies 3.1 (2018), 123-134.

 

Keynote: Yasuo Deguchi, Professor at Kyoto University Department of Philosophy (biography TBA)

Keynote: Tõnu Viik, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Tallinn University (biography TBA)