W&L Root Lecture Presents Religion Professor John Dunne
John Dunne, associate professor of religion at Emory University, will give a lecture at Washington and Lee University on Thursday, March 8, at 4:30 p.m. in Parmly Hall 307. The talk is free and open to the public.
The title of the lecture is “Derealizing Self: Frontiers of Contemplative Science.” Dunne’s talk is sponsored by The Root Lecture Fund and hosted by the Religion Department.
A co-founder of the Collaborative for Contemplative Studies at Emory, Dunne’s work focuses on Buddhist philosophy and contemplative practice, especially in dialogue with cognitive science. He also is co-director of the Mind and Life Humanities Initiative and its Contemplative Studies Fellowship program.
Dunne’s published work includes Foundations of Dharmakirti’s Philosophy (2004), in which he examines the most prominent Buddhist theories of perception, language, inference and justification. Within Buddhist studies, his most recent publications include essays on Madhyamaka philosophy, Buddhist philosophy of language, non-dual mindfulness and yogic perception. In cognitive science, his work includes a co-authored review article on “Attention Regulation and Monitoring Meditation” (Trends in Cognitive Science).
Dunne’s current research includes an inquiry into the notion of mindfulness in both classical Buddhist and contemporary contexts, and he is also engaged in a study of Candrakirti’s Prasannapadā, a major Buddhist philosophical work on the metaphysics of emptiness. His co-authored translation of Nāgārjuna’s Ratnāvalī will appear in 2012.
His collaborative research is conducted with colleagues at Emory University and through the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Center for Investigating Healthy Minds. His work at the interface of Buddhism and science is often facilitated through the activities of the Mind and Life Institute, where he has served on the board of directors and the Program and Research Council.
Dunne studied at the United States Air Force Academy, Amherst College and Harvard University, where he received his Ph.D. from the Committee on the Study of Religion in 1999.
News Contact:
Julie Cline
News Writer
jcline@wlu.edu
540-458-8954
