Alexander Soucy
Biographic Data
| ID | 143266 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Alexander Soucy |
| GIVEN NAMES | Alexander |
| FAMILY NAME | Soucy |
| SIGNATURE | SOUCY A |
| AFFILIATIONS | Saint Mary's University |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 17 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 20 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 16 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1996 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Individual and Collective Karma in the Works of Thích Nhất Hạnh
The version of Buddhism put forward by Thích Nhất Hạnh in his writing and teaching has led some scholars and Buddhist practitioners to question whether he is representative of Vietnamese Buddhism. This essay asserts that while Thích Nhất Hạnh’s framing of Buddhist doctrine was highly influenced by globalized Buddhist currents, it cannot be separated from the Vietnamese context from which he emerged. Through an examination of Thích Nhất Hạnh’s wri…
Zen Conquests: Buddhist Transformations in Contemporary Vietnam
At the tail end of the twentieth century, a monk transformed a small village temple on the outskirts of Hanoi into a monastery and meditation center called Thiền Viện Sùng Phúc—a place where monastics and lay Buddhists could learn and practice Zen meditation. In time the original temple was replaced by numerous large buildings to accommodate meditation sessions, youth events, weddings, classes, and a variety of other activities designed to keep p…
Buddhism in the global eye: Beyond East and West
Buddhism in the Global Eye focuses on the importance of a global context and transnational connections for understanding Buddhist modernizing movements. It also explores how Asian agency has been central to the development of modern Buddhism, and provides theoretical reflections that seek to overcome misleading East-West binaries. Using case studies from China, Japan, Vietnam, India, Tibet, Canada, and the USA, the book introduces new research th…
A Reappraisal of Vietnamese Buddhism’s Status as “Ethnic”
In writings of Buddhism in the West, Vietnamese Buddhists have often been pigeonholed as bringing their Buddhism with them like baggage and replicating the practices of their native land. This paper problematizes this characterization by looking more closely at the way that Vietnamese Buddhism has been reconstructed in the diasporic context. I argue that many of the leading figures of this process were, in fact, heavily influenced by intra-Asian …
Contemporary Vietnamese Buddhism
The Vietnamese have had a particularly traumatic experience throughout the twentieth century. Colonial domination, decades of some of the most brutal warfare the world has ever seen, and the dispersal of Vietnamese refugees throughout the globe have made a strong impact on the way that Vietnamese Buddhism is practiced and perceived. Vietnamese Buddhism, while still mainly devotional in nature, is increasingly being influenced by the notion that Z…
Course Design in Religious Studies: An Experiment in Metacognitive Education
Metacognitive reflection on the process of thinking is widely believed to be an essential ingredient in successful learning. Students who are metacognitively aware of how they are processing new information are better able to take strategic control over their learning. They are able to plan, monitor, evaluate, and even revise their thinking when it is called for. In this paper, we seek to answer the question: How can educators promote the develop…
The Buddha And The Birch Tree: The Great Pine Forest Monastery And The Localization Of Vietnamese Buddhism To Canada
The Great Pine Forest Monastery was established in the Laurentian Mountains, north of Montreal, by the Union of Vietnamese Buddhist Churches in Canada in 1988. Its establishment represented, in the minds of the founders, the localization of Vietnamese Buddhism to Canadian soil. The process has, however, been a difficult one and the new acting leader of the monastery is not always optimistic that Buddhism can flourish in Canada, with particular co…
Cambodian Refugees in Ontario: Resettlement, Religion, and Identity by Janet McLellan (review)
Reviewed by: Cambodian Refugees in Ontario: Resettlement, Religion, and Identity by Janet McLellan Alexander Soucy Janet McLellan. Cambodian Refugees in Ontario: Resettlement, Religion, and Identity. Toronto, Buffalo and London: University of Toronto Press, 2009. 272 pp. Notes. Bibliography. Index. $55.00 hc. There has been little written about the Indochinese refugees that came to Canada at the end of the 1970s and the early 1980s. Of these, the…
Wedding Invitations and Relationship Management in Hanoi
It has been largely presumed that one of the key functions of communal wedding rites is to build cohesion among social networks. This paper looks at weddings in contemporary northern Vietnam and comes to a different conclusion: while in some cases weddings are an occasion to cement relationships and affirm bonds with family and others, they are also an opportunity to manage relationships. At the most extreme, this management of relationships can …
The Buddha Side: Gender, Power, and Buddhist Practice in Vietnam
The most common description of the supernatural landscape in Vietnam makes a distinction between Buddhist and non-Buddhist “sides.” The “Buddha side” (ben phat) is the focus of this investigation into the intersection of gender, power, and religious praxis. Employing an anthropological approach to Buddhist practice that takes into account modes of action that are not only socially constructed and contextual, but also negotiated by the actors, the…
Language, Orthodoxy, and Performances of Authority in Vietnamese Buddhism
Men and women in Vietnam engage in Buddhist practice in very specific ways and have widely different understandings of what their practices achieve. The Buddhist pagoda in Vietnam is generally seen as a feminine space, borne out by the fact that between 80 % and 90 % of participants are old women. Nonetheless, there are some old men who become pro-minent participants, but only after renegotiating the significance of Buddhist practice in ways that…
Film reviews / Revues de films: Wandering Souls
Film Reviews / Revues de Films: Glenafooka: Glen of the Ghosts
Consuming loc-creating on: Women, offerings and symbolic capital in northern Vietnam
Women are disproportionately represented at most Vietnamese religious sites. Understanding the reasons behind women's prominent participation provides a revealing glimpse into both Vietnamese religion as well as the dynamic nature of gender and power in Vietnamese society. At the core of most women's religious lives is the common practice of making offerings and then reclaiming them as loc (an object that brings good luck), but its implications a…
The problem with key informants
Modernity And Reform In India
Martha Alter Chen (ed.). Widows in India: social neglect and public action. New Delhi: Thousand Oaks; London: Sage Publications. 1998. 456pp., contents, tables, appendices, notes, references, index. Rs.495.00 (cloth) ISBN 81-7036-703-4 (India-HB); 0-7619-9248-0 (US-HB). R.S. Kharc. Cultural diversity and social discontent: anthropological studies on contemporary India. New Delhi: Thousand Oaks; London: Sage Publications. 1998. 282pp., contents, n…
The Dynamics Of Change In An Exiled Pagoda: Vietnamese Buddhism in Montreal
La pagode bouddhiste Xa-Loi de la communaute des migrants et refugies vietnamiens a Montreal est tout autant un lieu de culte que de rassemblement communautaire ou s'elabore l'affirmation identitaire collective face au nouvel environnement canadien. L'A. analyse deux modes d'adaptation, au sein de l'organisation religieuse de la pagode, a la situation d'exil force : 1) La creation d'un conseil d'administration remplace dorenavant le leadership tr…
The problem with key informants
Consuming loc-creating on: Women, offerings and symbolic capital in northern Vietnam
Women are disproportionately represented at most Vietnamese religious sites. Understanding the reasons behind women's prominent participation provides a revealing glimpse into both Vietnamese religion as well as the dynamic nature of gender and power in Vietnamese society. At the core of most women's religious lives is the common practice of making offerings and then reclaiming them as loc (an object that brings good luck), but its implications a…
Buddhism in the global eye: Beyond East and West
Buddhism in the Global Eye focuses on the importance of a global context and transnational connections for understanding Buddhist modernizing movements. It also explores how Asian agency has been central to the development of modern Buddhism, and provides theoretical reflections that seek to overcome misleading East-West binaries. Using case studies from China, Japan, Vietnam, India, Tibet, Canada, and the USA, the book introduces new research th…
The Dynamics Of Change In An Exiled Pagoda: Vietnamese Buddhism in Montreal
La pagode bouddhiste Xa-Loi de la communaute des migrants et refugies vietnamiens a Montreal est tout autant un lieu de culte que de rassemblement communautaire ou s'elabore l'affirmation identitaire collective face au nouvel environnement canadien. L'A. analyse deux modes d'adaptation, au sein de l'organisation religieuse de la pagode, a la situation d'exil force : 1) La creation d'un conseil d'administration remplace dorenavant le leadership tr…
Modernity And Reform In India
Martha Alter Chen (ed.). Widows in India: social neglect and public action. New Delhi: Thousand Oaks; London: Sage Publications. 1998. 456pp., contents, tables, appendices, notes, references, index. Rs.495.00 (cloth) ISBN 81-7036-703-4 (India-HB); 0-7619-9248-0 (US-HB). R.S. Kharc. Cultural diversity and social discontent: anthropological studies on contemporary India. New Delhi: Thousand Oaks; London: Sage Publications. 1998. 282pp., contents, n…
The problem with key informants
Consuming loc-creating on: Women, offerings and symbolic capital in northern Vietnam
Women are disproportionately represented at most Vietnamese religious sites. Understanding the reasons behind women's prominent participation provides a revealing glimpse into both Vietnamese religion as well as the dynamic nature of gender and power in Vietnamese society. At the core of most women's religious lives is the common practice of making offerings and then reclaiming them as loc (an object that brings good luck), but its implications a…
Film reviews / Revues de films: Wandering Souls
Film Reviews / Revues de Films: Glenafooka: Glen of the Ghosts
Language, Orthodoxy, and Performances of Authority in Vietnamese Buddhism
Men and women in Vietnam engage in Buddhist practice in very specific ways and have widely different understandings of what their practices achieve. The Buddhist pagoda in Vietnam is generally seen as a feminine space, borne out by the fact that between 80 % and 90 % of participants are old women. Nonetheless, there are some old men who become pro-minent participants, but only after renegotiating the significance of Buddhist practice in ways that…
The Buddha Side: Gender, Power, and Buddhist Practice in Vietnam
The most common description of the supernatural landscape in Vietnam makes a distinction between Buddhist and non-Buddhist “sides.” The “Buddha side” (ben phat) is the focus of this investigation into the intersection of gender, power, and religious praxis. Employing an anthropological approach to Buddhist practice that takes into account modes of action that are not only socially constructed and contextual, but also negotiated by the actors, the…
The Buddha And The Birch Tree: The Great Pine Forest Monastery And The Localization Of Vietnamese Buddhism To Canada
The Great Pine Forest Monastery was established in the Laurentian Mountains, north of Montreal, by the Union of Vietnamese Buddhist Churches in Canada in 1988. Its establishment represented, in the minds of the founders, the localization of Vietnamese Buddhism to Canadian soil. The process has, however, been a difficult one and the new acting leader of the monastery is not always optimistic that Buddhism can flourish in Canada, with particular co…
Cambodian Refugees in Ontario: Resettlement, Religion, and Identity by Janet McLellan (review)
Reviewed by: Cambodian Refugees in Ontario: Resettlement, Religion, and Identity by Janet McLellan Alexander Soucy Janet McLellan. Cambodian Refugees in Ontario: Resettlement, Religion, and Identity. Toronto, Buffalo and London: University of Toronto Press, 2009. 272 pp. Notes. Bibliography. Index. $55.00 hc. There has been little written about the Indochinese refugees that came to Canada at the end of the 1970s and the early 1980s. Of these, the…
Wedding Invitations and Relationship Management in Hanoi
It has been largely presumed that one of the key functions of communal wedding rites is to build cohesion among social networks. This paper looks at weddings in contemporary northern Vietnam and comes to a different conclusion: while in some cases weddings are an occasion to cement relationships and affirm bonds with family and others, they are also an opportunity to manage relationships. At the most extreme, this management of relationships can …
Course Design in Religious Studies: An Experiment in Metacognitive Education
Metacognitive reflection on the process of thinking is widely believed to be an essential ingredient in successful learning. Students who are metacognitively aware of how they are processing new information are better able to take strategic control over their learning. They are able to plan, monitor, evaluate, and even revise their thinking when it is called for. In this paper, we seek to answer the question: How can educators promote the develop…
Contemporary Vietnamese Buddhism
The Vietnamese have had a particularly traumatic experience throughout the twentieth century. Colonial domination, decades of some of the most brutal warfare the world has ever seen, and the dispersal of Vietnamese refugees throughout the globe have made a strong impact on the way that Vietnamese Buddhism is practiced and perceived. Vietnamese Buddhism, while still mainly devotional in nature, is increasingly being influenced by the notion that Z…
A Reappraisal of Vietnamese Buddhism’s Status as “Ethnic”
In writings of Buddhism in the West, Vietnamese Buddhists have often been pigeonholed as bringing their Buddhism with them like baggage and replicating the practices of their native land. This paper problematizes this characterization by looking more closely at the way that Vietnamese Buddhism has been reconstructed in the diasporic context. I argue that many of the leading figures of this process were, in fact, heavily influenced by intra-Asian …
Buddhism in the global eye: Beyond East and West
Buddhism in the Global Eye focuses on the importance of a global context and transnational connections for understanding Buddhist modernizing movements. It also explores how Asian agency has been central to the development of modern Buddhism, and provides theoretical reflections that seek to overcome misleading East-West binaries. Using case studies from China, Japan, Vietnam, India, Tibet, Canada, and the USA, the book introduces new research th…
Zen Conquests: Buddhist Transformations in Contemporary Vietnam
At the tail end of the twentieth century, a monk transformed a small village temple on the outskirts of Hanoi into a monastery and meditation center called Thiền Viện Sùng Phúc—a place where monastics and lay Buddhists could learn and practice Zen meditation. In time the original temple was replaced by numerous large buildings to accommodate meditation sessions, youth events, weddings, classes, and a variety of other activities designed to keep p…
Individual and Collective Karma in the Works of Thích Nhất Hạnh
The version of Buddhism put forward by Thích Nhất Hạnh in his writing and teaching has led some scholars and Buddhist practitioners to question whether he is representative of Vietnamese Buddhism. This essay asserts that while Thích Nhất Hạnh’s framing of Buddhist doctrine was highly influenced by globalized Buddhist currents, it cannot be separated from the Vietnamese context from which he emerged. Through an examination of Thích Nhất Hạnh’s wri…
Sociology (13 works) · History (11 works) · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies (11 works) · Buddhism (8 works) · Chinese history and philosophy (7 works) · Philosophy (7 works) · Archaeology (6 works) · Gender Studies (6 works) · Political science (6 works) · Vietnamese (6 works)