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9789004232792

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One would be hard pressed to imagine a better tribute scholars could pay to a deceased colleague than to integrate the work that the deceased author had begun with insights of the living authors to jointly produce a book that stands to transform the discourse of British convert Buddhism in significant ways. Using a substantial body of in-depth qualitative ethnographic data collected by Sharon E. Smith on two of the largest convert Buddhist movements in the UK, Sally R. Munt and Andrew Kam-Tuck Yip have provided a detailed analysis of the experiences of the people of colour and LGBTQI people within the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order (FWBO [Triratna]) and the Soka Gakkai International-UK (SKI-UK). They provide a compelling account of the ways in which FWBO and SKI-UK have been shaped by race, gender, class, sexuality, and heteronormative whiteness. The authors have convincingly demonstrated that Sangharatshita's model of conversion help preserve the prevailing system of racial hegemony by privileging the experience of white majority ethnic converts as being more authentically 'Buddhist' than that of Diaspora Buddhists and that the SKI-UK's cosmopolitan approach to race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality has enabled its members to celebrate diversity and its organization to attract multicultural followings. This important book provides an excellent model on how to move forward towards a more productive engagement with issues of cultural politics within religious movements in cosmopolitan-urban area. It is a must-read for religious studies scholars and students alike, as well as Buddhist lay practitioners of colour and LGBTQI practitioners. Fr. Joseph Cheah, University of Saint Joseph This work provides an absolutely up to date, cutting edge analysis [...] It is really the only study of its kind. [...] So far as I am aware race, gender and class have never been used as the primary analytical category for examining Western Buddhism, which is what makes this work so distinctive. Damien Keown, Goldsmiths University of London

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Sharon E. Smith, Ph.D. (2008), Goldsmith's College, London, was Research Fellow on the Queer Spiritual Spaces project. Her articles have appeared in edited volumes, and journals such as Theology & Sexuality, and Fieldwork in Religion. She passed away in 2011. Sally R Munt, DPhil. (1991), Sussex University, is Professor and Director of the Sussex Centre for Cultural Studies. She has published widely on cultures of otherness and social justice, and is the author of Queer Attachments: The Cultural Politics of Shame (Ashgate 2007). Andrew Kam-Tuck Yip, Ph.D. (1995), University of Surrey, is Professor of Sociology at the University of Nottingham. He has published numerous monographs, edited volumes, and journal articles on religion and sexuality, including Religious & Sexual Identities: A Multi-faith Exploration of Young Adults (Ashgate, 2013).

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