Starling Receives Third Award for Research Travel to Japan

Jessie Starling, recently tenured Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, has just been awarded her THIRD external grant this year! This time, a $5,000 Short-term Research Travel grant from the Northeast Asia Council (NEAC) of the Association for Asian Studies (AAS), in conjunction with the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission (JUSFC). Funds will support Dr. Starling’s research project entitled, “Hansen’s Disease, Social Work and Ethical Praxis in Contemporary Japanese Buddhism,” which will take her to national leprosaria and temples in Japan to continue her ethnographic research on Buddhist social work this summer.  This trip furthers Dr. Starling’s preliminary research conducted in Japan in 2016 and 2017, which revealed the past and present significance of Buddhist activities at leprosaria across Japan and its former colonial territories.

As previously announced, earlier this year Dr. Starling was awarded an NEH Summer Stipend and an Individual Research Grant from the American Academy of Religion.  More about Dr. Starling’s research may be found here.