Religious Studies Professor to Present Lecture at USU

Professor Charles S. Prebish, the Charles Redd Chair in Religious Studies at Utah State University, will present his inaugural lecture on campus Wednesday, April 4. The public is invited to the free event.

Prebish will present “Buddhist Bookends to a Career: Buddhist Studies, American Style,” at 4 p.m. in the David B. Haight Alumni Center on campus. A reception follows the lecture.

 

USU’s newly initiated Religious Studies program is based in the department of history in the College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences.

 

Prebish came to USU following more than 35 years on the faculty of the Pennsylvania State University, where he was the sole professor of Buddhism.

 

“We are delighted to welcome Chuck and Susan to our community,” said Department Head Norm Jones on behalf of the history department and the college of HASS. “When we began building the Religious Studies Program we hoped to attract a scholar of national prominence to the Redd Chair, signaling our intention to study all religions and our desire to build a nationally recognized program. Consequently, we were delighted when Chuck applied. His high visibility in the field of Buddhist Studies and his national connections to religious studies programs were exactly what we were seeking.”

 

Prebish has written or edited 20 books in the field of Buddhist studies and has authored nearly 100 refereed articles and chapters. He co-founded the online “Journal of Buddhist Ethics,” which was the first peer-reviewed online journal in the field of religious studies. He also co-founded the online “Journal of Global Buddhism.”

 

In the area of Buddhist studies, Prebish is best known for his work on the early Indian monastic tradition, complemented by his study of American Buddhism, which pioneered the study of “Western Buddhism” as a new sub-discipline in Buddhist studies.

 

Prebish earned a bachelor’s degree at Western Reserve University, a master’s at Case Western Reserve University and his doctorate in Buddhist studies at the University of Wisconsin. In 1993 he held the Numata Chair in Buddhist Studies at the University of Calgary as Distinguished Visiting Professor, and in 1997 was awarded a Rockefeller Foundation National Humanities Fellowship for research at the University of Toronto. He has been an officer in the International Association of Buddhist Studies.

 

 

Contact: HASS office (435) 797-1195