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Leah E. Kalmanson

Title: Associate Professor

Department: Philosophy and Religion

College: College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences

Curriculum Vitae

Curriculum Vitae Link

Education

  • PhD, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, 2010
    Major: Philosophy
    Specialization: Comparative Philosophy
    Dissertation: The Politics of Emptiness: Alterity, Autonomy, and the Radical Subjectivity of No-Self
  • MA, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, 2005
    Major: Philosophy
  • BA, Oglethorpe University, 2000
    Major: Philosophy

Current Scheduled Teaching

PHIL 5650.001Asian Philosophies and Religions in PracticeFall 2024
PHIL 3680.001Buddhism, Daoism, ShintoismFall 2024 Syllabus

Previous Scheduled Teaching

PHIL 4500.001ExistentialismSpring 2024 Syllabus SPOT
PHIL 6960.001Semester in Problems of PhilosophySpring 2024 SPOT
PHIL 3680.001Buddhism, Daoism, ShintoismFall 2023 Syllabus SPOT
PHIL 4951.001Honors College Capstone ThesisFall 2023
PHIL 3630.001JainismFall 2023 Syllabus SPOT
PHIL 4500.001ExistentialismSpring 2023 Syllabus SPOT
PHIL 3620.001HinduismSpring 2023 Syllabus SPOT
PHIL 3996.001Honors College Mentored Research ExperienceSpring 2023 Syllabus
PHIL 5900.006Special ProblemsSpring 2023
PHIL 3680.001Buddhism, Daoism, ShintoismFall 2022 Syllabus SPOT
PHIL 6960.001Semester in Problems of PhilosophyFall 2022 SPOT
PHIL 6900.713Special ProblemsFall 2022
PHIL 2070.001World ReligionsSpring 2022 Syllabus SPOT
PHIL 3680.001Buddhism, Daoism, ShintoismFall 2021 Syllabus SPOT
PHIL 3620.001Hinduism I : From the Vedas to the GitaFall 2021 Syllabus SPOT

Published Intellectual Contributions

    Book

  • Kalmanson, L.E. Local Gods: A Philosophy of Spiritual Diversity. Columbia University Press.
  • Kalmanson, L.E., Kim, D. Buddhist-Confucian Dialogue: A Contribution to the Comparative Philosophy of Religion. Springer.
  • Kalmanson, L., Kirloskar-Steinbach, M. (2021). A Practical Guide to World Philosophies: Selves, Worlds, and Ways of Knowing. Bloomsbury.
  • Kalmanson, L. (2020). Cross-Cultural Existentialism: On the Meaning of Life in Asian and Western Thought.
  • Kalmanson, L., Rivera-Berruz, S. (2018). Comparative Studies in Asian and Latin American Philosophies. Bloomsbury.
  • Kalmanson, L., Knepper, T. (2017). Ineffability: An Exercise in Comparative Philosophy of Religion. Springer.
  • Kalmanson, L., Shields, J.M. (2014). Buddhist Responses to Globalization.
  • Kalmanson, L., Mattice, S., , F.G. (2013). Levinas and Asian Thought.
  • Kalmanson, L., Chang, W. (2010). Confucianism in Context: Classic Philosophy and Contemporary Issues, East Asia and Beyond.
  • Book Chapter

  • Kalmanson, L. (2024). Philosophy as Petromania: Graham Parkes, Jane Bennett, and the (Not So) New Materialisms. The Wandering Dance: Essays in Honor of Graham Parkes. Bloomsbury.
  • Kalmanson, L. (2024). Loyalty and the Reception of Buddhism in China. Loyalty. Oxford University Press.
  • Kalmanson, L.E. (2024). Not a Moment of Worry: Confucian Views on the Value of Anxiety. The Moral Psychology of Anxiety.
  • Kalmanson, L.E. (2023). The Theological Irony of White Christian Nationalism: A View from the South. In Sheep's Clothing: The Idolatry of White Christian Nationalism. Rowman & Littlefield.
  • Kalmanson, L.E. Realism in Japanese Aesthetics: Reality as Realization in Ki-based Art Practices. Contemporary Philosophical Perspectives on Japanese Aesthetics. SUNY.
  • Kalmanson, L.E. There Are No Beings to Liberate: Debates over Practice and Attainment in East Asian Buddhist Traditions. The Three Jewels: Essaying Buddhist Philosophy of Religion.
  • Kalmanson, L. (2023). Theory and Method in the Philosophy of Religion in China’s Song Dynasty. Diversifying Philosophy of Religion: Critiques, Methods, and Case Studies. Bloomsbury. https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/diversifying-philosophy-of-religion-9781350264021/
  • Kalmanson, L. (2023). Self-Cultivation and Political Power in Feminism and Chinese Philosophy. Key Concepts in World Philosophies: A Toolkit for Philosophers. Bloomsbury. https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/key-concepts-in-world-philosophies-9781350168138/
  • Kalmanson, L. (2022). Jewish Perspectives on Charity: A Philosophy for Hopeless Times. Applying Jewish Ethics: Beyond the Rabbinic Tradition. https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781793655318/Applying-Jewish-Ethics-Beyond-the-Rabbinic-Tradition
  • Kalmanson, L.E., Ishii, M. (2022). 内部性とはな にか──レヴィナスとアジア思想における超越と内的経験 [What is interiority? Transcendence and inner experience in Levinas and Asian thought]. 個と普遍──レヴィナス哲学の新たな広がり [Individual and universal: the new spread of the philosophy of Levinas]. Tokyo, Hosei University Press.
  • Kalmanson, L. The Scent of Chrysanthemums: Merit and Memorialization in Japanese Aesthetics. Contested Monuments, Elusive Memory / Elusive Monuments, Contested Memory. SUNY Press.
  • Kalmanson, L. (2021). Roots and Branches: Self-Cultivation as Political Transformation in Neo-Confucian Thought. The Chinese Ideology. Routledge.
  • Kalmanson, L., Guerrero, L., Mattice, S. (2020). The East in the West: Chinese, Japanese, and Indian Philosophy in the 20th Century.
  • Kalmanson, L. Correlational Cosmologies: Exploring the Qi-Based Paradigm. Engaging Philosophy of Religion across Global Boundaries. Bloomsbury.
  • Kalmanson, L. (2019). Whiteness and the Construction of Buddhist Philosophy in Meiji Japan. Buddhism and Whiteness. Lexington.
  • Kalmanson, L., Yusa, M. (2019). Raichō: Zen and the Female Body in the Development of Japanese Feminist Philosophy.
  • Kalmanson, L. (2018). Like You Mean It: Buddhist Teachings on Selflessness, Sincerity, and the Performative Practice of Liberation. Self/No-Self: Claremont Studies in Philosophy of Religion. Mohr Siebeck.
  • Kalmanson, L. (2017). Dharma and Dao: Key Terms in the Comparative Philosophy of Religion. Ineffability: An Exercise in Comparative Philosophy of Religion. Springer.
  • Kalmanson, L. (2017). Pure Land Ecology: Taking the Supernatural Seriously in Environmental Philosophy. Japanese Environmental Philosophy. Oxford.
  • Kalmanson, L. (2016). Commentary on Giving. Engaging Dōgen’s Zen: The Philosophy of Practice as Liberation. Wisdom Publications.
  • Kalmanson, L. (2014). An Inexhaustible Storehouse for an Insurmountable Debt: A Buddhist Reading of Reparations.
  • Kalmanson, L. (2009). The Ethics of Emptiness: A Comparative Study of Watsuji Tetsurō and Emmanuel Levinas.
  • Book Review

  • Kalmanson, L.E. Review of Zen Pathways: An Introduction to the Philosophy and Practice of Zen Buddhism, by Bret Davis. Comparative and Continental Philosophy.
  • Kalmanson, L.E. (2023). Reflections on Buddhism and Structural Change (review of Daniel Capper’s Roaming Free Like a Deer: Buddhism and the Natural World). Sakyadhita: International Association of Buddhist Women. 31 (1)
  • Kalmanson, L.E. (2022). Sokthan Yeng and the Superpower of Buddhist Feminism. The Arrow: A Journal of Wakeful Society, Culture, and Politics. 9 (3) https://arrow-journal.org/contemplative-superpowers-for-social-change/
  • Kalmanson, L. (2022). Wild Dreams: Cultivating Change in and with Community. Philosophy East and West. Response to readers in a review feature on Cross-Cultural Existentialism by Leah Kalmanson. 72 (1) 290-293.
  • Kalmanson, L. (2021). Philosophy as ‘Commentary’: Ruminating on Buddhas Old and New. Philosophy East and West. Contribution to a review feature on Nietzsche and Other Buddhas: Philosophy after Comparative Philosophy by Jason Wirth. 71 (4) 1060-1069.
  • Broadcast Media

  • Kalmanson, L., Dolinsek, C., Yeng, S., Sparrow, T., Jones Medine, C., Song, B. (2022). Symposium on Cross-Cultural Existentialism by Leah Kalmanson. Syndicate: A Living Network of Scholarship in the Humanities (online magazine). https://syndicate.network/symposia/philosophy/cross-cultural-existentialism/
  • Kalmanson, L., Kirloskar-Steinbach, M. (2022). Views from Everywhere. Aeon Magazine. Aeon Media Group. https://aeon.co/essays/how-academic-philosophy-can-become-truly-diverse-and-global
  • Education Kits and Manipulatives

  • Kalmanson, L.E. Reading as a Spiritual Exercise: Zhu Xi’s Commentary on the Great Learning (Daxue 大學). Reading Primary Sources in Asian Philosophies. Bloomsbury.
  • Journal Article

  • Kalmanson, L.E. (2024). Diversifying the Dialogue: Meta-Philosophical Reflections on Teaching Our Core Methodology. Teaching Philosophy.
  • Kalmanson, L.E. (2023). How to Change Your Mind: The Contemplative Practices of Philosophy. Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplements. 93 (May) 69-79.
  • Kalmanson, L.E. (2022). The Multiple Histories of Philosophy: Or, Reimagining Modernity from Tokugawa Japan. Pragmatism Today. 13 (1) 50-60. https://www.pragmatismtoday.eu/summer2022/The-Multiple-Histories-of-Philosophy-Or-Reimagining-Modernity-from-Tokugawa-Japan-Leah-Kalmanson.pdf
  • Kalmanson, L.E. Incarnating Kannon: Eshinni, Shinran, and the Other-Power of Philosophy. Journal of Chinese Philosophy.
  • Kalmanson, L. (2022). From Speculative Realism to Ki-Realism: Or, Reality as Realization in Japanese Aesthetics. APA Studies on Asian and Asian-American Philosophers and Philosophies. https://cdn.ymaws.com/www.apaonline.org/resource/collection/2EAF6689-4B0D-4CCB-9DC6-FB926D8FF530/AsianV21n1-2.pdf
  • Kalmanson, L. (2021). A Visit to the Local God: Reclaiming the Diversity of the Divine. Journal of the Pacific Association for the Continental Tradition. 4 22-44. https://hilo.hawaii.edu/jpact/issues/documents/jpact/volume-4-2021/JPACT04Kalmanson.pdf
  • Kalmanson, L. (2019). Lessons from the Sanjie: Merit Economies as Catalysts for Social Change. Studies in Chinese Religions. 5 (2) 142-150.
  • Kalmanson, L. (2018). Speculation as Transformation in Chinese Philosophy: Speculative Realism, ‘New’ Materialism, and the Study of Li (理) and Qi (氣). Journal of World Philosophies. 3 (1) 17-30.
  • Kalmanson, L. (2017). The Ritual Methods of Comparative Philosophy. Philosophy East and West. 67 (2) 399-418.
  • Kalmanson, L. (2015). If You Show Me Yours: Reading all ‘Difference’ as ‘Colonial Difference’ in Comparative Philosophy. Comparative and Continental Philosophy. 7 (2) 201-213.
  • Kalmanson, L., Mattice, S. (2015). The De of Levinas: Cultivating the Heart-Mind of Radical Passivity. Frontiers of Philosophy in China.
  • Kalmanson, L. (2012). Buddhism and bell hooks: Liberatory Aesthetics and the Radical Subjectivity of No-Self. Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy.
  • Kalmanson, L. (2012). The Messiah and the Bodhisattva: Anti-Utopianism Re-Revisited. Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies.
  • Kalmanson, L. (2010). Levinas in Japan: The Ethics of Alterity and the Philosophy of No-Self. Continental Philosophy Review.
  • Scholarly Preface

  • Kalmanson, L.E., Emmanuel, S.M. (2021). Foreword. Philosophy’s Big Questions: Comparing Buddhist and Western Approaches. https://cup.columbia.edu/book/philosophys-big-questions/9780231174879
  • Webpage

  • Kalmanson, L. (2023). Diversification is Not Decolonization. Philosophy of Religion: Big Question Philosophy for Scholars and Students. https://philosophyofreligion.org/?p=525855
  • Kalmanson, L. (2022). Leah Kalmanson on “Is There a Future for the Philosophy of Religion?”. Philosophy of Religion: Big Question Philosophy for Scholars and Students. https://philosophyofreligion.org/?p=525661
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    This rating combines student responses to several SPOT items relating to how academically challenging students found the course to be and how engaged they were. Challenge and Engagement Index items include the following (response options include a Likert scale ranging from 7 = Much higher, 4 = Average, and 1 = Much lower):
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