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 Vanessa R. Sasson

Vanessa R. Sasson is a professor of Religious Studies in the Liberal and Creative Arts Department at Marianopolis College, where she has been teaching since 1999. She is also a Research Fellow for the International Institute for Studies in Race, Reconciliation and Social Justice at the University of the Free State in South Africa, as well as Adjunct Professor at the Faculty of Religious Studies of McGill University. Trained as a scholar of comparative religion, she increasingly focuses her energies in Buddhist studies with particular emphasis on hagiography, gender, and children and childhoods.  She is also devoted to interfaith dialogue and is the Director of the Educational Network of the Elijah Interfaith Institute, a Jerusalem-based nonprofit, international, interfaith organization affiliated with UNESCO.

•  "Renunciation as Pedagogy." Journal of the American Academy of Religion. (Accepted.) 
  
•  “Maya’s Disappearing Act: Motherhood in Early Buddhist Literature.” In Family in Buddhism: Buddhist Vows and Family Ties. Edited by Liz Wilson. New York: SUNY. 

• (2012) "A Call for Jewish-Buddhist Studies." Journal of Indo-Judaic Studies 12: 7-18.
• (2010) “Peeling Back the Layers: Female Higher Ordination in Sri Lanka.” Buddhist Studies Review 27.1, pp. 77-84.  
• (2008) “The Many Faces of the Buddha.” Journal for Semitics 17.2, pp. 329-343.
• (2007) “Politics of Higher Ordination for Women of Sri Lanka: Discussions with Silmatas.” Journal for the Study of Religion 20.7, pp. 57-71.  
• (2007) “Beauty Queens and Fetal Containers: Jewish and Buddhist Mothers in the Early Literatures.” Journal for Semitics 16.2, pp. 351-368. 
• (1999) “Compassion in Buddhism and Judaism: A Comparative Study.” ARC: The Journal of the Faculty of Religious Studies, McGill University. 

  PUBLICATIONS: (PEER-REVIEWED) BOOK CHAPTERS  

•  (2014) "Two Aspects of Exodus through a Buddhist Lens." Pages 57-59 in Global Perspectives on the Bible. Edited by Mark Ronace and Joseph Weaver. Boston: Pearson.
  
•  (2009) “Introduction: Restoring Nuance to the Imagination of the Fetus.” Pages 1-13 in Imagining the Fetus: The Unborn in Myth, Religion, and Culture. Edited by Vanessa R. Sasson and Jane Marie Law. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 
• (2009) “A Womb With A View: The Buddha’s Final Fetal Experience.” Pages 102-129 in Imagining the Fetus: The Unborn in Myth, Religion, and Culture. Edited by Vanessa R. Sasson and Jane Marie Law. Oxford: Oxford University Press.   
• (2008) “Teaching Death & Dying in the Context of Religious Studies.” Pages 49-61 in Teaching Death & Dying. Edited by Christopher M. Moreman. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 
• (2006) “Without Raising her Fist or Even her Voice: Shiphrah, Puah & Gotamī’s Non-Violent Resistance to Injustice.” Pages 63-79 in Religion, Terrorism and Globalization. Nonviolence: A New Agenda. Edited by K. K. Kuriakose. New York: Nova Science Publishers. 

PUBLICATIONS: (NON-PEER-REVIEWED) ARTICLES  

• (2008) “Reclaiming the Comparative Method: Moses and the Buddha as a Case Study.” The SBL FORUM (online journal; November 2008). 
• (2007) “On Conflict: Teaching Ground.” Tricycle: The Buddhist Review 16.4, pp. 86-89. 
• (2007) “The Elusive Magic of Water in World Religions.” Geoscope 38.1. 
• (2005) “Thus Has She Heard: Encounters with the Female Renunciants of Sri Lanka.” Feature article. Dharmalife 25, pp. 44-47. 
•  (1996) “Girl-Trafficking in Sindhupalchowk: A Witness Account.” The WHO Nepal Magazine . 

• (2011) John Powers. A Bull of a Man: Images of Masculinity, Sex, and the Body in Indian Buddhism. Journal of Buddhist Ethics 18, pp. 66-70.  
• (2009) Shera Aranoff Tuchmann and Sandra E. Rappaport. Moses’ Women. Jersey City: KTAV, 2008. “Women of the Midrashic Imagination.” H-Judaic (online journal; January 2009).  
• (2008) Monica Lindberg Falk. Making Fields of Merit: Buddhist Female Ascetics and Gendered Orders in Thailand. Journal of Buddhist Ethics 15, pp. 81-85.  
• (2002) Phil Cousineau. Once and Future Myths: The Power of Ancient Stories in Modern Times. ARC: The Journal of the Faculty of Religious Studies, McGill University.  
• (2001) David Noel Freedman and Michael J. McClymond, eds. The Rivers of Paradise: Moses, Buddha, Confucius, Jesus and Muhammad as Religious Founders. ARC: The Journal of the Faculty of Religious Studies, McGill University). 
•  (2001) Steven Collins. Nirvana and Other Buddhist Felicities: Utopias of the Pali Imaginaire.” ARC: The Journal of the Faculty of Religious Studies, McGill University.