Professor of Buddhist Studies Pamela D. Winfield was invited to give two talks on Buddhist art to large, general audiences.
Professor of Buddhist Studies Pamela D. Winfield was invited to give two talks on Buddhist art to large, general audiences this summer.
For the fourth year in a row, Winfield was invited back to the Animazement Comicon as a featured speaker in the “Culture” category. This annual regional event draws between 11,000-13,000 enthusiasts of Japanese popular culture to the Raleigh, NC Convention Center every Memorial Day weekend.
In keeping with this year’s literary theme, Winfield’s talk on “Buddhism, Art, and The Tale of Genji” introduced an SRO audience to the world’s first fiction novel by 11th century Japanese noblewoman Murasaki Shikibu. Winfield focused on the novel’s profound Buddhist teachings on the nature of desire, impermanence, and karmic retribution, and she also examined the imagery inspired by the classic tale’s Buddhist themes, aesthetic values, scriptural references, and real Kyoto temples. Winfield’s previous talks at Animazement have focused on Buddhism and kabuki drama, the films of Studio Ghibli, and the epic Tale of the Heike (a version of which was published in Tricycle Buddhist magazine in 2024).
In addition, Winfield also delivered a talk on “Buddhist Art Through the Ages” this summer in New York City, after serving as faculty director of the Elon in NY summer program. Winfield was vetted by the founders of Lectures on Tap, a new and rapidly expanding floating lecture series that brings professors, experts and storytellers before general audiences in major US cities. Winfield’s talk explored how Buddhist symbols of wisdom and compassion shaped the dharma throughout four major historical developments. After examining select examples of Theravada, Mahayana, Zen and Esoteric (tantric) Buddhist imagery, and explaining how artists have imagined and reimagined these enlightened virtues across various cultural contexts, she encouraged audience members to create and share their own visions of wisdom and compassion, regardless of their faith perspective or lack thereof. Her talk expanded upon the general themes of the February 2025 Ripple conference on campus.