/0x58:1499x1815/prod01/channel_34/media/seattle-university/directory/faculty-amp-staff-directory/images/artsci/Suh,-Sharon-Large-2018-c4X5-mw.jpg)
Sharon A. Suh, PhD
Professor, Theology and Religious Studies
Biography
Dr. Sharon A. Suh is professor and scholar of Buddhism who teaches courses in the University Core Curriculum and in the Theology and Religious Studies B.A. program. She received her BA from Trinity College in Asian Studies, M.T.S. from Harvard Divinity School, and Ph.D. from Harvard University from the Committee on the Study of Religion. She specializes in Buddhism, race, and gender and the intersections of trauma and mindfulness.
She teaches courses in “Buddhist Thought and Practice,” “Introduction to Mindfulness,” “Buddhism and Film,” “Buddhism, Gender, and Sexuality,” and the capstone course for Theology and Religious Studies. In the past, she has taught courses such as “Asian Religions,” “Spiritual Traditions: East and West” “World Religions in America,” “Symbol, Ritual, and Myth,” and “Yoga: History and Practice.”
She is President of Sakyadhita International Association of Buddhist Women and serves on the board of directors of The Center for Mindful Eating and most recently served on the board of directors of Yoga Behind Bars. She is a certified Mindful Eating-Conscious Living teacher through the UCSD Center for Mindfulness. She received her 200-hour Registered Yoga Teacher training and is trained in trauma-informed yoga with Yoga Behind Bars and Y4T (Yoga for Trauma).
Publications
Select Publications
Books:
- Occupy This Body: A Buddhist Memoir (Sumeru Press, 2019).
- Silver Screen Buddha: Buddhism in Asian and Western Film (Bloomsbury Press, 2015)
- Being Buddhist in a Christian World: Gender and Community in a Korean American Temple (University of Washington Press, 2004)
Book Chapters and Articles:
- “Jeong as the Expression of the Interrelationality of Self and Other in Korean Buddhist Cinema” in Edward Y. J. Chung and Jea Sophia Oh, eds. Emotions in Korean Philosophy and Religion: Confucian, Comparative and Contemporary Perspectives.” (Forthcoming: Palgrave 2021).
- "Once the Buddha was born as Keanu Reeves: The Shaping of Buddhism in American Film." Special edition of CrossCurrents: Cinema and Public Religion. S. Brent Plate, ed. Wiley Publications, Nov. 2020.
- “Taking Refuge in the Body to Know the Self Anew: Buddhism, Race, and Embodiment,” Embodying Knowledge: Asian and Asian American Women’s Contributions to Theology and Religious Studies, ed. by Kwok Pui Lan (Palgrave MacMillan, 2020).
- “We Interrupt Your Regularly Scheduled Programming to Bring You This Very Important Public Service Announcement . . .”: aka Buddhism as Usual in the Academy,” in Emily McCrae and George Yancy, eds., Buddhism and Whiteness: Critical Reflections (Rowman & Littlefield, 2019).