Steven Collins (South Asian Languages and Civilizations,
The University of Chicago)
Steven Collins is Chester D. Tripp Professor in the Humanities at the University of Chicago, and a Council Member of the Pali Text Society. He previously taught at the Universities of Bristol, Indiana and Concordia (Montreal). His books include: Selfless Persons: imagery and thought in Theravada Buddhism (1982), Nirvana and other Buddhist Felicities: utopias of the Pali imaginaire (1998), A Pali Grammar for Students (2006), and Nirvana: concept, imagery, narrative (2010). He is currently working on two books, one (in French) entitled Civilisation et la femme célibataire: Bouddhisme en Asie du Sud et du Sud-est, the other entitled No-self, Gender, and Madness. Among his many articles are: ‘On the Very Idea of the Pali Canon’, in JPTS 1990 (XV); ‘The Discourse on What is Primary (Aggañña Sutta): an annotated translation’, Journal of Indian Philosophy 1993 (21); ‘What are Buddhists doing when they deny the self?’, in Religion and Practical Reason, ed. F. Reynolds and D. Tracy, 1994; ‘The Body in Theravåda Buddhist Monasticism, in The Body and Religion, ed. S. Coakley, 1997; ‘What is Literature in Pali?’, in Literary Cultures in History, ed. S. Pollock, 2003; ‘On the Third Precept: Adultery and Prostitution in Pali texts’, JPTS 2007 (XXIX); ‘Remarks on the Visuddhimagga, and on its treatment of the Memory of Former Dwelling(s) (pubbeniv?s?nussatiñåˆa)’, Journal of Indian Philosophy August 2009; and (with Justin McDaniel, ‘Buddhist “nuns” (mae chi) and the teaching of Pali in contemporary Thailand’, Modern Asian Studies 2010.
He works on Buddhist texts in Pali, and on the social history of Buddhism ion South and Southeast Asia.
