Prof. Dr. B. Scherer

Prof. Dr. B. (Bee/Burkhard) Scherer is a Full Professor (Religious Studies) in the School of Humanities at Canterbury Christ Church University, United Kingdom. Prof. Scherer studied classics, Indic (Sanskrit, Pāli, Prakrits) and Tibetan philology in Germany, the United States, and the Netherlands; B.’s PhD thesis (Groningen, NL. 2001) dealt with questions of comparative myth and narratology.  An expert in Buddhist Studies and Gender Studies, Prof. Scherer has authored more than a dozen monographs and edited volumes in German, Dutch and English, among which features the substantial Introduction to Buddhism (2005 German, translated into several languages) with a foreword by HH. The Dalai Lama. B. has established the interdisciplinary, transnational Queering Paradigms Social justice research and activism network and conference series and is the editor for Peter Lang’s Queering Paradigms book series. A senior grant reviewer for international funding bodies, B. is also a member of the AHRC peer review college (UK). In Buddhist studies, Professor Scherer has published among others on karma, Nāgārjuna and early cittamātra; in recent years, B.s research has focused on transnational Tibetan Buddhism; radical, reform and socially engaged Buddhism in Asia; and Buddhist perspectives on gender and sexuality. By doing so, B. combines philological-historical methods with ethnographic-anthropological, philosophical modes of enquiry. Currently, Professor Scherer is working on a book about Buddhism, Identity and Social Justice. A longtime practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism (Karma Kagyu) Prof. Scherer has been globally teaching as a Buddhist lay teacher and is currently the vice-president of the International Lay Buddhist Forum.