Part of the Ronald and Janette Gatty Lecture Series.

Sara Ann Swenson, Department of Religion, Dartmouth

Sara Ann Swenson researches contemporary Buddhism in Vietnam. Her current work examines rising trends of Buddhist volunteerism in Vietnam’s fastest growing urban area, Ho Chi Minh City. Drawing on twenty months of ethnographic fieldwork conducted between 2015 and 2019, she explores how lay and monastic Buddhist charity workers coped with experiences of urban alienation by framing altruism as an intersubjective act that benefits all beings. Her scholarship shows how Buddhist practices fundamentally inform a shift toward grassroots social service programming in Vietnam amid increasing economic privatization. Swenson's research has been published in The Journal of Global Buddhism, The Journal of Vietnamese Studies, Political Theology, and the Journal of Theology & Sexuality. Her work has been funded through the Charlotte W. Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship; Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad (DDRA); and The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Dissertation Fellowship in Buddhist Studies, awarded through the American Council of Learned Societies. Swenson completed her Ph.D. in Religion from Syracuse University in 2021. She holds an M.Phil. in Religion (Syracuse University, 2016), a Certificate of Advanced Study in Women’s and Gender Studies (Syracuse University, 2015), an M.A. in Comparative Religion (Iliff School of Theology, 2012), and a B.A. in English (University of Minnesota Duluth, 2009)

For questions, please contact seapgatty@cornell.edu.

Gatty Lectures will be held in-person at the Kahin Center, with the option to attend virtually as well. To attend virtually, please register at

https://cornell.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJIoduyuqDssGtVvvlSO4gwT3ujt5q….

Beverages will be served outside before the talk, and in accordance with current Cornell guidance we will be wearing masks indoors. Feel free to bring your own brownbag lunch and eat outside with us before the talk.