In this episode, Sarah Richardson speaks with Vanessa Sasson, who teaches Religious Studies at Marianopolis College in Quebec, where she also co-teaches a popular course in which students travel to Nepal.
Sarah and Vanessa talk about how Vanessa got interested in the study of Buddhism, about her new novel about Yasodhara, the Buddha’s wife, and about how writing a work of fiction has changed her approach to teaching.
Show Notes
1:18 – Sarah introduces Vanessa and her academic career
2:12 – Introducing what the podcast is and how it came about
2:50 – Vanessa outlines where she teaches and who her students are
2:28 – Student prior engagement and presuppositions of Buddhism
2:39 – Unraveling the false romantic ideals about Buddhism
6:25 – How to work through biases and assumptions
7:11 – Discussing Buddhism as a religion not as a philosophy
11:15 – Vanessa’s personal formation and introduction to Buddhism
13:39 – Active learning and student engagement
15:26 – Answer the “why”
16:30 – Students challenging the “why”
17:13 – The “why” for students who are not Buddhist studies students
21:19 – Dealing with the vastness of Buddhism
23:31 – Course topics
26:24 – Creative writing and the publication of Yasodhara
28:44 – Choosing to intervene and expose female voices
32:21 – Missing scenes
35:11 – The absence Yasodhara in narratives
38:05 – Emotional resilience of Yasodharra within narratives
39:24 – Summary of Yasodhara
41:50 – How to imagine the physical world of the Buddha
44:17 – Using art to imagine physical worlds
45:30 – The invention of new characters for Yasodhara
46:34 – Struggles in creating characters
48:34 – The potential role for the public academic
54:12 – Development of teaching
56:45 – Imaging characters who were always there
1:00:11 – Endings
Resources Mentioned
Vanessa’s 2018 book, Yasodhara: A Novel about the Buddha’s Wife, published by Speaking Tiger Books