Professor Funie Hsu (San José State University), will give a talk, "Secular Mindfulness and the Fear of an Asiatic Buddhist Peril", as part of the lecture series on Asian American religious life. 

Funie Hsu/Chhî (she/they) is a transdisciplinary scholar whose work melds American Studies, Asian American Studies, Buddhist Studies, Education, and other fields. Hsu/Chhî is currently Associate Professor of American studies at San José State University and was a former University of California President's Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California, Davis. She received a Ph.D. in Education with a Designated Emphasis in Women, Gender, and Sexuality from the University of California, Berkeley. Prior to her academic career, she was an elementary school teacher in the Los Angeles Unified School District. She is currently working on a book project that examines the popular secularization of Buddhist mindfulness in the context of American public schools. Her scholarship and essays have appeared in American Quarterly; Journal of Global Buddhism; Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies; Educational Studies; CATESOL; L2 Journal; The Immanent Frame; Lion's Roar;  Buddhadharma; The Progressive, and elsewhere. Hsu/Chhî is a co-organizer of May We Gather, a national Buddhist memorial ceremony for Asian American ancestors.