Summer Study Abroad in Taiwan

Explore Buddhist philosophy and urban phenomenology on a transformative journey in Taiwan.

This program is hosted in collaboration with the Association for Core Texts and Courses (ACTC).

The Program

We invite you to join us in Taipei, Taiwan, for a month-long exploration of Buddhist philosophy and urban phenomenology centered on the study of core texts—including the city itself, read as a text. The texts we read—both Buddhist and phenomenological—will prompt questions about the nature of perception and experience, which we will investigate through conversation, written reflection, and frequent excursions to sites both sacred and secular. The urban landscape will become a laboratory for us to test and refine our understanding of how we build the world within ourselves and between each other.

The program consists of two seminar courses, morning field classes held at sites throughout the city, evening workshops, weekend cultural trips, and a multi-day immersion experience at a Buddhist monastery. You will have regular free periods to explore the city on your own.

The program is credit conferring (3–6 credit hours). We will ask you to prepare and submit an essay after the conclusion of the program.

The Seminars

Taipei as a Text

Joseph R. Allen coins the title of this seminar in his book Taipei – City of Displacement, which serves as an invitation and the starting point of our study in/of Taipei. As a text, Taipei will be read through the phenomenological and architectural concept of orientation and peripatetic explorations (in a mode akin to Walter Benjamin’s flaneur). In addition to Allen’s Taipei, we will read essays by Sara Ahmed (“Orientations Toward Objects”), Dalibor Vesely (“The Nature of Communicative Space”), and Benjamin (“Paris, Capital of the Nineteenth Century”). The readings will cue our gaze, but the “walking”—as well as other modes of moving through the city—is what will make Taipei “visible.” How does Taipei disclose its orientations to us? How does it orient us to experience it in a certain way? What do what we see and experience in the city tell us about our own orientations? How are we dis/oriented in Taipei?

Exploring Perceptions through Buddhist Texts

We will explore a Buddhist framework of perceptions through reading a selection of primary texts and a multi-day immersive experience at a Buddhist monastery. A small but eclectic selection of texts will be read alongside William Waldron’s Making Sense of Mind Only – Why Yogacara Buddhism Matters. Waldron’s book brings into focus a long-standing explanatory tension in Buddhism: without an enduring and unchanging self (anattā), who/what acts and experiences the results of actions (karma)? What roles do our perceptions and actions play in a framework that eschews the extremes of essentialism and nihilism? With Taipei as a “laboratory of experience” of sorts, we will try to use the explanatory model from the Buddhist texts to analyze and reflect on our experiences in a new environment, which in turn inform and deepen our understanding of the model. Readings may include Waldron’s Making Sense, selected discourses from the Pali Canon, and excerpts from the Diamond Sutra and Nāgārjuna’s Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way.

Program Structure

The table below provides the tentative weekly schedule we will follow throughout the program.

Cost and Expenses

The program fee includes:

• Tuition
• Accommodations
• Scheduled program activities and excursions

You will need to budget for additional expenses including books and supplies, travel, food, a data plan, and personal spending. Below are some estimated expenditures. Please note these may vary depending on the seasonal fluctuations as well as your personal spending habits.

• Airfare: $1000–2000
• Food: $400–600
• Data plan and personal expenditures: $200–400

Excursion Sites

Want to get a preview of what you’ll see in Taipei? Here’s a list of sites we might visit.

• Longshan Temple (龍山寺)
  
• Dalongdong Baoan Temple (大龍洞 保安宮)
• Qingshui Temple (清水巖)
• Jiufen Old Street (九份老街)
• Maokong Gondola (貓空纜車)
• Taipei Public Library, Beitou Branch (台北圖書館北投分館)
• Pingxi Old Street (平溪老街)
• Dadaocheng Wharf (大稻埕碼頭)
• Yangmingshan National Park (陽明山)
• Presidential Office Building (總統府)
• Taipei 101 (台北101)
• Lin Family Garden (林家花園)
• Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall (中正紀念堂)
• Keelung Temple Street (基隆廟口)
• National Palace Museum (故宮博物院)
  

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I know if this program is right for me? If you want to:

• Study Great Books and Core Texts abroad
• Visit Taiwan and meet new people, discover new places, and experience a new culture
• Enjoy discussion-based seminars, exploratory day trips to cultural sites, and a multi-day immersion in a Buddhist monastic environment
• Explore Buddhist theories of perception and modern theories of the city

Then we encourage you to join us.

Do I need to know Mandarin? No, the program will be conducted entirely in English, and much of Taipei is navigable for English speakers. Mandarin-speaking program staff will be able to assist you if necessary.

Where will I stay? Dormitories will be provided, but you will need to provide daily necessities as well as bedding.