Senior Research Scholar in Buddhist Philosophy

The Institute of Global Value Inquiry (IGVI) invites applications from researchers specializing in Buddhist Philosophy to apply for the position of Senior Research Scholar. This is a remote position. The successful applicant will be based at their home university, and receive a stipend of 1500 € per month, in support of a research project that explores and critically examines Buddhist values and norms in the context of global values, broadly construed.

Together with IGVI’s core team of researchers, the candidate will be engaged in cooperative research across national boundaries. The duration of this appointment is initially four years. 

You must submit a research proposal with your application. Possible lines of inquiry, for example, might involve any of the following:

• Suffering (Duḥkha/dukkha) in Buddhism and its relation to core values (compassion,nonattachment, etc.);
• Implications of the doctrine of emptiness (Śūnyatā/suññatā) for normative commitments in Buddhism;
• How Buddhist ideas of non-self (anātman/anattā) are compatible with the ascription of moral worth to persons;
• Application of Buddhist conceptions of right livelihood (samyagājīva/ sammā-ājīva) to political economy
• Gender-theoretic and feminist approaches to understanding Buddhist values;
• Buddhist philosophy in/and/of the Anthropocene;
• Animal ethics in Buddhism;
• Conceptualizing Buddhist values from a decolonial standpoint;
• Comparative research relating some aspect of Buddhist value theory to relevant ideas in other traditions (African, Western, Islamic, Indigenous, etc.).

Eligibility

• Applicants must be based in an Asian country classified by the World Bank as low- or low-middle-income (incl. India, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and Nepal). See the classification here: https://datahelpdesk.worldbank.org/knowledgebase/articles/906519-world-bank-country-and-lending-groups
• Applicants must be employed by, or connected with, an Asian university
• Applicants must have a PhD or doctorate in Philosophy, or a Cognate Discipline (e.g. Buddhist Studies, Religion, etc.) within the Humanities or Social Sciences.

Application Procedure

Applicants must send the following documents to info@igvi.org by July 15th, 2025:

• A Curriculum Vitae (CV) of no more than six pages;
• A research proposal (1000-1500 words), presenting your project’s main questions and methodological approach, and discussing how it would relate to IGVI’s research focus;
• A brief summary of the candidate’s expertise in Buddhist philosophy;
• A list of publications;
• Three to five written documents containing results of research into values and norms (no more than five article-length works and no more than two book-length works).

What We Offer

• A stipend of 1500 € per month, for four years;
• Involvement in editing the peer-reviewed, multilingual Journal of Global Value Inquiry (from 2026);
• Participation in IGVI conferences and workshops;
• Membership in a growing globally collaborative research network. 

About IGVI

IGVI is a newly founded institute for advanced studies in the humanities dedicated to genuinely global research into values and norms. It promotes inquiry into which values and norms are, or could be, globally shared (and which are not) and funds research across political, cultural, or linguistic boundaries, with a special concern for views from the Global South. The organisational structure of IGVI is decentralised, as it is designed to support research structures in the Global South and promote research cooperation across the world. (For more information, go to: www.igvi.org)

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