Minh_
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Research proposal
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Minh commits to:
Write a 300-word research proposal + make a Instagram reel summarising it
No more reports due
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My Commitment Journal
 Minh_
June 13, 2026, 8:15 AM
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| completed | |
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Palam
June 12, 2026, 11:05 PM
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| Good job | |
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Minh_
June 12, 2026, 3:01 AM
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| Friday 12 June: Wrote the 300-word report. Check. | |
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Minh_
June 10, 2026, 3:23 AM
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Wednesday 10 June On my mind right now is the general area I want to situate myself in. As Rosenboim sets out, intellectual history hardly needs more examinations of white men texts. And while I do love them, I wonder if that’s where my efforts will be best spent. After all, all the best histories come from something deeply personal - whether it’s Josh’s Anglican faith or Jana’s Czech background. I could look at ‘Western’ encounter with ‘Eastern’ ideas, but that’s still looking at those ‘Eastern’ contexts through the lens of their encounter with Western thought rather than on their own terms. And yet, that is where my interests lie. I could, of course, do something like the reception of a Western text in the East, but then I won’t get to use my Sanskrit or German. And I want to use my Sanskrit and German. Taking my cue from Josh, I definitely want ot examine intellectual and religious life. His work on the influence of German idealism on Victorian conceptions of progressive religious history in the liberal imagination is fascinating. Also his comparative and transnational approach is SO interesting. Perhaps I could look at how orientalist ideas moved transnationally in Europe - so Germany, France, and Britain? How Buddhism interacted with Christianity. While, yes, it was used as a foil to critique Christianity, might there be other forms of influence on intellectual and religious life? Could I take a local history lens with an intellectual history one? How local ideas were developed and propagated? What would it be to take both a local and a transnational approach? Cross-cultural religious encounters? How encounters with Orientalist ideas differed in Britain, Germany, France, etc. With Buddhist ideas. Histories of Buddhism in the West? Though I also want to drift too close to areas where my own Buddhist practice within Triratna may be a conflict of interest. A history of Orientalism and Asia in the Western imagination feels a bit meh to me. Reading Joshua and Jana’s articles also feels oddly reassuring. For example, Jana’s Bohemian spa article is hardly reinventing the wheel; originality can come from merging two areas of historiography (recent examinations of Central European travel writing + a temporalities/embodiment framework). Joshua is also very clearly riding the wave of 2010s transnational approaches to intellectual history through his comparative and transnational approach / books. It doesn’t have to feel or be impossible. I do have a slight interest in spiritual autobiographies and maybe sermons, even spiritual literature, poetry, music. Perhaps examining embodied spirituality? Bringing a history of the body into intellectual history, into conversation with intellectual history - breaking down mind/body separation? Also perhaps take a transnational approach? Ok, so maybe approaching intellectual history through a lens of the body, or the material? And how is the Sanskrit and German going to come into this? I actually think my biggest problem is the fact that on the one hand my own spirituality & Buddhist practice excites me and gives me energy, e.g., to learn Sanskrit, but on the other hand, I don’t want to drift too close to recent times when my faith may be a conflict of interest. I like 19th-century stuff, not so much too modern 20th-C stuff. Could I perhaps go earlier? These interactions in the Early Modern or even Ancient periods? Perhaps I could bring a regional/local AND transnational approach to intellectual history -- so the rabbis that Mary Everest Boole mentioned, how Buddhist and eastern thought not only affected the ideas of people like Shcaupenhauer but also local projects and ideas? Maybe look at Buddhist influences on Christian practices, porousness of these labels? Perhaps bring a history of emotions lens/framework into understanding intellectual history? Could I try to give intellectual history a material grounding? A material turn in intellectual history? Perhaps looking at 19thC intellectual history through a history of emotions / emotives lens???? A transnational AND emotive lens. Also, as someone whose other job (creative writing) deals with the emotional soul stuff, that makes so much sense!!! |
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