03/30/2026
You are warmly invited to attend the 2026 Diana E. Long lecture with Dr. Daphne Weber exploring the intersections of gender, meditation practice, and ordination in Theravada Buddhism.
This lecture presents the case study of Ananda, a woman grappling with doctrinal explanations of her lived experience. Ananda was a devoted meditator who turned to meditation in hopes of clarifying her suffering. However, when reflecting on her identity as a woman, she began to experience intense and recurring symptoms commonly described as āmeditation sickness.ā When she sought guidance from meditation teachers, she was repeatedly denied support on the basis of her gender, which deepened her distress. Resolution only became possible when Ananda learned about the possibility of ordinationāan option she had long been told was impossible.
Through Anandaās story, this lecture highlights the importance of gendered mentorship in meditation, particularly for practitioners whose identities sit uneasily within heteronormative doctrinal frameworks. While Anandaās experience should not be generalized as representative of all womenās motivations for ordination, it reflects a broader question that emerged repeatedly during Dr. Weberās fieldwork: If being a woman is understood as a karmic punishment, how is one meant to practice while enduring this āinevitableā suffering?
About the Speaker:
Dr. Daphne Weber is the Program Officer of Buddhist Studies at the American Council of Learned Societies. She received her PhD in Anthropology from Washington State University and specializes in Theravada Buddhism and gender studies, with a focus on Thai Bhikkhuni (female monastic) communities. Her research addresses themes of gender, embodiment, and healing in Buddhist contexts and is grounded in extensive participatory fieldwork conducted in Thai temples. Her work has been supported by numerous awards, including the Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowship and the Khyentse Foundation Dissertation Scholarship.
Date: Tuesday, 3/31/26
When: Reception begins at 5pm
Where: Wishcamper Atrium/133
