Anna Halafoff

In 2012, Anna Halafoff, Ruth Fitzpatrick and Kim Lam applied Paul Numrich's framework to the study of Buddhism in so‐called Australia, to determine if it constituted a distinct field of study. They concluded that it was an emerging field, according to Numrich's three categories of specialisation, organisation and publication. Thirteen years later, this article extends Numrich's framework, adding a fourth category of ‘diversity’, and applies this framework to the study of Buddhism in Australia, concluding that it is now a maturing, multidisciplinary, field of study. This article provides evidence for these claims, and particularly how recent Australian research is contributing to rendering Asian Buddhist communities more prominent in the study of Buddhism in Australia and the West more broadly. In so doing, it seeks to reposition the study of Buddhism in Australia away from the margins and more towards the centre of studies of religion on this continent, and also of global Buddhism.

Increasing numbers of adults and young people in contemporary societies are identifying as ‘spiritual but not religious’ or as ‘spiritual and religious’ (Fedele and Knibbe 2020; Halafoff, Singleton...

Living and dying well together in the Anthropocene, in the context of intensifying climate crises, global pandemics, and fast-paced hustle culture, is an increasingly daunting task. While many wellness movements call for strict regimes and vigorous activity, striving for largely unattainable bodily norms and longevity, an emerging trend centres on embracing natural processes and temporalities of resistance focused on relaxation, rest, and even decay. So-called ‘girl mossing’ and ‘girl rotting’ encourage women to be intentionally unproductive, and to spend time instead lying on a forest floor, staring up at a canopy of trees, caressing moss. Similarly, members of the ‘death positive’ and ‘new death’ movements advocate for sensorial connection with nature at the end of life, and for an embrace of practices of decay and decomposition. Both trends are dominated by women and influenced by Buddhist and Pagan traditions. They also exemplify spiritual complexity, particularly relating to biomedicine and consumerism. Examining these interconnected lifestyle and deathstyle movements, this article considers the uptake of ‘relational naturalism’ in contemporary societies as an antidote to the personal and planetary harms of neoliberal capitalism.

The ‘multispecies turn’ in the social sciences and humanities is informing many disciplines including animal studies, anthropology, Indigenous studies and, more recently, sociology of religion. Scholars working on multispecies relations employ various methods and methodologies, many of which are challenging modern, Western, Christian paradigms and practices that are anthropocentric and focus on logos/words/texts/beliefs. This discussion examines new and multiple ways of conducting multispecies focused research, that is critical, reflexive, embodied, affective and intuitive. It begins with an overview of the methods applied by notable scholars – Kimmerer, Tsing and Beaman – researching multispecies relations, and then includes four personal ‘riotous’ reflections by this article’s co-authors, on their own positionality and experiences of conducting such research. The discussion concludes by identifying key challenges in research on diverse worldviews and multispecies relations, and aims to generate creative and scientific responses to further decenter anthropocentrism in academia.