Buddhist Personhood Between Gendered Hierarchies: How Transgender Members of Soka Gakkai in Japan Cultivate Subjectivities

Levi McLaughlin is an Associate Professor at the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at North Carolina State University. His research focuses primarily on religion in modern and contemporary Japan and considers how the category "religion" takes shape in the contexts of politics, education, and related spheres. He is the first non-member, non-Japanese researcher to spend years as a participant observer of Soka Gakkai, a highly influential lay Buddhist organization that is affiliated with the political party Komeito (part of Japan's governing coalition) and claims the largest membership of any modern Japanese religious organization. His publications and presentations to date have centered on grassroots-level experiences of Soka Gakkai members, and his work considers how this organization challenges widely accepted religion parameters through its doctrinal, cultural, and political initiatives.