Dr Benedetta Lomi
BA (University of Venice), MA (SOAS), PhD (SOAS)
Overview
Department of the Study of Religions
Senior Teaching Fellow
Centre for the Study of Japanese Religions (CSJR)
Member
- Name:
- Dr Benedetta Lomi
- Email address:
- bl21@soas.ac.uk
- Address:
- SOAS, University of London
Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG - Building:
- Russell Square: College Buildings
- Office Hours:
- 343
- Thesis title:
- The Precious Steed of the Buddhist Pantheon: Ritual, Faith and Images of Bato Kannon in Japan.
Internal Supervisors
Teaching
Research
Benedetta Lomi’s research focuses on Japanese Buddhism, its material and visual culture, with particular emphasis on the performative, healing, and transformative dimensions of Buddhist rituals, scriptures and objects. Her research questions thus pertain the way in which people engage in ritual activities or with devotional objects to shape their body and mind, as well as the degree to which religious practices actively transform the physical world.
Before receiving her Ph.D. in Study of Religions from SOAS in 2011, she served as Visiting Instructor for the History Department at Goldsmiths College. Between 2011 and 2012 she was the Shinjo-ito Postoctoral Fellow in Japanese Buddhism at UC Berkeley. Benedetta is now Senior Teaching Fellow in the department of the Study of Religions at SOAS and is working on a ‘monographic’ study on the Bodhisttva Batō Kannon in Japan titled Giving Shape to Batō Kannon: On the Affectivity of Images, Rituals, and Other Things.
Publications
Book Chapters
Lomi, Benedetta (2010) 'Iconography of Ritual: Images, Texts and Beliefs in the Batō Kannon Fire Ritual.' In: Michaels, Axel and Mishra, Anand and Dolce, Lucia and Raz , Gil and Triplett , Katja, (eds.), Grammars and Morphologies of Ritual Practices in Asia, vol. 1 of Ritual Dynamics and the Science of Rituals. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, pp. 525-545.
Articles
Lomi, Benedetta (2009) 'To Display Pilgrimage: Reflections on the Saikoku Thirty-three Kannon Pilgrimage Exhibition.' Centre For the Study of Japanese Religions Bulletin, 18-19 .
