Bart Dessein (PhD Ghent University 1994) is professor in the Department of Languages and Cultures (section Chinese Language and Culture) of Ghent University, where he also is the president of the research group ‘East Asian Culture in Perspective: Identity, Historical Consciousness, Modernity”. He also is Honorary Professor at Liaoning University, People’s Republic of China, and Guest Professor at Shanghai University, People’s Republic of China. He is former board member and Vice-president of the ‘European Association for Chinese Philosophy’ (2014-2016), and former President of the ‘European Association for Chinese Studies’ (2016-2022). Currently, he also is board member of the Belgian Institute for Higher Chinese Studies. His research activities concern Buddhist philosophy and Chinese political philosophy ‘historical and contemporary).
Key publications
Dessein, B. (2007). “The first Turning of the Wheel of the Doctrine. Sarvāstivāda and Mahāsāṃghika Controversy”, in The Spread of Buddhism, Edited by Ann Heirman and Stephan Peter Bumbacher. Leiden: E.J. Brill, pp.15-48.
Dessein, B. (2010). “The Abhidharma School in China and the Chinese Version of Upaśānta’s *Abhidharmahṛdayasūtra”, The Eastern Buddhist Vol.41, No.2, pp. 49-69.
Dessein, B. (2014). “Faith and Politics: (New) Confucianism as Civil Religion”, in Asian Studies II (XVIII), 1, pp.39-64.
Dessein, B. (2017). “Yearning for the Lost Paradise: The ‘Great Unity’ (datong) and Its Philosophical Interpretations”, Azijske Studie 5.1, pp.83-102.
Dessein, B. (2019), “Buddhists, Hellenists, Muslims, and the Origin of Science”. In Encountering Buddhism and Islam in Premodern Central and South Asia, edited by Ingo Strauch and Blain Auer. (Welten Süd- und Zentralasiens – Worlds of South and inner Asia – Mondes de l’Asie du Sud et de l’Asie Centrale. Volume 9). Berlin/Boston : De Gruyter, pp.177-202.