Coedited and curated by Jonathan C. Gold (Princeton University) and Suzanne van Geuns (Princeton University and TIF editorial assistant), this forum tests the utility and promise of “karmic historiography” as a methodology and an analytical perspective. How can Buddhist ethical analysis—deploying not just karma, but also concepts such as dependent origination, defilements, suffering, and no-self—serve to illuminate the deep moral and psychological dimensions underlying historical and social phenomena?

Knitting together ethics and epistemology, and social history and psychology, the authors draw on Buddhist concepts to create fresh perspectives on contemporary and historical issues, such as trauma and cycles of violence, the self-making engendered by interactions with digital technologies, and how agency is both dispersed and channeled by sociopolitical roles, among other topics and questions. The authors additionally note the shortcomings of Buddhist-inspired analyses when they are deployed in ways that flatten complexity. Taken as a whole, the forum offers a “Buddhist conceptual toolset” for exploring how moral “defilements” such as greed, hatred, and selfish self-delusion create cycles of suffering or, when countered, foster healing and justice.