burning refuge conference organizing team
We are a Buddhist-, BIPOC-, and queer*-centered team of Harvard Divinity School graduate students committed to radical social-spiritual justice and liberation in, around, and through Buddhism.
Matta Zheng
Conference Refounding Director
Matthew “Matta” Zheng (any pronouns) is 2nd year Masters of Divinity student at Harvard Divinity School, where he studies Buddhist ministry as it intersects with racial capitalism and end-of-life medicine. Matta also has strong interests in pan-sectarian Buddhist practice, Asian-American Buddhadharma futurities, and all subfields of social theory. Matta graduated from Stanford University in 2022 with Distinction in dual Bachelors’ in Human Biology and Political Science and Interdisciplinary Honors in LGBTQ+ Studies.
Previously Matta has been a research assistant at the Center for the Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences and the PRIDE Study, Congressional Intern for Rep. Adam Schiff, Field Organizer for the Nevada State Democratic Party, Steering Committee Counselor at the Cardinal Free Clinics, and was the founder-director of Refuge, Stanford’s first-ever LGBTQ+ spiritual community program. In the future, Matta hopes to further complete an MD/PhD in medical anthropology.
Jiamin Li
Director of Speaker Relations
Jiamin (any pronouns) is a 1st year Master of Divinity student at Harvard Divinity School exploring their interests in politics, memory, intergenerational and historical trauma, and Buddhist chaplaincy. Jiamin recently graduated from Tufts University with a Bachelor’s in International Relations.
Before HDS, Jiamin co-designed and taught a course about love and justice to first-year students at Tufts and older students across Massachusetts. With the Humanist Chaplaincy at Tufts, she coordinated the Freedom Making: A Fellowship, an experiential and collaborative learning hub for first-generation students who are emerging interreligious leaders. Jiamin also worked as a Community Development Intern at Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund based in Rwanda and as a Mapping Project and Funding Intern with Parliamentarians for the Global Goals in Denmark. Jiamin strives to do the work of the heart and the work of the system: to nurture the growth of one another and to advocate for a society that supports our collective flourishing.
Cam McCartin
Director of Publicity
Cam McCartin (they/he) is a 1st year Master of Divinity student at Harvard Divinity School, where they study intersections of Buddhism and ecology. Cam is in the process of articulating a practical Buddhist eco-theology that would inform a spiritual caregiving of the earth in its time of material and spiritual catastrophe. Cam graduated from Brown University in 2020 in the Contemplative Studies Program, where they had the great joy to pursue study of Buddhist poetry and textual criticism of early Daoist texts.
Before coming to HDS, Cam worked a couple growing seasons as an apprentice on a vegetable farm in northern Oregon, then as a farm apprentice at Green Gulch Farm and Zen Center. Cam has an abiding interest in translation studies of Buddhist texts (Pali and Chinese), as well as regenerative agriculture and food justice. Cam dreams of one day founding a lay Buddhist farm cooperative in service of the AAPI community that combines the social liberatory praxis of SoulFire Farm and the Zen approach to spiritual liberation of Green Gulch.
Leren Gao
Director of Finance
Leren Gao is currently a first-year Ph.D. student at the Committee on the Study of Religion, specializing in Tibetan Buddhism. Her academic pursuits center around the body, the senses, women’s religiosity, death, and dying, all explored through the rich biographical literature tradition of Tibetan Buddhism known as “rnam thar.”
Her interests in Buddhism and Buddhist Studies began when she was an undergraduate student at Swarthmore College. Prior to her Ph.D. program, she completed her Master of Theological Studies in Buddhist Studies at Harvard Divinity School. Her academic interest in Buddhism is largely textual and historical, but as a practitioner, she is deeply invested in reflecting on modern Buddhism and its intersections with feminism and race. She has travelled extensively on the Tibetan Plateau and the Mongolian Steppes, and she has studied and practiced in both Nepal and India.
Jeffrey Ng
Director of Call for Papers
Jeffrey Ng (he/him) is a graduate of the Master of Buddhist Counseling program at the Centre of Buddhist Studies, University of Hong Kong, and holds a Bachelor of Business Administration in Professional Accountancy from The Chinese University of Hong Kong. He is a certified mindfulness teacher with the Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute and is currently furthering his studies as a Buddhist Ministry Initiative international fellow at Harvard Divinity School. Jeffrey’s academic interests are diverse, encompassing Buddhist counseling, mindfulness and Buddhist meditation, contemporary Buddhist practice, transpersonal psychology, the potential of psychedelics, and comparative spirituality.
Before his deep dive into the realms of mindfulness and Buddhist studies, Jeffrey worked as a finance and restructuring adviser in multinational professional service firms, where he gained extensive experience in the business and professional context. This unique blend of business acumen and spiritual practice provides Jeffrey with a comprehensive perspective on integrating Buddhist principles into modern professional life.
In his role as Co-Head of Dharma Drum for Young People at Dharma Drum Mountain’s Hong Kong Branch, Jeffrey led a passionate team of volunteers in initiatives that have positively impacted the youth in Hong Kong. Aspiring to become a Buddhist chaplain and contribute to the emerging field of psychedelics research, Jeffrey is driven by his belief in the infinite potential and capacity for transformation within every individual and community.
Yanchen Liu
Deputy Director of Finance
Yanchen Liu (he/him) is a 1st year Master of Theological Studies at Harvard Divinity School, where he concentrates on the comparative theological studies between Eastern and Western religions. Yanchen has strong interest in exploring how a common theme e.g., salvation is conceived and interpreted in different religious worldviews and various primary texts. Before coming to HDS, Yanchen graduated from University of Birmingham, where he achieved Bachelor’s degree with First-class honor in Philosophy, Religion and Ethics, and decided to become a religious scholar and philanthropist as his dream of life.
Along with his academic interests, Yanchen has a great passion in humanitarian works. He worked as a fundraising officer at CDS Kenya to support the education of woman and girls from most impoverished Kenyan communities; and worked as a researcher in United Nations. Yanchen devotees his life wishing to build a world-wide multifaith community against hate, inequality and injustice.
Kien Le
Factotum
Kien Le is pursuing their Master of Theological Studies (MTS) degree at Harvard Divinity School in Buddhist Studies, with interest in researching the Buddhist psychological, philosophical, and theological paradigms in context of contemporary issues, intra- and interfaith conversations, and psychosocial healing. They graduated from the University of Georgia in 2023 in Linguistics and Asian Languages and Literature, having studied Sanskrit and Classical Chinese in preparation for working with classical Buddhist texts.
Previously Kien had taught as a teaching assistant in the Vietnamese Language Department of UGA in Vietnamese history and culture, from which their interest in history and cultures led to an ever-growing interest in Asian modes of thought and being. Kien hopes to further introduce the Buddhist way of seeing and being to the contemporary world. Currently they are in the process of writing a philosophical novel based on Buddhist and Daoist thought, hoping sales would fund their further pursuit for higher degrees in psychology and philosophy. Otherwise, Kien also dreams of opening their own tea shop or becoming a hermit in a remote mountain living self-sustainably in nature.
Hiatt O’Connor
Director of Event Logistics
Hiatt O’Connor (he/him) is a first year Master of Divinity student at Harvard Divinity School, where he explores the unfolding encounters between Dharmic and Christian wisdom traditions. In his experience, this encounter renews our perspectives, possibilities, and paths of practice – and so it is vital for the crises of our time. He is also studying how to form inter-religious or non-religious bases for restorative spiritual care and chaplaincy work. He graduated in 2020 from the University of Lynchburg and its Westover Honors College, where he studied philosophy and poetry.
Hiatt is a member of the Mountains and Rivers Order of Zen Buddhism and the Pipe Creek Friends (Quaker) Meeting. Before coming to HDS, he worked as a middle school Site Director for the Boys and Girls Clubs of Carroll County, Maryland. He also served in equine therapy and rehabilitation programs for at-risk and disabled youth at Brook Hill Farm in Forest, VA. When unoccupied, he likes to spend his time reading, writing, and ambling around outside.
Deung Myeong Sunim
Deputy Director of Speaker Relations
Ven. Deung Myoung Sunim
Deung Myoung Sunim is a Buddhist monk, fully ordained in The Korean Buddhist Jogye Order and 1st year Master of Theological Studies student at Harvard Divinity School. His research interests draw lived Buddhist theology into conversation with decolonial thought and explore constructive Korean Buddhism and Korean diasporic Buddhist theologies, focusing especially on questions of indigenous Buddhism, ancestrality, and multi-religious studies. Previously, he co-organized inter-traditional retreats with the French and Thai Plum Village traditions, ran exchange and service ministry programs with the Pa-auk tradition in Myanmar and the Tibetan tradition in Nepal.
Thank you to our co-sponsors!
01
The Harvard Open Gate Foundation – Gender and Sexuality Caucus
02
Harvard Divinity School Buddhist Ministry Initiative
03
Harvard Divinity School Office of Student Life
04
Harvard University, Department of Anthropology
Who’s next?
Please reach out to our team if you are interested in becoming a sponsor of this Conference!
BURNING REFUGE: The 2024 Buddhism and Social-Spiritual Liberation Conference, at Harvard Divinity School
Date & Location
March 7 – 9, 2024
VIRTUAL on Zoom
IN-PERSON at Harvard Divinity School 45 Francis Ave, Cambridge, MA 02138