Dr. Ana Bajzelj

Areas of specialization:

Jainism, South Asian philosophy

Areas of competence:

Sanskrit, East Asian philosophy

Email

Personal website

Dr. Ana Bajzelj completed her PhD studies in 2013 at the Department of Philosophy, University of Ljubljana. Her doctoral dissertation, The Nature of Change in Jaina Philosophy, investigated the notion of change in relation to the general ontological model and the particular substances in the works of Kundakunda and Umasvati. The dissertation has been accepted for publication by Ljubljana University Press.

From 2009-2012 she participated in the research project “The Philosophical Relevance of Death and Dying” at the University of Ljubljana and co-edited a volume, Life, Death, and Dying in Intercultural Perspective, with the project director Dr. Maja Milcinski. From 2009-2013 she was a junior research fellow and teaching assistant at the Department of Philosophy, University of Ljubljana. In 2013 she was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations to continue her research on Jain ontology at the Centre for Advanced Study in Philosophy, University of Rajasthan. As a Polonsky fellow, she will trace the development of the Jain understanding of time and temporality, placing it into the specific frameworks of Jain metaphysics.

Publications:

Books

  • (Co-authored with Brianne Donaldson) Insistent Life: Foundations for Bioethics in the Jain Tradition. Manuscript under contract at Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books (series Explorations in Indic Traditions: Theological, Ethical, and Philosophical, ed. Jeffery D. Long).
  • Nāgārjuna, Mūlamadhyamakakārikā. Translation from Sanskrit to Slovenian with Sebastjan Vörös and Gašper Kvartič. Manuscript under contract at Ljubljana: KUD Logos.
  • The Nature of Change in Jaina Philosophy. Ljubljana: Ljubljana University Press, Faculty of Arts, 2016.

Edited volumes

  • (Co-edited with Maja Milčinski) Life, Death and Dying in Intercultural Perspective. Ljubljana: Ljubljana University Press, Faculty of Arts, 2011.

Refereed journal articles

  • “Mahāvīra: From Heretic to Fordmaker.” Education About Asia, Vol. 20, No. 3, Winter 2015, pp. 8–11.
  • “At the End of Knowing: Reflection on the Nature of Extraordinary Ways of Knowing in Indian Philosophies.” Poligrafi, Vol. 18, No. 71/72, 2013, pp. 155–174.
  • “The Jain Ontological Model According to Kundakunda and Umāsvāti.” Asian Studies, Vol. 16, No. 1, 2013, pp. 3–16.
  • “The Concept of Time and its Relationship to Change in Kundakunda’s Philosophy.” Śramaṇa, Vol. 62, No. 1, 2011, pp. 18–35.
  • “The Ontological Aspects of Jain Soteriology with a Particular Reference to the Bonded and Liberated States of the Soul.” Asian Horizons, Vol. 5, No. 2, 2011, pp. 266–279.
  • “Nāgārjuna’s Philosophical Deconstruction in Mūlamadhyamakakārikā.” Anthropos, Vol. 41, No. 1/2, 2009, pp. 191–209.

Book chapters

  • “Clay Pots, Golden Rings, and Clean Upper Garments: Causality in Jaina Philosophy.” In: Confrontations in Context: Intellectual and Lived Spaces across South Asia and Beyond. Eds. Lucas den Boer and Elizabeth Cecil. Berlin: De Gruyter, forthcoming.
  • “Nonviolence Toward One-Sensed Beings in Jainism.” In: Nonviolence as a Way of Life: History, Theory, Practice. Vol. I. Eds. Predrag Cicovacki and Kendy Hess. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 2017, pp. 236–260.
  • “When Earth Comes Alive: Earth-Bodied Beings in Jain Tradition.” In: Soulless Matter, Seats of Energy: Metals, Gems and Minerals in South Asian Religions and Culture. Eds. Fabrizio M. Ferrari and Thomas Dähnhardt. Sheffield and Bristol, CT: Equinox, 2016, pp. 255–274.
  • (Co-authored with Shivani Bothra) “The Rise of Non-Veg: Meat and Egg Production and Consumption in Contemporary India.” In: The Future of Meat Without Animals. Eds. Brianne Donaldson and Christopher Carter. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield, 2016, pp. 67–86.
  • “Ethics and Death: Establishing Theravāda Buddhist Ethics on the Basis of the Concept of Impermanence.” In: Life, Death and Dying in Intercultural Perspective. Eds. Maja Milčinski and Ana Bajželj.  Ljubljana: Ljubljana University Press, Faculty of Arts, 2011, pp. 113–124.

Encyclopedia entries

“Khandha, Buddhism” (pp. 655–660), “Materialism, Buddhism” (pp. 758–760), “Middle Way, Buddhism” (pp. 775–778), “Puḍgala (Puggala), Buddhism” (pp. 948–951), “Reality, Buddhism” (pp. 985–993), “Rebirth, Buddhism” (pp. 996–1003), “Relativity, Buddhism” (pp. 1003–1005), “Theravāda, Buddhism” (pp. 1205–1219), “Ajīva, Jainism” (pp. 54–57), “Dharma, Jainism” (pp. 385–388), “Dravya, Jainism” (pp. 404–406), “Jīva, Jainism” (pp. 594–598), “Tattvārtha Sūtra, Jainism” (pp. 1188–1191), “Time, Jainism” (pp. 1238–1241), “Reality, Jainism” (pp. 993–996). Encyclopedia of Indian Religions. Buddhism and Jainism. Eds. Arvind Sharma, K. T. S. Sarao, and Jeffery D. Long. Dordrecht: Springer, 2017.