As part of the Fall Fridays Scholarship WebinAAR Series, this webinar will engage Dr. Stephanie Balkwill’s innovative and field-changing monograph, The Women Who Ruled China: Buddhism, Multiculturalism, and Governance in the Sixth Century (University of California Press, 2024). In this book, Balkwill articulates a methodology she dubs “Buddhist feminist historiography" in writing an innovative social and political history of female leadership during the Northern Wei dynasty in medieval China. Dr. Balkwill’s historiography is feminist because it seeks to challenge not just the content of history writing focused on “great men” by centering a female ruler but the very methodologies that produce what she calls “’great men’ history.” Balkwill’s feminist historiography is “Buddhist” in that it prioritizes Buddhist sources over those of the history writing of the Ru class, highlighting the Buddhist nature of the Empress Dowager’s leadership and illuminating a pivotal historical moment in which new models of Buddhist sovereignty were emerging. In this webinar, five scholars of Buddhist Studies with varying area expertise who all share an interest in historiographical methodologies and feminist approaches will engage Dr. Balkwill's book. Dr. Balkwill will respond.