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I received my PhD in Asian Languages and Literature at the University of Washington, and my MA in Asian Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. I did my BA in Classics and South Asian Studies at Brown University.
Before joining Laurier, I was a research fellow in the Käte Hamburger Kolleg at Ruhr University Bochum (2009-2010).
I have also taught at the University of Florida (2003-2009), Florida State University (1999-2000) and Antioch College’s Buddhist Studies Program in Bodh Gaya, India (2001).
In Spring 2018 I was a Visiting Professor as Numata Chair for Buddhist Studies at Vienna University and in Fall 2023 I was a Visiitng Professor for the University Buddhist Educational Foundation at the University of Sydney.
I study South Asian religions in historical, economic and material contexts with an emphasis on issues related to processes of cross-cultural mobility and exchange. I direct ongoing projects on Upper Indus Petroglyphs and Inscriptions in Northern Pakistan funded by SSHRC research grants. I also work on early Budddhist manuscripts from ancient Gandhāra, including summaries of stories labelled as avadānas. I coordinated a collaborative research project on Buddhist rebirth narratives in literary and visual cultures of Gandhara. My interests extend broadly to dynamic interactions between South Asian religions (including Hinduism and Jainism), transregional connections and movements across Asia via overland and maritime networks, and the role of cultural and religious catalysts in the past and present.
- PI, Epigraphic and Petroglyphic Complexes of the Upper Indus: Digital preservation and promotion of written and visual cultures, supported by SSHRC Insight Grant (2021-2026)
- PI, Upper Indus Petroglyphs and Inscriptions in Northern Pakistan, supported by SSHRC Partnership Development Grant (2017-2020)
- Principal organizer of conference for "Where the Buddha was Previously Born, Seen and Heard: Transmission and transformation of rebirth narratives in art and text within and beyond Gandhara" at the Royal Ontario Museum (August 26-28, 2017), supported by SSHRC Connection Grant
- PI, Collaborative Research Grant from the Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation Program in Buddhist Studies through the American Council of Learned Societies (grant period: 2015-2017)
I supervise graduate students with interests in Buddhism, Hinduism and other South Asian religions in all of their manifestations across Central Asia and Southeast Asia and in North America.
- Early Buddhist Transmission and Trade Networks: Mobility and Exchange within and beyond the Northwestern Borderlands of South Asia. Dynamics in the History of Religion, vol. 2. Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2011.
- “From Khāśarājya to Daraddeśa – Steps towards a Regional Macrohistory of Peristan in the First Millennium CE,” in Roots of Peristan: The Pre- Islamic Cultures of the Hindukush-Karakorum, edited by Alberto Cacopardo and Augusto Cacopardo. Rome: ISMEO, 2023, 727-741.
- “Aspiring Narratives of Previous Births in Written and Visual Media from Ancient Gandhāra,” Postscripts 10.1-2 (Special issue on Books as Sacred Beings, edited by James Watts), 2019, 103- 121 [edited volume publication: Books as Bodies and as Sacred Beings, edited by James Watts and Yohan Yoo, Society for Comparative Research on Iconic and Performative Texts, Sheffield, UK: Equinoix 2021, 97-114].
- “Making Places for Buddhism in Gandharan Sacred Geography: Stories of Past and Present Births in Image and Text,” in The Geography of Gandhāran Art (Proceedings of the Second International Workshop of the Gandhāra Connections Project, University of Oxford, 22nd-23rd March, 2018), edited by Wannaporn Rienjang and Peter Stewart. Oxford: Archaeopress, 2019, 175-185. (Open Access: http://www.carc.ox.ac.uk/GandharaConnections/publication2019.htm)
- "Endangered Signposts: Upper Indus Petroglyphs and Inscriptions in Northern Pakistan," in TAASA Review (Journal of the Asian Arts Society of Australia) 26.3 (September 2017), 12-13.
- SKRT 201-202: Beginning Sanskrit
- RE101: Religion of the Americas II - Asian & Middle Eastern
- RE106: Religion and Visual Culture
- RE250: Buddhist Paths - Emergence & Development
- RE255: South Asian Religions - Past & Present
- RE307: Reading Religious Texts
- RE407: Undergraduate Reserch Seminar (Religion & Culture Capstone)
- RE622: Textual Studies - South Asian Literary & Visual Narratives
- RE644: Interpreting Asian Religions & Cultures
- RE693: Religions and Cultures in Global Contexts
- RE698: Major Research Project (MRP supervision)
- RE710: Approaches to the Study of Religion in North America
Contact Info:
Office location: Dr. Alvin Woods Building 2-112
Office hours: Fall 2024, Tuesdays 3:00 - 5:00 and by appointment
Languages spoken: English, Hindi/Urdu
Upper Indus Petroglyphs and Inscriptions in Northern Pakistan