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.

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 am directing a project on Upper Indus Petroglyphs and Inscriptions in Northern Pakistan funded by a SSHRC Partnership Development Grant. I am also working on Buddhist story summaries labelled as avadānas in 1st century CE Gandhari manuscripts, and coordinating 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.

• Director, Upper Indus Petroglyphs and Inscriptions in Northern Pakistan, supported by SSHRC Partnership Development Grant
• 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.
• Co-ordinator for a 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).
• South Asian Studies Expert Consultant, Mercator foundation grant for “Dynamics of Textual Corpora and Image Programs: Representations of Buddhist Narratives along the Silk Routes,” Center for Religious Studies (CERES), Ruhr University Bochum (2010).
• Research Fellowship in Indian Religious History, “Dynamics in the History of Religions between Asia and Europe,” Käte Hamburger Kolleg, Ruhr University Bochum (2009-2010).
• German Academic Exchange (DAAD) Research Visit award (2004).

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.
• Co-editor with Carol Altman Bromberg and Timothy J. Lenz, Bulletin of the Asia Institute 23 (2013): Evo ṣuyadi – Essays in Honor of Richard Salomon’s 65th Birthday.
• “Literary and Visual Narratives in Gandhāran Buddhist Manuscripts and Material Cultures: Localization of Jātakas, Avadānas, and Previous-Birth Stories” in Material Culture and Asian Religions: Text, Image, Object, edited by Benjamin Fleming and Richard Mann. Routledge Research in Religion, Media, and Culture. New York: Routledge, 2014, 252-264.
• “Networks for Long-Distance Transmission of Buddhism in South Asian Transit Zones” in Buddhism Across Asia: Networks of Material, Intellectual and Cultural Exchange, edited by Tansen Sen. Singapore: Institute for Southeast Asian Studies, 2014, vol. 1: 3-17.
• “Localizing the Buddha’s Presence at Wayside Shrines in Northern Pakistan” in Religions and Trade: Religious Formation, Transformation and Cross-Cultural Exchange between East and West, edited by Volker Rabens and Peter Wick. Dynamics in the History of Religion, vol. 5. Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2014, 45-64.
• “As the Dharmacakra Turns: Buddhist and Jain Macrohistorical Narratives of the Past, Present, and Future” in Thinking, Recording, and Writing History in the Ancient World, edited by Kurt Raaflaub. Blackwell Series in the Ancient World: Comparative Histories. Malden, MA: Wiley- Blackwell, 2014, 97-116.
• "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.