Benjamin Bogin was a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow for 2005-07. He received his BA (Intercultural Studies) from Simon's Rock College of Bard and his MA and PhD (Buddhist Studies) from the University of Michigan. His primary interests are Tibetan Buddhist literature and history and his doctoral dissertation consists of a critical edition, translation, and study of the autobiography of the seventeenth-century Tibetan lama, Yolmo Tenzin Norbu. He is currently Associate Professor of Asian Studies at Skidmore College.
Jack Meng-Tat Chia was a National University of Singapore-Overseas Postdoctoral Fellow. He is a historian of religions who studies Buddhism and Chinese popular religion in maritime Southeast Asia, with a focus on the transregional circulation of people, ideas and resources. Born and raised in Singapore, he received his BA (Hons) and MA from the National University of Singapore, his second MA from Harvard University, where he was a Harvard-Yenching Scholar, and his PhD from Cornell University. He is currently working on his book manuscript tentatively titled “Diaspora’s Dharma: Buddhism and...
2018-2019 Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow
Oren Hanner was the Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow in Buddhist Studies for 2018 and 2019. From 2021 to 2024, he served as Visiting Assistant Professor at the Philosophy Program at NYU, Abu Dhabi, where he taught courses on Buddhist, South-Asian, as well as Western philosophy. Starting from Fall 2024, he is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Comparative Philosophy at the Arts and Humanities Division, Duke Kunshan University. Oren’s main areas of research are Buddhist and Cross-Cultural Philosophy, with a special interest in ethics, philosophy of action, and...
2014-2016 Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow
Xi He was the Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow, 2014-16. Her research interests include Buddhist narratives; the translation and transmission of Buddhist texts in Sanskrit, Tibetan, and Chinese; and women and gender in Buddhism traditions. She received her Ph.D. in 2012 from the Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago. Her dissertation focused on the early Sanskrit Buddhist text, the Lalitavistara, exploring how Buddhist values and ideals are textualized in Buddhist narratives and the close relationship between Sanskrit...
Natasha Heller was a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow for 2006-08. She specializes in the intellectual and religious history of China, with a particular focus on the intersection of Buddhism and literati culture. She received her PhD (East Asian Languages and Civilizations) from Harvard University, with a dissertation on the Chan monk Zhongfeng Mingben (1263-1323) and his literati followers. She is currently Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia.
2016-2018 Shinjo Ito Postdoctoral Fellow in Japanese Buddhism
Erez Joskovich was the Shinjo Ito Postdoctoral Fellow in Japanese Buddhism (2016-18). He specializes in the intellectual and religious history of Chan/Zen Buddhism, with a particular focus on the development of Japanese Zen since the 18th century to the present. His doctoral dissertation is a detailed study of the development of lay Zen in modern Japan. While working on his dissertation he was awarded fellowships from the Japan Foundation and the Japanese Ministry of Education. The fellowships enabled him to work as a visiting scholar at the University of Tokyo (2008-12). He received his...
2010-2012 Swedish Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow
Stefan Larsson received his Ph.D. in History of Religions from Stockholm University in 2009. His doctoral dissertation is a detailed study of the life stories of the “mad” Tibetan yogin Tsangnyon Heruka (1452-1507). While working on his dissertation he was awarded a fellowship from the Swedish Foundation for International Cooperation in Research and Higher Education (STINT). The fellowship enabled him to spend a semester as a visiting scholar at the University of Virginia. His research focuses upon the non-monastic and practice-oriented forms of Tibetan Buddhism. Moreover, he is interested...
2023-2025 Shinjo Ito Postdoctoral Fellow in Japanese Buddhism
Dr. Lazzerini received her Ph.D in Religious Studies from Stanford University in 2023. Her dissertation, “Mother of Demons and Dharma Protector: Tracing Hārītī’s Worship in East Asia,” explores the different manifestations and worship of the goddess Hārītī in China and Japan, covering a period spanning from the fourth century CE to modern times.
Before completing her Ph.D., Simona spent a year in Japan doing fieldwork in Nichiren temples with the generous support of BDK (Bukkyō Dendō Kyōkai 仏教伝道協会). Simona’s fields of interest include demonology, female deities, East Asian visual...
2014-2016 Shinjo Ito Postdoctoral Fellow in Japanese Buddhism
Michaela Mross was the Shinjo Ito Postdoctoral Fellow in Japanese Buddhism, 2014-16. Her research interests are Zen Buddhism, Buddhist rituals, sacred music, and manuscript and print culture in premodern Japan. She completed her PhD in Japanese Studies at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich in 2014 with a thesis on kōshiki (Buddhist ceremonials) in the Sōtō school after having conducted research at the Komazawa University and the Research Institute for Japanese Music Historiography of the Ueno Gakuen University from 2007-2013. Before coming to Berkeley, she was a research associate (...
