2010-2011 Shinjo Ito Postdoctoral Fellow in Buddhist Studies
Stefan Baums was a Shinjo Ito Postdoctoral Fellow at UC Berkeley and a Group in Buddhist Studies Visiting Professor during the 2011-12 academic year. He studied Indology, Tibetology and Linguistics at the Georg‐August‐Universität Göttingen; Sanskrit, Nepali and Buddhist Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London; and South Asian and Buddhist Studies at the University of Washington. He received his PhD from the University of Washington in 2009 for his study of a first‐century Gāndhārī birch‐bark manuscript containing a commentary on a selection of early...
2021-2022 Shinjo Ito Postdoctoral Fellow in Buddhist Studies
Jed Forman received his undergrad in philosophy from Tufts University with a special certificate for additional studies in Ethics, Law, and Society. There he was awarded a grant to work with the R.F. Kennedy Memorial Foundation to develop ethical investment guidelines for the Norweigan Petroleum Fund. He also received the Dance Studies Award given to one graduating senior from the dance department. After college, he had a successful seven-year career as a computer programmer and street dancer, performing and teaching in New York, LA, and internationally. Jed received his M.S. with...
2022-2024 Shinjo Ito Postdoctoral Fellow in Buddhist Studies
Samuel Grimes is Shinjo Ito Postdoctoral Fellow in Buddhist Studies. His research centers primarily on Sanskritic Vajrayāna in South Asia and Newar Buddhism in Nepal. He received an MA from the University of Hawai’i, MPhil from Oxford University, and PhD from the University of Virginia. His dissertation examined responses to crises among Buddhists of the Nepal Valley (Kathmandu Valley), and it included ethnographic work in contemporary Newar Buddhism, as well as an examination of the state of Vajrayāna in the Valley in the 13th century and the centuries leading up to that period. He...
2015-2017 Shinjo Ito Postdoctoral Fellow in Buddhist Studies
Qian Lin studied Buddhist philosophy, history, and languages at the University of Bristol, and the University of Washington. He also worked as a research associate in the Early Buddhist Manuscript Project (EBMP) at the University of Washington. He received his PhD in 2015 from the University of Washington with a thesis on the section of mind in the Chengshi Lun (成實論 *Tattvasiddhi), which is also an in-depth study on the formation and development of the Abhidharma concepts of “mental factor” (caitta or caitasika) and “association” (saṃprayoga), which are the key concepts in the Abhidharma...
2019-2021 Shinjo Ito Postdoctoral Fellow in Buddhist Studies
Ian MacCormack was the 2019-2021 Shinjo Ito Postdoctoral Fellow in Buddhist Studies. He specializes in Tibetan Buddhism, particularly the relationship between religion and the Tibetan State.
2013-2015 Shinjo Ito Postdoctoral Fellow in Buddhist Studies
Ryan Overbey studies the intellectual and ritual history of Buddhism, with particular focus on early medieval Buddhist spells and ritual manuals. He studied at Brown University (AB in Classics & Sanskrit and Religious Studies, 2001) and at Harvard University (PhD in the Study of Religion, 2010). He worked as an academic researcher for Prof. Dr. Lothar Ledderose’s project on Stone Sūtras at the Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften, and also served as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at the College of the Holy Cross. His dissertation explored the ideological and...
2011-2013 Shinjo Ito Postdoctoral Fellow in Buddhist Studies
Jann Ronis studied religion, Tibetan studies, Sinology, and the Tibetan and Chinese languages at the University of Virginia. He received his PhD from the University of Virginia in 2009 for a dissertation about developments in the monasteries of eastern Tibet, along the border between Tibet and China, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. His dissertation focused on innovations in scholastics, liturgical practices, and administration spearheaded by the lamas of Katok Monastery and their widespread adoption in the region. The resulting network of monasteries represented the only...
2017-2019 Shinjo Ito Postdoctoral Fellow in Buddhist Studies
Katarina Turpeinen was a Shinjo Ito Postdoctoral Fellow in Buddhist Studies. She specializes in Indo-Tibetan Esoteric Buddhism, particularly the Tibetan Great Perfection tradition. Her dissertation analyzes and contextualizes an influential 14th-century anthology, The Unimpeded Realization of Samantabhadra, revealed by Rindzin Gödem. During a four and half year period of doctoral research in India and Nepal, Katarina translated the anthology and studied the context of the Great Perfection while living in Tibetan monasteries. Katarina received her PhD in Religious Studies from the...
