Anne M. Blackburn

Professor South Asian Studies and Buddhist Studies 346 Rockefeller Hall (607) 254-6501 amb242@cornell.edu

Biographical Note

Ph.D. in History of Religions received in 1996 from The University of Chicago Divinity School. M.A. in Religious Studies received in 1990 from The University of Chicago Divinity School. B.A. in Asian History & Religion (Special Major) received in 1988 from Swarthmore College. Teachers include: Steven Collins, Charles Hallisey, Frank Reynolds, P.B. Meegaskumbura, and Donald Swearer.

I was trained to study Buddhism as an historian of religions (in a program greatly influenced by historical sociology and hermeneutics) rather than as a philologist. My secondary supervisor worked in Buddhist Studies and South Asian Studies and was (unusually for the field at that time) insistent that scholars working on Buddhist texts attend to their literary features, and the contexts for their composition and reception. This combination of influences led me to an interest in Buddhist textual culture, and to combine close textual studies with an investigation of Buddhist institutional histories (an interest dating to my undergraduate days at Swarthmore College). Much of my work focuses on Buddhist monastic cultures, and Buddhist participation in networks linking Sri Lanka and mainland Southeast Asia before and during colonial presence in the region.

Major Publications & Research in Progress:
Books: