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 approaches to
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 the scholars working on
Buddhist texts attend to their literary features, and the contexts for their composition and reception. This
combination of influences allows me to approach Buddhist texts with attention to the contexts in which they were
composed and used. It has also led me to substantial work in the history of
devotional practices and intellectual history, topics first broached in undergraduate days at Swarthmore College. I
approach this work with the assumption that the history of Buddhist texts and practices should not be divorced from
the history of other forms of life with which they are closely connected, and through which they have been constituted.
"Notes on Sri Lankan Temple Manuscript Collections." Journal of the Pali Text Society. 27(2002):1-59.
"Serendipity and Sadness." In Excursions and Explorations: Cultural Encounters Between the United States and Sri Lanka, ed. Tissa Jayatilleke. (Print Pack Limited, Colombo 2002).
"Looking for the Vinaya: Monastic Discipline in the Practical Canons of the Theravada." Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies. 22 (1999):2: 281-309.
"Magic in the Monastery: Textual Practice and Monastic Identity in Sri Lanka." History of Religions. 38 (1999): 4:354-372.
Graduate Study:
Prospective graduate students, and graduate students working at other institutions, are welcome to communicate
about their plans and interests: amb242@cornell.edu or 607-254-6501.