About
First-generation college student and academic. History of religions. Buddhist studies. Adjunct Instructor at Central Methodist University (online) and Heartland Community College.
Academic stuff aside, I enjoy spending time with my family, playing guitar, writing and listening to music, collecting vinyl, weight training, running, cooking, and being outside. Education
PhD (History of Religions), University of Chicago, 2022
MA (Religious Studies), University of Missouri, 2013
BA (Religious Studies), Western Illinois University, 2011
AA (General Education), Richland Community College, 2008 Publications
“Absence Deferred, Presence Realized: The Precious Banner Sūtra as a Source of Śākyamuni’s Literary Life,” Buddhist Studies Review 41 (2024) and to be republished in Literary Buddhas: From Magadha to Mexico, edited by Naomi Appleton and Christopher V. Jones. Sheffield, UK: Equinox, 2025.
“The Long Arm of the Law: The Generative Power of Metatextuality in Mahāyāna Sūtras,” introduction to “History, Performativity, and Solidarity in the Study of Mahāyāna Sūtra Literature,” special issue, History of Religions 61, no. 2 (2021): 137–44.
“When Something Cannot Be Left Out: The Case of the Inherited Course,” in “Forum: Crafting the Introductory Course in Religious Studies” (with Russell T. McCutcheon, Aaron T. Hollander, Andrew F. Durdin, Kelli A. Gardner, and Emily D. Crews), Teaching Theology & Religion 19, no. 1 (2016): 78–98. Projects
– “Realizing Birth in a Female Body According to the Ratnaketuparivarta” (with Stephanie Balkwill, UCLA)
– An intertextual reading of the Ratnaketuparivarta and the Śūraṃgama-samādhi-sūtra
– A study of the śokāgāra in (Buddhist) Sanskrit literature
– A reception history of the Ratnaketuparivarta (largely in the Tibetan context) Memberships
North American Association for the Study of Religion
American Academy of Religion
International Association of Buddhist Studies
American Oriental Society
