Ph.D.   History of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore MD
M.A.   East Asian Studies, University of Virginia, Charlottesville VA
B.A. Anthropology & Cognitive Science, University of Virginia, Charlottesville VA

I am a researcher of Buddhist medicine, a system of healing that spread widely throughout Asia in the medieval period along with Buddhism. Originating in India, Buddhist medical ideas are closely related to Indian Ayurveda and ancient Greek Hippocratic medicine. Historically, this system spread as far as Iran, Mongolia, Japan, and Indonesia, and it is still the foundation of traditional medicine in Tibet, Thailand, and other parts of Asia today. My current research primarily focuses on Buddhist texts from medieval China.

Studying Buddhist medicine is a fascinating window onto the connections between Indian, Chinese, and Central Asian cultures in the premodern period. It provides an introduction to the dynamics of crosscultural exchange and translation along the Silk Road and other Eurasian trade routes. It also raises challenges such as what we mean by "religion" and "medicine" in a historical and crosscultural context.

2010-11, "Mixing Metaphors: Translating the Indian Medical Doctrine Tridosa in Chinese Buddhist Sources," Asian Medicine: Tradition and Modernity 6:55-74.

2010, "'A Flock of Ghosts Bursting Forth and Scattering': Healing Narratives in a Sixth-Century Chinese Buddhist Hagiography, "East Asian Science Technology & Medicine (EASTM) 32: 89–120.

2009, "The Buddhist Medicine King in Literary Context: Reconsidering an Early Medieval Example of Indian influence on Chinese Medicine and Surgery," History of Religions 48 (3): 183-210.

History of East Asia
Global History of Medicine
Introduction to Buddhism
History of Chinese Thought
The Silk Roads

2012-13, Penn State Abington Faculty Teaching Innovation Fellowship
2011-12, Penn Humanities Forum Mellon Regional Faculty Fellowship

2009-10, Charlotte W. Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship
2009-10, Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Completion Fellowship (declined)
2008-09, Fulbright IIE Taiwan Program
2007, Dean’s Teaching Fellowship, Johns Hopkins University