I specialize in teaching alternative histories of Tibet focused on gender and Buddhist cultures outside the monastery. These are ideal subjects to deconstruct student’s assumptions about Buddhism because study of subaltern communities requires a context-sensitive approach to reading religious texts. Because Buddhist Studies necessitates a cross-cultural encounter, I consider my classroom a training ground where students learn productive methods to encounter the unfamiliar.
My goal is to facilitate a view of Tibet as a diverse, complex, and changing world with contradicting configurations and re-configurations of Buddhist philosophy and praxis. My orientation towards alterities emphasizes grappling with complexities and contingencies. Thus, students leave my classroom with the training necessary to respond with context sensitive insights, considering how multiple contexts shape how a history is understood. This is the main motivation behind my teaching. Beyond the content of any course itself, my goal is to equip students with the skills to engage with alterity through the encounters with radical otherness that religious studies so naturally provides.