禁漫天堂

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Skidmore College
Religious Studies Department
Ryan Richard Overbey

Ryan Richard Overbey

Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation Associate Professor in Buddhist Studies

Deptartment Chair

Office:  Ladd 212
Phone:  (518) 580-5412
Email:  roverbey@skidmore.edu

Curriculum Vitae

Degrees:

  • Ph.D., Harvard University, Committee on the Study of Religion (2010)
  • A.B., Brown University, Classics & Sanskrit and Religious Studies (2001)

Teaching and Research Interests:

Buddhism, Chinese religions, Indian religions, Tantra, esoteric traditions, ritual, theory and method in the study of religion, digital humanities.

I work at the intersection of ritual and intellectual history in the Buddhist tradition, probing the close links between theory and practice, between philosophy and liturgy. My work focuses on the edition and interpretation of ritual texts and magical grimoires preserved in Chinese, Sanskrit, and Tibetan in the first millennium CE.

Courses:

  • AS 101 Introduction to Asian Studies
  • AS251C Asian Ecologies and Cosmologies
  • RE 103 Understanding Religions
  • RE 221 Buddhism: An Introduction
  • RE 321 Buddhism and the Body

Books:

  • The Vaults of Buddhas: Buddhist preaching and rituals of represencing in the Great Lamp of the Dharma Dha虅ran蹋i虅 Scripture. Under review.
  • Beyond the Silk and Book Roads: rethinking networks of exchange and material culture. Co-edited with Michelle Wang. Leiden: Brill, Forthcoming.
  • , co-edited with David B. Gray. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016.

Articles and Chapters:

  • 鈥淎 Gandha虅ran among the Tu虉rks: Buddhist texts and travels in the biography of *Dhya虅nagupta (528鈥605).鈥 In Ryan Richard Overbey and Michelle Wang, eds. Beyond the Silk and Book roads: rethinking networks of exchange and material culture. Leiden: Brill, forthcoming.
  • 鈥溾榃hy don鈥檛 we translate spells in the scriptures?鈥: Medieval Chinese exegesis on the meaning and function of dha虅ran蹋i虅 language.鈥 Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 42 (2020): 493鈥 514.
  • 鈥淭丑别 Consecration Scripture Spoken by the Buddha on Being Reborn in Whichever of the Pure Lands of the Ten Directions You Wish.鈥 In Georgios Halkias and Richard K. Payne, eds. The Buddhism of Pure Lands: a thematic anthology of primary sources, 33鈥55. Pure Land Buddhist Studies Series. Honolulu: University of Hawai鈥榠 Press, 2019.
  • 鈥淭丑别 Sutra on the Profound Kindness of Parents.鈥 In Martin Baumann and Sun Hua, eds. Buddhist stone sutras in China, Sichuan Province 4, 119鈥121. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2018.
  • The Perfection of Wisdom in the Sutras.鈥 In Buddhist stone sutras in China, ed. Claudia Wenzel and Sun Hua, Sichuan Province 3: 123鈥127. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2016.
  • 鈥淰icissitudes of text and rite in the Great Peahen Queen of Spells.鈥 In Tantric traditions in transmission and translation, ed. David B. Gray and Ryan Richard Overbey, 257鈥283. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016.
  • 鈥淪croll 12 and 11 of the Consecration Sutra.鈥 In Buddhist stone sutras in China, ed. Tsai Suey-Ling and Sun Hua, Sichuan Province 2: 24鈥34. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2015.
  • 鈥淥n the appearance of siddhis in Chinese Buddhist texts.鈥 In Yoga powers: extraordinary capacities attained through meditation and concentration. Ed. Knut Axel Jacobsen, 127鈥144. Leiden: Brill, 2012.

Fellowships and Honors:

  • ACLS / Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation Grant for Critical Editions and Scholarly Translations: funding for full year of pre-tenure research leave to prepare translation of the Consecration Scripture, 2021鈥2022
  • Shinj艒 It艒 Postdoctoral Fellowship in Buddhist Studies, University of California, Berkeley, 2013鈥2015
  • Harvard Graduate Society Dissertation Completion Fellowship, 2008鈥2009
  • Harvard University Certificate of Distinction in Teaching, 2008
  • Harvard Graduate Student Council Summer Conference Grant, 2008
  • Harvard Extension School Commendation for distinguished teaching performance, 2008
  • Harvard Presidential Instructional Technology Fellowship Award for Achievement in Instructional Technology, 2007
  • Jacob K. Javits Fellowship, 2001鈥2005
  • Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship in Humanistic Studies, 2001