EDUCATION

DISSERTATION

TEN YEARS TEACHING EXPERIENCE

• 1997-98  Instructor, Department of Philosophy and Religion, James Madison University: designed and taught World Religions (Rel 101), a survey of the worlds' major religious traditions, with emphasis on their diversity.
• Spring 1997  Instructor, Department of Philosophy and Religion, James Madison University: designed and taught Exploring Religions (Rel 200), a survey of methodological approaches to the worlds' religions. Internet Home Page provided.
• Spring 1996  Instructor, Department of Religion, Sweet Briar College: designed and taught Introduction to World Religions (Rel 75) and Buddhist Art (for the Art History Department).
• Fall 1995 Visiting Instructor, Department of Religion, Washington and Lee University: designed and taught Introduction to Tibetan Buddhism (Rel 300). This course was sponsored by an outreach grant from the Center for South Asian Studies at the University of Virginia.
• Fall 1993 Instructor, Department of Religion and Philosophy, Ithaca College, Ithaca, NY: designed and taught Introduction to Tibetan Buddhism (Rel 235), a comprehensive look at the Buddhism of the Himalayas for undergraduates.
• 1988–98 Instructor, Department of Religious Studies and the University of Virginia Summer Foreign language Institute: designed and taught Introduction to Spoken and Literary Tibetan, an intensive graduate-level summer-session language course. In ten years this course has attracted almost one hundred students from Universities and Colleges worldwide. Introduction to Spoken and Literary Tibetan is the only Asian language course selected to join the University of Virginia's exclusive Summer Language Institute.
• 1989 Instructor, Department of Religious Studies, University of Virginia: designed and taught Intermediate Spoken and Literary Tibetan, a graduate-level course in Buddhist language and theory.

PUBLICATIONS

• Co-author with Elizabeth Napper: Fluent Tibetan: A Proficiency-Oriented Learning System. In four volumes, over 1000 pages with tapes or CDROM. Published by Snow Lion Publications, Ithaca, New York, 1993. Second printing, 1996.
• "The Transition to Orthodoxy in Fifteenth-Century Tibet." Forthcoming in Fifteenth-Century Studies, Vol. 25.

RESEARCH

This Spring I was appointed to the advisory board of the refereed journal, Fifteenth-Century Studies. I have been asked to contribute a series of articles about Tibet's transitional fifteenth century. The series will be entitled Doctrine and Dominion: the Politics of Reincarnation and the Struggle for Orthodoxy in Fifteenth-Century Tibet.

FELLOWSHIPS AND GRANTS

• 1992-1993 Visiting East Asia Fellow, Cornell University.  I offered Tibetan language instruction to Cornell graduate students, gave occasional lectures to East Asia Buddhist Studies seminars, and participated in the East Asia Visiting Scholar Lecture Series.
• 1990–92 Project Director of a two-year International Research and Studies Program grant from the Department of Education. Our project was to design, write, and publish Fluent Tibetan: A Proficiency-Oriented Learning System. These Tibetan colloquial in-structional materials were completed and published (Ithaca: Snow Lion Publications) in four volumes with accom-panying audio tapes.
• 1989-90 Researched, authored, and implemented first national standard Tibetan oral proficiency evaluation exams at the University of Virginia for the Center for South Asian Studies on a grant from the Department of Education.
• 1989 Researched and authored Tibetan language oral proficiency guidelines for the Center for South Asian Studies on a grant from the Department of Education.
• 1985–88 Four consecutive NDEA Title VI National Resource Fellowships in Tibetan language

LANGUAGES

PAPERS PRESENTED

• 1997 "The Wheel of Life and the Cultural Implications of Buddhism." Faculty Development Workshop, Piedmont Virginia Community College; sponsored by the Center for South Asia.
• 1996 "Ten Uncommon Assumptions of Tibetan Buddhism." Mini-Course For Educators, U.Va. Richmond Center; sponsored by the Center for South Asia.
• 1995 "Buddhism: the Adopted Religion of Tibet." Festival of Tibet Lecture Series, sponsored by the Department of Religion, Shenandoah University.
• 1994 "External, Internal, and Secret Practices in Tibetan Religions." Northern Virginia Community College, sponsored by the Center for South Asia.
• 1993 "Three Principle Aspects of the Path According to Dzong-ka-ba." At the State University of New York, Oneonta, LaFrance Psychology and Religion Lecture Series.
• 1993 "Tathagatagarbha in the Four Schools of Tibetan Buddhism." At Cornell University, East Asia Visiting Scholar Lecture Series.
• 1992 "Human Rights Violations in Tibet and U.S. Foreign Policy Towards China." At Grinnell College, The Rosenfield Lecture Series.
• 1989 "A Controversy in Tibet Regarding Sutra Passages Indicated as Interpretable in Chandrakirti's Madhyamakavatarabhashya." At Georgetown University, Mid-Atlantic Regional meeting of the Association for Asian Studies.