6/24/2017 |DepartmentofReligiousStudies

DEPARTMENT OF RELIGIOUS STUDIES

Faculty
AHMED H. AL-RAHIM

ELIZABETH SHANKS ALEXANDER

MICHAEL ALLEN

JESSICA ANDRUSS

ASHER D. BIEMANN

LARRY BOUCHARD

ERIK BRAUN

KATHLEEN FLAKE

NICHOLE M. FLORES

JENNIFER L. GEDDES

DAVID GERMANO

GREG SCHMIDT GOERING

MARK HADLEY

MARTIEN HALVORSON-TAYLOR

KEVIN HART

MATTHEW HEDSTROM

NATASHA HELLER

CYNTHIA HOEHLER-FATTON

WILLIS JENKINS

PAUL DAFYDD JONES

SONAM KACHRU

CHARLES MARSH

CHARLES MATHEWES

SHANKAR NAIR

JOHN NEMEC

PETER OCHS

VANESSA OCHS

JOHN E. PORTMANN

KURTIS R. SCHAEFFER

JALANE SCHMIDT

KARL SHUVE

http://religiousstudies.as.virginia.edu/faculty/profile/ecb2j 1/2
6/24/2017 |DepartmentofReligiousStudies
JANET SPITTLER

HEATHER WARREN
Erik Braun
Associate Professor

Gibson Hall, S-436

434-924-0846
Email

Education
BA, University of Georgia

PhD in Religious Studies, Committee for the Study of Religion at HarvardUniversity

Research Interests
My main area of study is Burmese (Myanmar) Buddhism. I have been especially interested in Burmese traditions of meditation and, following from that, in
thetransformations of meditative practices (and the understandings of reality they conveyexplicitly and implicitly) as they spread around the world. My rst book, The
Birth of Insight: Meditation, Modern Buddhism, and the Burmese Monk Ledi Sayadaw (Chicago, 2013), explores the origins of mass insight meditation inBurma in
the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It was a winner of theToshihide Numata book prize in Buddhism in 2014.Currently, I am at work on a
bookproject, tentatively titled A Great Awakening, that explores the role of insight practice incontemporary reformulations of notions about the self and society
within the globalizedinsight meditation scene. I am also co-editing a volume with David McMahan, nowunder contract with Oxford University Press, that explores
meditation and science fromthe perspective of humanistic scholarship.

Teaching
Early Buddhism

The historical development of Buddhist meditation traditions

South and Southeast Asian Buddhisms

Theravada Buddhism, particularly the Buddhist traditions of Myanmar

Buddhism and the modern world

Buddhism in America

Selected Publications
Buddhist Studies and the Scientic Study of Meditation. Co-ed. with David McMahan (under contract).
The Birth of Insight: Meditation, Modern Buddhism, and the Burmese Monk Ledi Sayadaw. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2013. Winner of a 2014
Toshihide Numata Book Prize in Buddhism from the Center for Buddhist Studies, University of California, Berkeley.

Mindful but not Religious: Science and Naturalized Enchantment in the Work of Jon Kabat-Zinn. In Buddhist Studies and the Scientic Study of Meditation, ed.
by David McMahan and Erik Braun (under contract).

The Great War of the Commentaries: The Abhidhamma and Social Change in Colonial Burma. History of Religions 55.1 (Aug 2015): 140.

The United States of Jh?na: Varieties of Modern Buddhism in America. In Buddhism beyond Borders, ed. by Scott Mitchell and Natalie Quli. Albany, NY: State
University of New York Press, 2015. 163180.

Meditation En Masse: A Genealogy of Insight Meditation. Tricycle: The Buddhist Review (Spring 2014). 5661, 105.

Local and Translocal in the Study of Theravada Buddhism and Modernity. Religion Compass 3 (2009): 116.

Spotlight Links
Who We Are

Explore Our Current Courses

Full Course Directory

Meet Our Students

Meet theFaculty

Ongoing Programs

Virginia Center for the Study of Religion

Contact Us
http://religiousstudies.as.virginia.edu/faculty/profile/ecb2j 2/2