Graduate Students

J. Wayne Bass, PhD Candidate

Wayne Bass is a PhD candidate in Buddhist Studies in the Asian Languages and Cultures Department. His dissertation, currently underway, attempts to bring issues of sociological and anthropological import into the modern academic conversation on meditation in Indian Buddhism. His work also involves a shift away from sutra and commentarial literature on meditation to its treatment in vinaya (disciplinary) literature. Amid his studies, he also remains a diehard Bruins fan!

Tyler Cann, PhD Student

Tyler Cann received his BA (2003) from McGill University in Economics and Religious Studies and his MA (2009) from Mahachulalongkorn University in Bangkok in Buddhist Studies. His PhD research interests include Sanskrit and Pali Buddhist literature; nuns in South Asian Buddhism; discord between Indian Buddhist praxis and the literary/canonical tradition; Buddhist, economic, and political institutional interrelation.

Caleb Carter, PhD Student

Caleb Carter received his BA (2000) in Philosophy from Colorado College and his MA (2008) in Buddhist Studies from UCLA; he is currently preparing for his PhD comprehensives. His main area of study is Japanese religions, particularly Shugendō (Japan’s tradition of mountain asceticism). Other interests include Esoteric Buddhism, combinatory practices, sacred mountains, pilgrimage, Japan’s early modern and modern periods, and Chinese religions. Caleb recently received a Japan Foundation Fellowship to conduct dissertational research in Japan for the 2011–2012 academic year. This research will consider religious life at the mountain site of Togakushi-san from the sixteenth through nineteenth centuries. When not studying, he’s usually spending time with his family and occasionally out rock climbing or attempting to surf.

Lindsey Dewitt, PhD Student

Lindsey DeWitt’s PhD research focuses on premodern Japanese religion and history. She is broadly trained in Japanese religions, art history, history, and language, as well as Chinese religions and history. Her primary research interest concerns the social and historical dimensions of Buddhism, particularly as it relates to the place of women and gender at pilgrimage and mountainous worship sites. In addition to her scholarly pursuits, Lindsey is an avid concertgoer, photographer, and purveyor of the arts.

Jessica Farquhar, PhD Student

Jessica Farquhar received her BA (2007) from George Mason University. She recently presented a paper based on her MA thesis, The Bald and the Beautiful: Ganikas and the Monastic Community in Early Buddhist Hagiographic Literature and Art, at the 43rd Annual Asian Studies on the Pacific Coast Conference. Her PhD focus at UCLA lies in both Art History and Buddhist studies. Jessica is currently examining regional variations of the Buddha's conception scene and representations of Maya (second century BCE–second century CE) at sites including Bharhut, Sanchi, Amaravati and Gandhara.

Seong-Uk Kim, PhD Candidate

Seong-Uk Kim received both his BS (1996, Chemistry) and MA (2005, Religious Studies) from Sogang University in Seoul, South Korea. He completed a second MA (2007) at University of Georgia in Athens in Buddhism, with special focus on Tsung-mi’s thought. His research interests include Sino-Korean Chan/ Sŏn traditions and historical interactions between Sino-Korean monks and Confucian literati. He is currently working on his dissertation, which centers on an early nineteenth century Korean debate between the monks Paekp’a and Ch’oui about Sŏn hermeneutical classifications, which revolves around Chan/ Sŏn classifications of Linji’s ‘three mysteries’ and ‘three essentials.’

Ryoji Kishino, PhD Student

KISHINO Ryoji received both his BA (2004) and MA (2006) in Buddhist Studies from Kyoto University in Japan. His research focuses on Buddhist monastic codes (vinaya) preserved in Sanskrit, Pāli, Tibetan, and Chinese. He is currently preparing an edition and a translation of the Mūlasarvāstivāda-Vinaya Nidāna and Muktaka. Two of his recent publications are: “‘Satsubatabubinimatoroka’ 薩婆多部毘尼摩得勒伽 ha ‘Jyūjyuritsu’十誦律 no chūshakusho ka?” [Is the ‘Jyūjyuritsu’ a commentary of the ‘Satsubatabubinimatoroka’?], Indogaku Bukkyōgaku Kenkyū 56/2 (2008), pp. 854–851.; and “Koromo ya hachi no adhi-√ sthā-” [The adhi-√ sthā- of the bowl and robe], Nihon Bukkyō gakkai Nenpō 74 (2009), pp. 181–204.

Sumi Lee, PhD Candidate

Sumi Lee received both her BS (1996) and MA (2000) from Seoul National University, first in Pharmacy and later in Philosophy. She received a second MA in Buddhist Studies from University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign (2006) before coming to UCLA. Her research interests include Korean Buddhism, East Asian Buddhism, and the broader Yogācāra tradition. She is currently working on her dissertation, tentatively entitled, "Toward a New Paradigm of East Asian Yogācāra Buddhism: Taehyŏn 大賢 (ca. 8th century CE), a Korean Yogācāra monk, and his Predecessors."

Jason McCombs, PhD Student

Jason McCombs received his BS (1999) in Biology and Religion from the University of Michigan, a Masters of Education (2003) from Harvard University, and his MA (2009) in Buddhist Studies at UCLA. His PhD research interests include Mahayana Buddhist history and sutra literature, Indian epigraphy, religious and social identity, and religious giving. Jason’s extracurricular interests include reading literature, philosophy, and science, playing basketball and baseball, and most recently, hanging out with his new baby daughter.

Frederick Ranallo-Higgins, PhD Student

Frederick M. Ranallo-Higgins graduated from the University of Colorado in 2005 with a BA in Art History and Religious Studies and received his MA in Korean History from Columbia University in 2010; he is currently a PhD student in Buddhist Studies and Korean Religions. His research interests include Korean intellectual and religious history; subversion and dissent in Choson-period Korea; new religious and intellectual movements from Late Choson to the early years of Japanese occupation; Korean shamanism; and Won Buddhism. Frederick is also an active painter and is interested in occult studies.

Julie Romain, PhD Candidate

Julie Romain is currently a PhD Candidate in Art History and Assistant Curator of South and Southeast Asian Art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. She received her BA (1995) in Art History at UC, San Diego, an MA (2001) in Humanities at the University of Chicago, and a second MA in Art History at UCLA in 2007. Her main areas of focus are South and Southeast Asian art and Buddhist art. She is presently working on her dissertation, which centers on Indian temple sculpture and courtly culture of the seventh to ninth century. Her most recent publication is “Art and Identity in the ‘Sanskrit Cosmopolis’” (Proceedings from the Conference on Early Indian Influences in Southeast Asia, Institute for Southeast Asia Studies, Singapore, forthcoming 2011).

Maya Stiller, PhD Candidate

Maya Stiller received her dual BA/MA in Korean Studies and Art History at Humboldt-Universität in Berlin. Her dissertation titled Creating One's Place in the World: Imagined and Actual Travels to Mt. Kŭmgang and Their Impact on the Formation of a Korean Proto-national Identity explores the actual and imagined engagement with religious practices at Mt. Kumgang that created a sense of identity within the larger collectivity of Korea. She employs an inter-disciplinary approach that incorporates Religious Studies, History, Literature, Visual Culture, Art History and Geography. She expects this research to make a contribution to discussions about Korean national identity, and to play an important role in introducing a new and interdisciplinary methodology to the study of religions in East Asia and beyond. Recent publications include, "Buddhist Gold Line Painting From the Early Chosŏn Period (1392-1910)," Ostasiatische Zeitschrift, New Series, No. 21 (Spring 2012): 30-39 and "Portraits of Eminent Korean Monks," Arts of Asia, Spring 2012: 124-132. She has a second book manuscript in preparation titled Awakened Masters and Fighting Monks: Monk Portraits and Their Significance for Korean Buddhist Temples. 

Yu-Chen (Guo-Xing) Tsui, PhD Student

Yu-Chen Tsui (Guo Xing fashi) received her MA (1995) in Latin American Studies from Tamkang University, with the thesis, “Reforms in Church-State Relationship during Salinas’s Presidency in Mexico.” She received a second MA (2010) in Religious Studies from Columbia University before coming to UCLA for her PhD in Buddhist Studies. She is primarily interested in Chan Buddhism during the Song period. Outside of her studies, Guo Xing actively practices sitting meditation.

Jessica Woo, PhD Student

Jessica Woo received her BA (2003) in English and Korean Literature at Yonsei University and an MA (2005) in Premodern Japanese Literature at Columbia University. Her research interests include premodern Japanese religion and literature, formation and functions of sacred texts, Tokugawa period mysticism, and the ‘Three Teachings’ discourses of China, Japan and Korea. Her dissertation will focus on the history of the interpretation of Nihon shoki.