Rae Erin Dachille

Dr. Rae Erin Dachille (Ph.D. in Buddhist Studies, University of California at Berkeley) specializes in the religious and artistic traditions of Himalayan Buddhism. Her research focuses upon representations of the body in art, ritual, philosophy, and medicine in Tibetan and Sanskrit sources.  Dr. Dachille’s book project, entitled Searching for the Body: The Body Mandala Debate in Fifteenth-Century Tibet, explores the variety of attitudes toward the body reflected in a heated scholastic exchange between two prominent Tibetan monks.  Dr. Dachille’s work reflects her enduring interest in revealing the many ways in which Tibetan Buddhist sources may enrich our approach to studying the body as an object of knowledge as well as to formulating new theories of representation. She teaches courses in Himalayan Buddhism, South Asian religions, theories and methods for the study of religion, and religion in the medical humanities. Dr. Dachille is the Burns Faculty Fellow for 2016-2017.​​