David Germano

Current Focus

I continue to divide my time between teaching, directing the the Tibetan and Himalayan Library and Tibet Center, directingSHANTI (Social Sciences, Humanities, and Arts Network of Technological Initiatives), and also now working increasingly on a new initiative on contemplative sciences at UVa.

david-germano

Background

  • 2012-present, Clinical Professor of Nursing at UVa
  • 2011-present, Director of the Contemplative Sciences Center at UVa
  • 2008-present, Director of SHANTI (Social Sciences, Humanities, and Arts Network of Technological Initiatives) at UVa
  • 2008-present, Director of the Tibet Center at UVa
  • 2000-present, Director of the Tibetan and Himalayan Library
  • 2011-present, Professor of Tibetan and Buddhist Studies at UVa
  • 1998-2011, Associate Professor of Tibetan and Buddhist Studies at UVa
  • 1992-1998, Assistant Professor of Tibetan and Buddhist Studies at UVa
  • Ph.D., University of Wisconsin, 1992
  • B.A., Notre Dame University, 1984

 

Interests

  • The Nyingma and Bön lineages of Tibetan Buddhism, tantric traditions, and Buddhist philosophy and practice, especially from the  the eighth to fifteenth centuries
  • Tibetan history and literature
  • Contemporary Tibet, especially in terms of religion, education, and technology.
  • Digital humanities, i.e. the use of technology to engage in innovation in teaching, research, publication, and engagement in the humanities, social sciences, and arts
  • Engaged scholarship and the insertion of higher education into an engaged role in society through the socially transformative role of knowledge across social sectors

 

Activities

  • Founding and directing the Tibetan and Himalayan Library
  • Founding and supervising UVa’s Study Abroad Programs in Tibet
  • Guiding THL’s Tibetan Unicode Project
  • Co-directing the UVa-Machik Geotourism Initiative
  • Guiding UVa’s extensive Tibetan-US exchange programs
  • Directing THL’s Tibetan Literary Encyclopedia
  • Co-directing the Tibetan and Himalayan Historical GIS initiative
  • Directing the Tibetan Language Learning Resources initiative

 

Publications

Edited Books
  • (2004). co-editor with Kevin Trainor. Embodying the Dharma: Buddhist Relic Veneration in Asia. SUNY. This volume of essays on Buddhist relic traditions across Asia is drawn from our four year seminar on the subject in the American Academy of Religions.
  • (2002). co-editor, The Many Canons of Tibetan Buddhism. Brill Press.
Articles
  • (2007). “Re-membering the Dismembered Body of Tibet: Contemporary Tibetan Visionary Movements in the People’s Republic of China.” An abridged version published in Defining Buddhisms: A Reader edited by Karen Derris and Natalie Gummer in the series “Critical Categories in the Study of Religion,” edited by Russell T. McCutcheon for Equinox Publishing.
  • (2007). “The shifting terrain of the tantric bodies of Buddhas and Buddhists from an Atiyoga perspective”. In The Pandita and the Siddha: Tibetan Studies in Honour of E. Gene Smith, ed. Ramon Prats. Amnye Machen Institute.
  • (2006). with William S. Waldron. “The Arising of Alaya: History and Doctrine.” In The Buddha’s Way: The Confluence of Buddhist Thought and Contemporary Psychology in the Post-Modern Age, editor D. K. Nauriyal, Routledge Curzon Press.
  • (2005). “Atiyoga/Great Perfection”. In Encyclopedia of Religions, Macmillan Reference USA.
  • (2005). with Gregory Hillis, “Tibetan Buddhist Meditation”. In Encyclopedia of Religions, Macmillan Reference USA.
  • (2005). with Gregory Hillis, “Klong chen rab ‘byams pa”. In Encyclopedia of Religions, Macmillan Reference USA.
  • (2005). “The History of Funerary rDzogs chen”. In the Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies, vol. 1 , www.jiats.org.
  • (2004). with Eveline Yang and others, “Tibetan Furniture Making: Traditions and Innovations”: a documentary produced and exhibited at the “Wooden Wonders” exhibition, Pacific Asian Art Museum in Los Angeles, November 2004.
  • (2004).  “Relics of the Living  Buddha in Tibet”.  In Embodying the Dharma: Buddhist Relic Veneration in Asia, editors David Germano and Kevin Trainor, SUNY.
  • (2002).  “The Tibetan and Himalayan Digital Library”.  In the “In Brief” column of D-Lib Magazine (May 2002, www.dlib.org). Republished in ACCESS (www.igroupnet.com).
  • (2002)  “The Seven Descents and the Nature of sNga’ ‘gyur:  The “history” of rNying ma tantras”.  In The Many Canons of Tibetan Buddhism, Brill Press.
  • (2001) With Nathaniel Garson. “The Rise of “Thematic Research Collections” in the study, teaching and transmission of Buddhist scriptures”. Journal of Electronic Buddhist Texts, Volume 3, December 2001, pp. 147-190. Published by Electronic Buddhist Text Institute, Seoul, Korea.
  • (2001)  “Encountering Tibet:  The Ethics, Soteriology and Creativity of Cross-cultural Interpretation”.  In the Journal of the American Academy of Religions.
  • (2000). With Janet Gyatso “Longchenpa and the Posessions of Dakinis”.  Tantra in Practice, edited by David White, Princeton University Press.
  • (1998). “Re-membering the dismembered body of Tibet:  The contemporary Ter movement in the PRC”.  In Buddhism in Contemporary Tibet:  Religious Revival and Cultural Identity (editors Melvyn Goldstein and Matthew Kapstein); Berkeley, California:  University of California Press.
  • (1997). “Dying, death and other opportunities”.   In Religions of Tibet in Practice (editor Donald Lopez), pp. 458-493; Princeton, New Jersey:  Princeton University Press.
  • (1997).  “Food, clothes, dreams and karmic propensities”  In Religions of Tibet in Practice (editor Donald Lopez), pp. 293-312; Princeton, New Jersey:  Princeton University Press.
  • (1997)  “Preliminary practices:  craziness, the elements and the letter Hum”.  In Religions of Tibet in Practice (editor Donald Lopez), pp. 313-334; Princeton, New Jersey:  Princeton University Press.
  • (1994). “Architecture and Absence in the Secret Tantric History of rDzogs Chen”.  In The Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies, vol. 17.2, pp. 203-335.
Book Reviews
  • (2003). Review, of Goldstein, Melvyn (2003), The New Tibetan-English Dictionary of Modern Tibetan, Berkeley: the University of California Press. In Geolinguistics, vol. 29.