Kevin Buckelew

Field: Chinese Religion
Advisor: Bernard Faure & Zhaohua Yang
Email: kdb2121@columbia.edu

 

 

 

 

Kevin is a Ph.D. candidate in Chinese Buddhism and religion. His dissertation explores the rise of the Chan Buddhist tradition during the Tang-Song period, analyzing how Chan Buddhists reinterpreted the canonical aesthetics of buddhahood and invented a new set of images and norms according to which Chan masters themselves could be recognized as living buddhas. Other research interests include the role of figurative imagery in mediating the reception of Buddhism in medieval China, with particular attention to the ways this imagery provided a space for Buddhists and Daoists to negotiate the boundary between materiality and metaphor. Before coming to Columbia, he received his B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College.