Associate professor, Department of Religious Studies, University of Virginia.

Associate professor, Department of Asian Languages and Cultures, UCLA.

Education

Ph.D. in East Asian Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University.

M.A. in Buddhist Studies

Main Research

Chinese Buddhism (the pre-modern period (10th through 14th c.) and the contemporary era).

Publications

1.     Heller N. (2014). Illusory abiding : the cultural construction of the chan monk zhongfengmingben. Harvard University Press.

2.     Heller N. (2018). Monks in glaze: patronage kiln origin and iconography of the yixian luohans. Material Religion 431–432.

3.     Heller N. (2014). Buddha in a box: the materiality of recitation in contemporary chinese buddhism. Material Religion: The Journal of Objects Art and Belief 294–314.

4.     Heller N. (n.d.). The chan master as illusionist: zhongfeng mingben's huanzhu jiaxun. Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 271–308.

5.     Heller N. (2011). Why has the rhinoceros come from the west? an excursus into the religious literary and environmental history of the tang dynasty. Journal of the American Oriental Society 353–370.

Sponsored Awards

Prioritizing Presence in a Post-Pandemic World

Source: The Institute of Buddhist Studies, Inc

August 04, 2021 – June 15, 2022