Leadership

The Buddhist Studies Program's strength comes from a combination of diverse and highly qualified faculty, and a very low student:faculty ratio. A combination of Western and Eastern instructors is utilized in order to ensure a continuity of American educational patterns, as well as access to the indigenous philosophies in their genuine form. Western faculty are responsible for the organization and evaluation of coursework, while the Asian teachers present perspectives of the traditions being studied. This variety of intellectual and cultural viewpoints creates a stimulating milieu in which genuine inquiry occurs.

Program Director

Robert Pryor, who will be directing the program in Bodh Gaya, received a B.S. from the University of Michigan, an M.A.T. from Antioch University, and attended the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, where he studied Anthropology and South Asian religions. After spending four years in India doing research on Buddhist history, culture, and meditation, he designed the Antioch Buddhist Studies Program and has taken groups of students to India as Program Director since 1979. In 1987, he founded Insight Travel, which offers pilgrimages to Buddhist and Hindu sites in northern India, Nepal, and Tibet. He served as consultant for the BBC documentary, "In the Footsteps of the Buddha." His interests include: South Asian cultures, pilgrimage, the history of Indian Buddhism, meditation and Buddhism in the West.

 

Academic Faculty

Erick D. White received a B.A. in Religious Studies, Summa Cum Laude, from Amherst College and an M.A. in Anthropology from Cornell University.  He is presently a candidate for the Ph.D. in Anthropology at Cornell University where his dissertation is titled, "Sociality, Charisma and Syncretism: The Subculture of Professional Spirit Mediums in Contemporary Thailand."  While a student at Amherst, Erick was a participant in the 1986 program in Bodh Gaya and since 2003 he has served on the faculty.  He has been the recipient of several academic grants and awards including a Fulbright Fellowship for dissertation research in Thailand.  Erick has had considerable teaching experience as both a Teaching Assistant and Instructor in Asian Studies and Anthropology at Cornell University.

History of South Asian Buddhism
Erick D. White (see above) will teach History of South Asian Buddhism.

Hindi Language
Upma Dixit received a B.A. in English (honors) and Political Science from the University of Rajasthan, Maharani College, Jaipur and an M.A. in English literature from the University of Rajasthan, Jaipur.  She has taught as a member of the English Faculty at the Gyan Vihar School of Engineering and Technology, and as an English and Computer Teacher at the Jaipuria Bal Vidyalaya, Jaipur.  Upma has a Post Graduate Diploma in Computer Application from the University of Rajasthan, and has worked as a web designer on a project for the Birla Institute of Scientific Research.  She has been a Hindi language instructor in the Intermediate and Advanced Hindi Language Programs organized by the American Institute of Indian Studies for American university students in Jaipur.   She has taught Hindi language with the Antioch Buddhist Studies program since 2006. 

Dr. Pema Tenzin is a research scholar and editor at the Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies in Sarnath, India.  Born in the Tibetan cultural zone of northern India, he is a native speaker of the language.  As part of a project to restore to India the work of classical Indian Buddhist scholars Dr. Tenzin has translated texts by Acharya Asanga and Dipankara srijnana from Tibetan back into Sanskrit.  He has extensive experience working with western research scholars, and is highly skilled as a translator and teacher of Tibetan.  Dr. Pema Tenzin has been teaching Tibetan language with the Antioch Buddhist Studies program since 1995.

Buddhist Meditation Traditions

Seminars in this course will be led by Robert Pryor, Program Director.

Health Coordinator and Yoga Instructor                                                                                    Dianeah Wanicek received her B.A. in fine Arts and spent several years as an art instructor and visual artist.  She is certified as a yoga instructor by the Kripalu Institute, and she has also trained in Yantra Yoga, a Tibetan form of yoga practice.  Dianeah has taught Hatha Yoga at Antioch College and led workshops in Spirituality at Antioch McGregor.  She has been practicing Vipassana and Tibetan Buddhist meditation for the past twenty years, and is a founding member of the Yellow Springs Dharma Center -- a Buddhist meditation center in Yellow Springs, Ohio.  Since 1990 Dianeah has been a director of Insight Travel and has led pilgrimage groups to India, Nepal, and Bhutan.  She served as the Health Coordinator and Yoga Instructor on the Fall 2002, 2004, and 2006 programs.