William A. McGrath

Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Assistant Professor of Buddhist Studies

EDUCATION

Ph.D. Religious Studies, University of Virginia, 2017

M.A. Religious Studies, University of Virginia, 2015

B.Sc. Biochemistry, University of Virginia, 2007  

AREAS OF RESEARCH

Buddhism in East and Central Asia, Tibetan and Chinese medical traditions, Tibetan language and history, the intersections of religion and medicine

External Affiliations

The American Academy of Religion

The Association for Asian Studies

The International Association of Tibetan Studies

The International Association for the Study of Traditional Asian Medicine

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

Knowledge and Context in Tibetan Medicine. Brill’s Tibetan Studies Library, vol. 43. Leiden: Brill, 2019. Sole editor.

Asian Medicine: Journal of the International Association for the Study of Traditional Asian Medicine 12, nos. 1–2 (2017). Special issue on Buddhism and medicine, co-edited with C. Pierce Salguero.

“Tantric Divination and Empirical Diagnosis: A Genealogy of Channel Prasenā Rituals in the Tibetan Medical Tradition.” In Knowledge and Context in Tibetan Medicine, edited by William A. McGrath, 261–308. Leiden: Brill, 2019.

“Origin Narratives of the Tibetan Medical Tradition: History, Legend, and Myth.” Asian Medicine 12, nos. 1–2 (2017): 295–316.

“Reconciling Scripture and Surgery in Tibet: Khyenrap Norbu, Arranging the Tree Trunks of Healing (1952).” In Buddhism and Medicine: An Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Sources, edited by C. Pierce Salguero, 94–99. New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 2019.

“Vessel Examination in the Medicine of the Moon King.” In Buddhism and Medicine: An Anthology of Premodern Sources, edited by C. Pierce Salguero, 501–13. New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 2017

SCHOLARLY FORUMS AND POPULAR PUBLICATIONS

with Joseph S. Alter, Judith Farquhar, Volker Scheid, Nathan Sivin, et al. “Editorial Forum: Why Study Asian Medicine?” Asian Medicine 15, no. 2 (2020): 301–14.

“Quarantine and Expulsion in Early Tibet: Reflections on the Padmasambhava Legend in the Age of the Coronavirus.”Cultural Anthropology: Fieldsights. June 23, 2020.

“Masks, Mantras, and the Black-9 Pill: Thubten Phuntsok and Tibetan Netizens on Coronavirus and Tibetan Medicine.” High Peaks Pure Earth. February 4, 2020.

with Amy Langenberg and Janet Gyatso. “Book Review Forum: Janet Gyatso, Being Human in a Buddhist World (2015).” Asian Medicine 13, nos. 1–2 (2018): 335–44.