I am a cultural and intellectual historian of Buddhism. I earned a Ph.D. in Tibetan and Buddhist Studies from the department of Asian Languages & Cultures at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Previously, I earned a B.A. and an M.A. from the “Ca’ Foscari” University of Venice, Italy.
My main area of expertise is the history and historiography of Chinese and Tibetan Buddhist relations. My current projects include a study of the modern incorporation of China into the global flow of European ideas about the Buddha and a trilogy of books on how the study of Buddhist Tantra has influenced Enlightenment legacies and global thought during the modern age. In parallel, I study and translate the work of Buddhist monk Fazun (法尊, 1902–1980), an eminent Chinese pilgrim and translator from Tibetan.
I am the author of “Buddhism, Philosophy, History. On Eugène Burnouf’s Simple Sūtras” (Journal of Indian Philosophy, 2017), an investigation of the themes of magic, morality, and death in the European search for the historical Buddha. My latest work “Tantrism, Modernity, History. On Lü Cheng’s Philological Method” (Sino-Tibetan Buddhism Across the Ages, 2021) traces the origins and development of the category of “Tibetan Buddhism“ in modern East Asia, focusing on the work of Chinese scholar Lü Cheng.
Beyond Classical and Modern Chinese and Tibetan, I have taught interdisciplinary courses in Buddhist, Asian, and Cultural studies at the University of Michigan, Oberlin College, and at other institutions in Italy and China. I currently reside in Sardinia, Italy, where I teach Chinese Language & Culture at the Lyceum level.
