Kachru, Sonam
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Tibetan calendar dates
- Primary Affiliation (Workplace)
- University of Virginia
PhD University
- University of Chicago
Education
- University of Chicago, Chicago, IL: Ph.D. in Philosophy of Religions (2015).
Biographical Information
Research Interests My research interests lie in the history of philosophy, with special attention to the history of Buddhist philosophy in South Asia. Topics of particular interest to me include the philosophy of mind, action and philosophical anthropology. I believe the history of Buddhist philosophy in South Asia is best pursued keeping in view the long conversations of Buddhist and non-Buddhist philosophers in South Asia, and also the importance of narrative thought for the history of ideas. I am currently working on two book length monographs: one on the philosopher Vasubandhu, and his monograph in Twenty Verses; and another on the Buddhist poet Asvaghosa, and his narrative lyric, Beautiful Nanda.
Teaching Last academic year (Fall 2015–Spring 2016), I offered an introductory course on Buddhism, graduate seminars on Buddhist Scholasticism and the history of Buddhist philosophy in South Asia, and a course on Nirvana as concept and metaphor. In addition to offering regular courses on Indian Buddhist Philosophy, I plan on offering courses more broadly concerned with the philosophy of religions as informed by the practice of philosophy in South Asia. The courses in development include Practices of the Self in premodern Europe and South Asia; Philosophy and Meditation: From Ś?ntideva to Wittgenstein; and Love and Desire (the God who will Not Grow Up): An Indian History. In Spring 2017, I am offering a Major's Seminar on Thinking with Animals.
Selected Publications “Is Madness Anything Like Dying? Vasubandhu on Madness and the Fragility of Our Ways of Being Alive.” (forthcoming) “Of Vasubandhu, and Why Ordinary Language Can and Does Take Care of Itself.” (forthcoming) “What is it Like to Become a Likeness of Oneself? Gestures of Light, Motion and Mind at the Surfaces of Representation.” Essays of the Forum Transregionale Studien, Berlin (2015). “The Meaning of Love: Insights from Medieval South Asia.” Available online at the website of The History of Emotions: Insights into Research. Berlin: Max Planck Institute for Human Development, 2014. “The Last Embrace of Color and Leaf: Introducing Asvaghosa's Disjunctive Style.” Almost Island, Special Issue: On Style (2012).
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