Tara Doyle, Senior Lecturer (1997) and Director of Tibetan Studies Program in India
(2000). She received her B.A. from Antioch College (Yellow Springs, OH), her M.T.S. from Harvard Divinity School, and her M.A. and Ph.D. from Harvard University. Before coming to Emory she taught at Williams College (1995-1997), and was the co-founder and co-director of Antioch University's Comparative Buddhist Studies Program in Bodh Gaya, India (1979-1994). Her areas of research are in Buddhist and Hindu pilgrimage, ex-untouchable Buddhist converts, contemplative practices, and Socially Engaged Buddhism. She also specializes in developing study abroad programs in India. Her current manuscript, Bodh Gaya: Journeys to the Diamond Throne (which has been accepted by Wisdom Publications), focuses on the recent (re)creation of Bodh Gaya as an international Buddhist center marking the place of the Buddha's enlightenment, the use of the site by thousands of Hindus who come there to perform ancestor worship, and the contestation over this and surrounding sites by members of these two religious groups. She has written several articles on this material, as well as on Buddhism in the United States.
