Buddhist Studies in India Featured Alumni
Here is a glimpse at what some of our program alumni are doing now as leaders in their field, and ongoing dedication to our institutional mission of advancing social, economic, and environmental justice.
Alexa Russo
Buddhist Studies in India 2010
Amherst College
Alexa’s independent research project during the Buddhist Studies program in Bodh Gaya, “Worshipping the Embodiment of the Ultimate,” was a comparative study of the relationship between the Buddhist and Hindu worshipper and the image of the Buddha or Hindu deity. Alexa recently graduated from Amherst College, and has been awarded a Fulbright Student Research grant for 2012-13. As a Fulbright scholar, she will be working with microcredit groups within the non-profit organization Seva Mandir in Udaipur, Rajasthan, India. Seva Mandir works to “construct the conditions in which citizens of plural backgrounds and perspectives can come together and deliberate on how they can work to benefit and empower the least advantaged in society.”
Theodore Martland
Buddhist Studies in India 2008
University of Richmond
“On the Buddhist Studies in India program I gained an incredible amount of skill and confidence to actualize my dreams and aspirations… Since participating on the program, I graduated from the University of Richmond, traveled around the United States visiting friends and doing volunteer work at meditation centers and film festivals. I acted Off Broadway in New York City, worked on… the documentary I completed in Burma during the AEA Buddhist Studies in India program. I am continuing to pursue cinematic storytelling in both the fiction and non-fiction forms. And meditating everyday!” Theodore’s film, Dhamma Dana (The Gift of Dhamma), was selected as the Best Domestic Documentary in the 2009 Queens International Film Festival in New York City. The film beat out 36 documentaries by United States filmmakers and over 1,000 submissions in the competition. More info on the film can be found at: http://www.lowpressurefilms.com
Andy Rotman
Buddhist Studies in India 1987
Columbia University
Andy is Associate Professor of Religion at Smith College, where he has taught since 2000. In addition to being a student on AEA’s Buddhist Studies in India program, Andy returned as a program faculty member in 1996, and now enjoys recommending his own students to participate. He has been awarded numerous fellowships including a Century Fellowship from the University of Chicago, where he earned his PhD; a Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Grant; and two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Andy has published numerous articles and books, including, Thus Have I Seen: Visualizing Faith in Early Indian Buddhism (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009) and Divine Stories: Translations from the DivyÄvadÄna, part 1 (Classics of Indian Buddhism, volume 1. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2008). In addition, Andy knows Hindi, Sanskrit, Urdu, Persian, Pali, Tibetan, Spanish and French.
