Biography

University of Toronto St. George Campus - Religion

Amanda Goodman (PhD, University of California, Berkeley, 2013) is an Assistant Professor cross-appointed in the Department for the Study of Religion and the Department of East Asian Studies. Her research focuses on the formative Tang-Song transition period of Chinese Buddhism, and specifically the Chinese esoteric or tantric Buddhist traditions of the eighth through tenth centuries. Grounded in the textual and material finds from the Dunhuang Buddhist cave site, her work engages with broader conceptual issues in the study of the dissemination and appropriation or alteration of Buddhism across the Sinitic world in the pre-modern period. She is also interested in the cross-cultural transmission of Buddhism along the old Silk Road, and regularly teaches on the topic of Central Asian Buddhism. She is currently preparing a book-length study centered on an indigenous Chinese Buddhist ritual compilation, the Vajra Peak Scripture, that reflects on regional and trans-regional esoteric Buddhist ritual trends during China’s middle-period.

Amanda Goodman received a B.A. in Chinese and Comparative Literature from Indiana University, an M.A. in Buddhist Studies from the University of Michigan and a Ph.D. from Berkeley. Her doctoral dissertation for the Berkeley Buddhist Studies program focused on Tang-Song Chinese Esoteric Buddhism. Her dissertation research centers on a number of recovered Dunhuang manuscripts, specifically a number of lineage texts that appear to relate the early Chan school with the Chinese Esoteric tradition. Amanda Goodman joined the Department of East Asian Studies in 2012 and is cross-appointed to the Department for the Study of Religion. Her research areas include Medieval Chinese Religions, East Asian Tantra, Dunhuang Studies, and Central Asian Studies.

Academic Background

PhD (Berkeley)
MA (Michigan)
BA (Indiana)


Teaching

Buddhist Tantra
Chinese Religions
Central Asian Buddhism
Religions of the Silk Road
Buddhist Material Culture



Areas of Research

Medieval Chinese Religions, East Asian Tantra, Dunhuang Studies, Central Asian Studies