Kate Hartmann, PhD
Assistant Professor of Religious Studies,
Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies,
University of Wyoming
About
I am a professor and scholar of the history of Buddhism at the University of Wyoming.
As a teacher, I have four main goals. The first is that students will learn about a time and place distant to their own. The second is that students will develop critical reading skills, and be able to analyze primary and secondary texts in terms of their arguments, methods, and evidence. The third is that students will become persuasive communicators, both in speech and writing. They will be able to make claims and support them with evidence, and to express themselves clearly. The fourth is that students, in learning about times and places distant to their own, will reflect anew on their own ideas and assumptions. The purpose of these four goals is to have student leave my classes with the tools to be informed and conscientious citizens in whatever future path they choose.
As a scholar, I am interested in how religion shapes our experience of the world, and in the practices religions develop to transform that experience. My primary research project is about intellectual history of pilgrimage in Tibet, but I'm also interested in Buddhist ethics, as well as Buddhist approaches to addiction and recovery.
Research
As a scholar, I am interested in how religion shapes our experience of the world, and in the practices religions develop to transform that experience. My primary research project is about intellectual history of pilgrimage in Tibet, but I'm also interested in Buddhist ethics, as well as Buddhist approaches to addiction and recovery.
I've written about how Tibetan pilgrimage guidebooks shape pilgrimage (History of Religions, May 2023), karma as a storytelling tool (Journal of Religious Ethics, May 2023), Tibetan arguments against pilgrimage (Revue d'Etudes Tibetáins, 2022), and on fraudulent claims of "religion" in a Tibetan short story (Himalaya, 2021). I'm also writing an article on Buddhism and Twelve-Step for Mindfulness.
I'm finishing up a book on the subject entitled Making the Invisible Real: Practices of Seeing in Tibetan Pilgrimage Literature. The book explores the goal of learning to see a holy mountain as a mandala, a divine palace of a holy buddha. This goal is held to be extremely difficult to achieve, because this mandala is invisible to ordinary perception, but the ideal of transforming perception runs throughout pilgrimage literature. My book outlines the practices Tibetan pilgrims undertake to attempt this transformation of perception, and argues that these practices create and maintain sacred landscapes that are experienced as real and materially present.
Publications
Books
Making the Invisible Real: Practices of Seeing in Tibetan Pilgrimage Literature, in progress.
Peer-Reviewed Articles
“The Twelve-Step Path? Mindfulness and Ethics in Buddhist Addiction Recovery Literature,” submitted as part of themed issue to Mindfulness on the theme of “The Ethics of Mindfulness,” edited by Eviatar Shulman. Submitted February 2023.
“Karmic Opacity and Ethical Formation in a Tibetan Pilgrim’s Diary,” accepted with minor revisions January 2023 to Journal of Religious Ethics.
"Against Pilgrimage: Materiality, Place, and Ambivalence in Tibetan Pilgrimage Literature,” Revue d'Etudes Tibétaines 65, October 2022, 127-158.
“How to See the Invisible: Attention, Landscape, and the Transformation of Vision in Tibetan Pilgrimage Guides,” May 2023 in History of Religions.
“Necessary Questions of Chö: Uses and Abuses of Religion in Dondrup Gyel’s ‘Tulku,’” in Himalaya Vol. 40.2 (Fall 2021), 6-17.
Translation of “Tulku” by Dondrup Gyel, in The Tibet Journal Vol. XXXVIII No. 3 & 4 (Autumn-Winter 2013), 35-55.
Book Chapters
“Seeing Things As They Are: Perception in Buddhist and Western Thought,” essay commissioned by George Haas and the Mettagroup for inclusion in Punch Outs, a book of photography, Spring 2021.
Book Reviews
Review of Christopher Peacock, trans. Flowers of Lhasa, by Tsering Yangkyi. Shanghai Literary Review, July 2022.
Review of Buying Buddha, Selling Rumi: Orientalism and the Mystical Marketplace by Sophia Rose Arjana, Reading Religion, August 2021.
Review of The Battle for Fortune: State-led Development, Personhood, and Power Among Tibetans in China, by Charlene Makley, H-Net Reviews, February 2021.
Review of The Monastery Rules: Buddhist Monastic Organization in Pre-Modern Tibet, by Berthe Jansen, Religious Studies Review, July 2019.
Review of Divine Stories: Divyavadana, Part II (Classics of Indian Buddhism), translated by Andy Rotman, Reading Religion, January 2019.
Review of Echoes of Enlightenment: The Life and Legacy of Sonam Peldren by Suzanne Bessenger, H-Net Reviews, September 2018.
Talks and Presentations
Conference Presentations
“Connecting Scholars and Practitioners of Buddhism Through Podcasts,” on “Podcasting Premodernity” Roundtable at 58th International Congress of Medieval Studies; Kalamazoo, MI; May 11-13, 2023.
Presider, “Innovative Elements of ‘Funerary Buddhism’ in Medieval China and Tibet.” American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting; Denver, CO; November 2022.
“The Twelve Step Path? Buddhist Ethics in Addiction Recovery Literature,” on “Buddhist Ethics” panel at International Association of Buddhist Studies Conference; Seoul, South Korea; August 14-19, 2022.
“Karma as Interpretive Lens in the Pilgrim Diary of Khatag Zamyak;” American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting; Tibetan and Himalayan Religions Unit; San Antonio, TX; November 20-22, 2021.
“Don’t Throw Away These Favorable Conditions for Nothing!: Place, Materiality, and Agency in Tibetan Pilgrimage,” in “Buddhist Philosophies of the Material” Panel, for American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting; jointly hosted by Buddhist Philosophy and Tibetan and Himalayan Religions Units; online due to Covid-19; December 1, 2020.
Panel Organizer, “Vision and Visualization in Tibetan Buddhism,” Association of Asian Studies Conference; Boston, MA; March 19-22, 2020, cancelled due to Covid-19.
“Khatag Zamyak’s Co-Seeing: Perception, Imagination, and Practices of Seeing in a Tibetan Pilgrimage Diary” for Association of Asian Studies Conference; Boston, MA; March 19-22, 2020, cancelled due to Covid-19.
“Sakya Pandita and the Conflict Between Poetry and ‘The Way Things Really Are,’” for International Association of Tibet Studies Conference; Paris, France; July 8-13, 2019.
“Faith and Figuration in Tibetan Pilgrimage Guides,” for American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting; Religion in South Asia Unit; Denver, CO; November 17-20, 2018.
“How to Identify a Mountain: Uncovering the Epistemological Logics at Work in a Debate about the Authenticity of a Tibetan Mountain,” for American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting; Tibetan and Himalayan Religions Unit; Denver, CO; November 17-20, 2018.
“How to See the Unseen: Chokyi Drakpa’s 16th Century Guidebook to Gyangme,” for American Academy of Religion, New England Maritime Regional Meeting; Boston, MA; April 8, 2017.
“What Kind of Eye is the Eye of Dharma: Conflicting Visions of Kailas in 13th-17th Century Tibet,” for 5th Annual Harvard Divinity School Ways of Knowing Conference; Cambridge, MA; October 28-9, 2016.
“Necessary Questions of Dharma: Reexamining Dondrup Gyel’s ‘Lama,’” for 3rd ANHS Himalayan Studies Conference at Yale University; New Haven, CT; March 14-16, 2014.
“Madness as True Discourse in Chöd: Understanding Machik Labdron’s Regulations on Clothing,” for Madness and Wisdom in South Asia at the University of Chicago; Chicago, IL; February 14, 2014.
“Transformations of Medical Texts from India to Tibet,” for Joint Atlantic Seminar for the History of Medicine at MIT; Cambridge, MA, October 25-26, 2013.
“Bridging the Gap: Embryology and the Scholastic Response to Tantra,” for 1st Annual Harvard Divinity School Ways of Knowing Conference; Cambridge, MA; October 26-27, 2012.
“Demons Displaced: Models of Disease Causation in the Four Tantras,” for New Directions, Graduate Student Conference in Buddhist Studies at UVA; Charlottesville, VA; September 14-16, 2012.
Invited Talks
“Using Digital Platforms to Expand Humanities Instruction: The Case of Buddhist Studies Online.” University of Wyoming Arts and Sciences IDEAS Symposium. April 18, 2022. Invited by Nevin Aiken.
“Self, Soul, Meaning.” Opening Plenary Panel for University of Wyoming Honors College. Laramie, WY. February 10, 2022. Invited by Mary Catherine Fenton.
“Studying Buddhism in the New Millennium,” for 84000 In Conversation speaker series, hosted by 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha; August 28, 2021. Invited by Joie Chen.
“Pilgrimage in Buddhism and Tibet” to Philadelphia Buddhist Association; August 8, 2021. Invited by Curtis Key.
“Khatag Zamyak’s Co-Seeing: Perception, Imagination, and Practices of Seeing in a Tibetan Pilgrimage Diary” at Hebrew University; Jerusalem, Israel; May 30, 2021. Invited by Eviatar Shulman.
“Buddhism in Wyoming’s Mosaic of Faith,” presentation for the Wyoming Interfaith Network. May 24, 2021. Invited by Jordan Bishop.
“How to See the Invisible: Vision and Transformation in Tibetan Pilgrimage Guides,” at Kalamazoo College; Kalamazoo, MI; May 3, 2021. Invited by Taylor Petrey.
“How to See the Invisible: Vision and Transformation in Tibetan Pilgrimage Guides,” at Wittenberg University; Springfield, OH; April 22, 2021. Invited by Travis Proctor.
“Do Places Have the Power to Transform Pilgrims?: On the Agency of Material Places.” Spotlight Speaker Series. Mangalam Research Center. Berkeley, CA. March 2020. Invited by Karin Meyers.
“Buddhism’s Perspective on What it Means to Be a Human Being.” Opening Plenary Panel for University of Wyoming Honors College. Laramie, WY. January 28, 2020. Invited by Mary Catherine Fenton.
Teaching
Assistant Professor, University of Wyoming
RELI/PHIL 4270: “Buddhist Ethics,” Fall 2023
RELI/HIST 2315: “History of Non-Western Religions: Meditation and Mindfulness,” Fall 2023
HONORS 4152: “Buddhism in Thailand,” Study Abroad, January 2023
RELI/HIST 2315: “History of Non-Western Religions: Buddhism,” Fall 2022
HONORS 3152: “Anger,” Fall 2022
RELI/HIST 2315: “History of Non-Western Religions: Buddhism,” Summer 2022
RELI 1000: “Introduction to World Religions,” Spring 2022
RELI/HIST 2315: “History of Non-Western Religions: Tibetan Buddhism,” Fall 2021
RELI 2050: "Religions of Asia," Fall 2021
RELI/HIST 2315: “History of Non-Western Religions: Buddhism,” Summer 2021
RELI 1000: “Introduction to World Religions,” Spring 2021
RELI 2050: “Religions of Asia,” Spring 2021
RELI/HIST 2315: “History of Non-Western Religions: Buddhism,” Fall 2020
RELI 4310: “Seminar in Asian Religions: Buddhist Ethics,” Fall 2020
Visiting Instructor, Amherst College
“Introduction to Buddhist Traditions,” Fall 2017
Public Media
Youtube
Wrote videos for poular channel Religion for Breakfast