Donald K. Swearer

Donald K. Swearer "joined the faculty of Harvard Divinity School in 2004 as Distinguished Visiting Professor of Buddhist Studies and director of the Center for the Study of World Religions. He was the Charles and Harriet Cox McDowell Professor of Religion at Swarthmore College, where he taught for 34 years. During that period he also held visiting professorships at the University of Pennsylvania, Temple University, the University of Hawaii, and Princeton Seminary, as well as at HDS.

"Professor Swearer teaches courses at the Divinity School in Buddhism in Southeast Asia, Buddhist social ethics, comparative religious ethics, Buddhism and ecology, and Buddhist-Christian dialogue. His recent monographs include: Becoming the Buddha: The Ritual of Image Consecration in Thailand; Sacred Mountains of Northern Thailand and Their Legends; The Legend of Queen Cama: Bodhiramsi's Camadevivamsa, a Translation and Commentary; and The Buddhist World of Southeast Asia. He has received research support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Fulbright-Hayes Program, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Social Science Research Council, and the Henry Luce Foundation, which funded his recent study on Christian identity in Buddhist Thailand. Professor Swearer serves on several boards, including the Religious Pluralism Project, the Forum for Religion and Ecology, and the editorial boards of the Journal of Religious Ethics, Crossroads: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, Journal of Ecumenical Studies, Journal of Buddhist-Christian Studies, and the Curzon Press Critical Studies in Buddhism series.

"As CSWR director, Professor Swearer works with the staff, the Executive Council, and the Advisory Board in planning and executing the CSWR's mission to promote the study and understanding of world religions at HDS, Harvard University, and beyond. A particularly important aspect of this mission is the Center's educative programs and conferences, which bring international scholars to the Divinity School to address issues and topics of global significance. Thematic programming for the past two years has focused on religion and nationalism, and on religion, place, and the environment. Professor Swearer is currently co-editing two volumes of conference papers on these topics."


 * Director, Center for the Study of World Religions