Chen Named Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellow

Lang Chen, a visiting instructor in religion, was named a 2013 Charlotte W. Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellow by the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation. The Newcombe Fellowship is the nation’s largest and most prestigious such award for Ph.D. candidates in the humanities and social sciences whose dissertations address questions of ethical and/or religious values. Each 2013 Newcombe Fellow will receive a 12-month award of $25,000.

Chen is teaching “Buddhism “and “(Non)violence in Buddhism” this semester at Wesleyan.

Chen also is a doctoral candidate in religious studies at Yale University. Her dissertation, Elixir or Poison? Indian Origins and Chinese Interpretations of Buddhist Antinomian Narratives, explores the origins of antinomianism in Indian Buddhist narrative literature and the pertinent philosophical development in China.

As a Newcombe fellow, she will return to her dissertation after the spring semester and try to finish it by March 2014.

“I believe while writing my dissertation, I will always recall my experience of teaching at Wesleyan and my inspirational students there,” she said. “According to the Buddhist idea of interdependence, my experience at Wesleyan has become and will always be a part of ‘me.'”

For more information on the fellowship see http://www.woodrow.org/news/news_items/WW_NewcombeFellows_2013.php.