Jim Rheingans, Professorship for Tibetology

Contact Jim Rheingans

"Those who look at the Tibetan cultural area are sometimes still presented with myths or one-sided information; I am primarily interested in the religious practices, perspectives and personalities in their entirety. In order to make the rich treasure of little-researched Tibetan sources accessible and to develop knowledge about the past, I mostly use texts - these are embedded in contexts that we only understand from a limited perspective, but which broaden our horizons enormously. Critical understanding of language, text and context is also something that connects disciplines and that we all (can) apply, from Buddhist treatises to life narratives to social media. Furthermore, I would like to make an informed contribution to current issues by exploring the extremely extensive psycho-physical meditation techniques in Tibet in interdisciplinary dialog with cognitive neuroscience." (Jim Rheingans)

Research areas:

* Religious, cultural and intellectual history of the Tibetan cultural area (focus on meditation traditions of the 12th-17th century)
* Tibetan and Indo-Tibetan literature, especially narrative and poetic texts
* Transcultural dimension of narrative texts
* Reception of Tibetan literature/Buddhism in Europe
* Contributions to interdisciplinary meditation research

Curriculum Vitae:

2004 Magister Artium at the University of Hamburg, after studying Tibetology, Classical Indology and Ethnology at the University of Heidelberg and the University of Hamburg; in addition, study of a traditional curriculum of Tibetan Buddhist teachings and languages in South Asia
Volunteer interpreter for Tibetan scholars since 2002
2005-2008 PhD scholarship at Bath Spa University, UK
2008 PhD at the University of the West of England, Bristol/Bath Spa University
2008-2009 Postdoctoral Researcher at the Numata Center for Buddhist Studies at the University of Hamburg (scholarship holder of the Tārā Foundation)
2010-2011 Research Associate Tibetology, Institute for Oriental and Asian Studies, University of Bonn
2011-2015 Research Associate (DFG project with own position), Asia-Africa Institute, University of Hamburg
2015 Visiting Professor for Tibetan Studies, Department for Cross-cultural and Regional Studies, University of Copenhagen
2015-2016 Research Associate (ITAS-Numata Research Fellow) at the Numata Center for Buddhist Studies, Asia-Africa Institute, University of Hamburg
2016-2017 Deputy Professor of Tibetology (W3), Institute for Oriental and Asian Studies, University of Bonn
2017-2023 Lecturer/Senior Lecturer (2020) for Tibetan Buddhism, School of Languages and Cultures, The University of Sydney. By expanding the program from 2022 as Khyentse-Macready Senior Lecturer for Tibetan Buddhism
Since August 2023 Professor of Tibetology at the Institute for South Asian, Tibetan and Buddhist Studies at the Faculty of Philological and Cultural Studies, University of Vienna