Douglas Samuel Duckworth, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Department of Religion, Temple University, 1114 W. Polett Walk, 647
Anderson Hall, Philadelphia, PA 19122 w 703-839-2144 [email protected]
Education
University of Virginia, Ph.D., Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, May 2005
Dissertation Title: “Buddha-Nature and a Dialectic of Presence and Absence in
the Works of Mi-pham”
Dissertation Committee Chair: Prof. Jeffrey Hopkins
University of Virginia, M.A., History of Religions, May 2000
James Madison University, B.A., Philosophy and Religion, May 1993
Appointments
2016-present Temple University, Associate Professor, Department of Religion
2013-2016 Temple University, Assistant Professor, Department of Religion
2009-2013 East Tennessee State University, Assistant Professor, Dept. of Philosophy
2008-9 Kathmandu University, Instructor/Translator, Centre for Buddhist Studies (Nepal)
2006-8 U. of North Carolina, Greensboro, Visiting Asst. Prof., Dept. of Religious Studies
2005-6 Florida State University, Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Religion
2002-3 University of Virginia, Lecturer, Department of Religious Studies
Publications
Books
Duckworth, Douglas S. Jamgön Mipam: His Life and Teachings. Boston: Shambhala
Publications, 2011.
(The focus of a panel at the Annual Conference for Ancient and Medieval Philosophy
at Fordham University, October 20, 2012)
Bötrül. Distinguishing the Views and Philosophies: Illuminating Emptiness in a
Twentieth-Century Tibetan Buddhist Classic. Translated, annotated, and
introduced by Douglas S. Duckworth. Albany: SUNY Press, 2011.
(Reviewed in Journal of Buddhist Philosophy 1:1 (2015): 238-240)
Duckworth, Douglas S. Mipam on Buddha-Nature: The Ground of the Nyingma
Tradition. Albany: SUNY Press, 2008; reprinted in India by Motilal
Banarsidass, 2014.
(Reviewed in Journal of American Academy of Religion 77:3, 734-36; Journal of
Asian Studies 68:3, 963-5; Indo-Iranian Journal, 55 (2012): 15-38)
Articles
Duckworth, Douglas. “Echoes of Tsültrim Lodrö: An Indigenous Voice from
Contemporary Tibet on the ‘Buddhism and Science Dialogue.’” Journal of
Contemporary Buddhism 16:2 (2015), 267-277.
Duckworth, Douglas. “Self-Awareness and the Integration of Pramāṇa and
Madhyamaka.” Asian Philosophy 25:2 (2015), 207-215.
Duckworth, Douglas. “Other-Emptiness in the Jonang: The Theo-logic of Buddhist
Dualism.” Philosophy East & West 65:2 (2015), 485-97.
Duckworth, Douglas. “Onto-theology and Emptiness: The Nature of Buddha-Nature.”
Journal of the American Academy of Religion 82:4 (2014), 1070-90.
Duckworth, Douglas. “Non-Representational Language in Mipam’s Re-Presentation
of Other-Emptiness.” Philosophy East & West 64:4 (2014), 920-932.
Duckworth, Douglas. “How Nonsectarian is ‘Nonsectarian’?: Jorge Ferrer’s Pluralist
Alternative to Tibetan Buddhist Inclusivism.” Sophia 53:3 (2014), 339-348.
Duckworth, Douglas. “Gelukpa [dge lugs pa].” The Stanford Encyclopedia of
Philosophy (Spring 2014 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.),
<http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2014/entries/gelukpa/>.
Duckworth, Douglas. “Botrul Dongak Tenpai Nyima.” In Treasury of Lives (2013),
<http://www.treasuryoflives.org/biographies/view/Botrul-Dongak-TenpaiNyima/10093/>
Duckworth, Douglas. “Mipam.” In Treasury of Lives (2013),
<http://www.treasuryoflives.org/biographies/view/Mipam-Gyatso/4228/>
Duckworth, Douglas. “Two Models of the Two Truths: Ontological and
Phenomenological Approaches.” Journal of Indian Philosophy 38:5 (2010),
519-527.
Duckworth, Douglas. “Mipam’s Middle Way Through Prāsaṅgika and Yogācāra.”
Journal of Indian Philosophy 38:4 (2010), 431-439.
Duckworth, Douglas. “De/limiting Emptiness and the Boundaries of the Ineffable.”
Journal of Indian Philosophy 38:1 (2010), 97-105.
Duckworth, Douglas. “Buddha-Nature and the Indivisibility of the Two Truths.” In
Papers of the Nineteenth-Century Theology Group 36: 1-16. Edited by
Elizabeth Dreyer, Harvey Hill, and Walter E. Wyman. Colorado Springs:
Colorado College, 2005.
Book Chapters and Reviews
Duckworth, Douglas. “The Other Side of Realism: Panpsychism and Yogācāra.” In
Buddhist Philosophy: A Comparative Approach, edited by Steven Emmanuel.
Hoboken, N. J.: Wiley-Blackwell (forthcoming).
Duckworth, Douglas. “Rangjung Dorjé’s (1284-1339) Key to the Essential Points of
Wind and Mind.” In The Sourcebook of Buddhism & Healing, edited by C.
Pierce Salguero. New York: Columbia University Press (forthcoming).
Duckworth, Douglas. “Knowledge.” In Philosophy’s Perennial Questions, edited by
Steven Emmanuel. New York: Columbia University Press (forthcoming).
Duckworth, Douglas. “Other-Emptiness as Yogācāra: Mipam’s Madhyamaka
Synthesis.” In Other-Emptiness, edited by Michael Sheehy et al. New York:
SUNY Press (forthcoming).
Duckworth, Douglas. “Mipam’s Beacon to Dispel Darkness.” In Buddhist
Luminaries: Inspired Advice by Nineteenth-Century Ecumenical Masters in
Eastern Tibet, edited by Holly Gayley and Josh Schapiro. Boston: Wisdom
Publications (forthcoming).
Duckworth, Douglas. Review of Visions of Unity: The Golden Pandita Shakya
Chokden’s New Interpretation of Yogācāra and Madhyamaka, by Yaroslav
Komarovski (SUNY 2011), Journal of Buddhist Philosophy 1:2 (forthcoming
2016).
Duckworth, Douglas. “Buddha-Nature and the Logic of Pantheism.” In The Buddhist
World, edited by John Powers, 234-47. London: Routledge, 2015.
Duckworth, Douglas. “Tibetan Mahāyāna and Vajrayāna.” In The Blackwell
Companion to Buddhist Philosophy, edited by Steven Emmanuel, 99-109.
Hoboken, N. J.: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013.
Collaborative Work
Duckworth, D., D. Eckel, J. Garfield, J. Powers, Y. Thabkhas, S. Thakchoe.
Dignāga’s Investigation of the Percept (Ālambana-parīkṣā) and Its
Philosophical Legacy in India and Tibet. Oxford: Oxford University Press
(forthcoming 2016).
Dharmachakra Translation Committee. Ornament of the Great Vehicle Sūtras:
Maitreya’s Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra with Commentaries by Ju Mipham and
Khenpo Shenga. Ithaca: Snow Lion Publications, 2014.
Dharmachakra Translation Committee and His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama.
Luminous Essence: A Guide to the Guhyagarbha Tantra. Ithaca: Snow Lion
Publications, 2009.
(Reviewed in Religious Studies Review 37.4 (December 2011): 304-305)
Text Preservation - Foreign Language Compilation
Ngawang Tsoknyi Gyatso (ngag dbang tshogs gnyis rgya mtshogs). A Compilation of
Ngawang Tsoknyi Gyatso’s Writing’s on Other-Emptiness (ngag dbang tshogs
gnyis rgya mtshogs gzhan stong phyogs bsgrigs). Sichuan, China:
Nationalities Press, 2009.
(This compilation of Tibetan texts has now become widely available after I located
some rare manuscripts in 1999 and commissioned them to be digitally
inputted in Tibet).
Academic Honors/Fellowships
Institute of Advanced Study (IAS), Program of Interdisciplinary Studies Visitor,
Princeton, 2015-2016
South Asian Center Affiliated Faculty Grant, University of Pennsylvania, Spring 2016,
$1000
Collaborator on “A Buddhist Debate and Its Contemporary Relevance: Daktsang’s
Eighteen Great Contradictions, Tibetan Responses and Western Debates about Realism,”
ARC Grant (John Powers and Sonam Thakchoe, PIs), Australian National University,
2016-2018.
Collaborator on “Bringing a Classical Debate into Modern Discourse: Daktsang’s 18
Great Contradictions,” URC Grant (Jay Garfield, PI), National University of Singapore,
2015-2017
Presidential Humanities and Arts Research Program Grant Award, Temple
University, 2015, $5,000
Grant-in-Aid for Research, “A Cross-Cultural Approach to Constructivism,” Temple
University, 2015, $2,544
Institute of Advanced Study (IAS), Program of Interdisciplinary Studies Visitor,
Princeton, 2014-2015
Summer Research Award, “The Reinvention of Classical Indian Philosophy in Modern
Tibet,” Temple University, 2014, $7,000
South Asian Center Affiliated Faculty Grant, University of Pennsylvania, Spring 2014,
$500
South Asian Center Affiliated Faculty Grant, University of Pennsylvania, Fall 2013, $500
Columbia University Library Grant, “Redactions in India from Modern Tibet,” 20132014, $2,500
Institute of Advanced Study (IAS), Program of Interdisciplinary Studies Visitor,
Princeton, 2013-2014
Research and Development Committee (RDC) Grant, “The Reinvention of Classical
Indian Philosophy in Modern Tibet,” (2013-2014), (awarded $10,000, but unable to
accept due to new position at Temple University)
National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Summer Institute, “Investigation
Consciousness: Buddhist and Western Philosophical Perspectives,” College of
Charleston, May 20-June 2, 2012
Research and Development Committee (RDC) Grant, “Uncovering the Logic of a
Twentieth-Century Tibetan Philosophical Text,” 2012, $1,500
Collaboration on “Negotiating Modernity: Buddhism in Tibet and China,” Australian
Research Council (ARC) Discovery Grant (John Powers, PI), 2011-2014
National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Summer Stipend, “Introducing the
Tibetan World and Thought of Mipam (1842-1912),” 2011, $6,000
Student-Faculty Collaborative Research Grant, “Buddha-nature and Emptiness Among
the Geluk, Nyingma, and Jonang Schools of Tibetan Buddhism,” 2011-2012
Research and Development Committee (RDC) Major Grant, “The Life and Works of
Mipam and the Culture of Contemporary Monastic Education in Tibet,” 2011-2012,
$10,000
Research and Development Committee (RDC) Grant, “Contextualizing Jonang Texts,”
2011, $1,500
Instructional Development Grant: “Building Bridges: Cultural Education from the
Himalayas to Appalachia,” 2010-2011, $4,860
Research and Development Committee (RDC) Grant, “The Jonang: A Marginalized
Buddhist Tradition of Tibet,” 2010, $1,500
National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Summer Institute, “Buddhism of Tibet
and the Himalayas,” College of the Holy Cross, June 22-July 10, 2009.
National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Summer Stipend, “Content and
Contemporary Uses of the ‘Guhyagarbha’ in Monastic Colleges in Tibet,” 2007, $5,000
Dean’s Merit Award, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 2007
Sponsored Research and Development (SRAD) Grant, Florida State University, 2006
U.S.D.E. Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Award (Nepal/India), 20032004, $34,000
I.E.E. Fulbright Research Grant (Nepal), 2003-2004 (award granted, I declined)
Invited Lectures/Conference Presentations
“Madhyamaka in Tibet: Thinking through the Ultimate Truth,” presented at
Guemgang University, Korea, May 24, 2016.
“Yogācāra and Panpsychism,” presented at UC Berkeley, Center for Buddhist
Studies, April 7, 2016.
“Yogācāra and Panpsychism,” presented at the American Philosophical Association
Eastern Division Annual Meeting in Washington DC, January 8, 2016.
“Buddhism and Beyond: The Question of Pluralism,” presented at the American
Academy of Religion Annual Meeting in Atlanta, November 21, 2015.
“Three Types of Healing Practice in the Kagyü Tradition of Tibet,” presented at the
Buddhism and Wellbeing Conference at the University of British Columbia,
May 29, 2015.
“In/Between Epistemology and Madhyamaka: Two Approaches to Truth in Śākya
Chokden and Tsongkhapa,” presented at the American Philosophical
Association Eastern Division Annual Meeting in Philadelphia, December 29,
2014.
“Yogācāra as a Bridge to Philosophical Tantra,” presented at the American Academy
of Religion Annual Meeting in San Diego, November 24, 2014.
“Translating Philosophical Materials,” workshop presenter at Translation and
Transmission Conference in Keystone, Colorado, October 4, 2014.
“Panpsychism and Distributed Cognition in a Buddhist Philosophy of Mind,”
presented to Temple University Dept. of Philosophy, September 19, 2014.
“Self-Awareness and the Integration of Pramāṇa and Madhyamaka,” presented at the
International Association of Buddhist Studies, Vienna, August 23, 2014.
“Echoes of Tsültrim Lodrö: An Indigenous Voice from Modern Tibet on the
‘Buddhism and Science Dialogue,’” presented at the American Philosophical
Association Eastern Division Annual Meeting in Baltimore, December 28,
2013.
“Mind and Nature within Buddhist Epistemology and Madhyamaka,” presented at the
Annual Conference for Ancient and Medieval Philosophy at Fordham
University, October 12, 2013.
“Reflections on Pluralism as an Alternative to Buddhist Inclusivism,” presented at the
University of Pennsylvania, October 4, 2013.
“Turn on, Tune in...Don’t Space Out! Mipam’s Direct Instructions on Dzokchen,”
presented at University of Colorado, Boulder, April 19, 2013.
“Body, World, and Poetic Thought: Making Sense of Yogācāra as Tantra in Tibet,”
presented at the American Philosophical Association Eastern Division Annual
Meeting in Atlanta, December 28, 2012.
“Indeterminacy and Perspectivalism in Mipam’s Interpretation of Other-Emptiness,”
presented at the Annual Conference for Ancient and Medieval Philosophy at
Fordham University, October 20, 2012.
“A Depth Phenomenology of Surface: Heidegger, Wittgenstein, and Merleau-Ponty
and the Single Ground of Two Truths.” National Endowment for the
Humanities (NEH) Summer Institute on Investigation Consciousness:
Buddhist and Western Philosophical Perspectives, Charleston, June, 1 2012.
“Buddha-nature versus Ontotheology: Opening Metaphysical Closure in Tibetan
Buddhism,” presented at the Comparative and Continental Philosophy Circle
(CCPC) Annual Meeting in San Diego, March 9, 2012.
“The Ground is Moving: (Re)constructing Deconstruction, Emptiness, and BuddhaNature,” presented at the Western North Carolina Continental Philosophy
Circle (WNCCPC) in Asheville, January 13, 2012.
“Deconstruction Embodied: from Absent-minded Bodies to Body-citta,” presented at
a panel I organized on “The Place(s) of Body in Buddhist Thought” at the
International Society for Buddhist Philosophy, American Philosophical
Association Eastern Division Meeting, Washington, DC, December 28, 2011.
“Tsültrim Lodrö on Philosophy, Science, and Buddhism,” presented at the Tibetan
and Himalayan Religions Group, American Academy of Religion Annual
Meeting in Atlanta, October 31, 2010.
“Reflections on the Ground of Other-Emptiness,” presented at the International
Association of Tibetan Studies Conference in Vancouver, August 19, 2010.
“Mipam on Buddha-Nature,” invited lecture at Harvard University, November 16,
2009.
“Two Models of the Two Truths: Ontological and Phenomenological Approaches,”
presented at the Buddhist Philosophy Group, American Academy of Religion
Annual Meeting in Montreal, November 9, 2009.
“Introducing Mipam on Buddha-Nature,” invited lecture presented at the Centre for
Buddhist Studies at Kathmandu University, February 11, 2009.
“Mipam’s Middle Way Through Prāsaṅgika and Yogācāra,” presented at the XVth
Congress of the International Association of Buddhist Studies in Atlanta, June
27, 2008.
“De/limiting Emptiness and the Boundaries of the Ineffable,” presented at the
Buddhist Philosophy Group panel I organized on “Ineffability in Tibet,”
American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting in San Diego, November 19,
2007.
“Substance and Quality: Contours of a Buddhist ‘Absolute’,” presented at the Society
of the Study of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Philosophy, American Philosophical
Association Central Division Meeting in Chicago, April 19, 2007.
“A Synthesis of Svātantrika-Prāsaṅgika in Mi-pham’s Tradition,” presented at the
Society of the Study of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Philosophy, American
Philosophical Association Central Division Meeting in Chicago, April 28,
2006.
“Three Meanings of Emptiness in the Buddhism of Tibet,” presented at the History of
Religion Section, American Academy of Religion Southeastern Region
Meeting in Atlanta, March 11, 2006.
“Buddha-Nature and the Unity of the Two Truths in the Works of Mi-pham,” presented at the
Mysticism and Nineteenth-Century Theology Joint Session, American Academy of
Religion Annual Meeting in Philadelphia, November 20, 2005.
Professional Service
Co-editor, Journal of Buddhist Philosophy (SUNY Press), 2014-present
Associate Editor, Journal of Buddhist Philosophy, (SUNY Press), 2012-2013
President, Oriental Club of Philadelphia (est. 1888), 2014-2016
Steering Committee, Yogācāra Group, American Academy of Religion (AAR),
2014-present
Co-Chair of the International Society for Buddhist Philosophy (ISBP), American
Philosophical Association (APA) 2011-present
Steering Committee, Buddhist Critical-Constructive Reflection Group (AAR),
2015-present
Steering Committee, Buddhist Philosophy Group, American Academy of Religion
(AAR), 2010-2013
Conferences
Organizer of panel, “Buddhism and Pragmatism” at the American Philosophical
Association Eastern Division Annual Meeting in Washington DC, January 8,
2016.
Organizer of panel, “Buddhist Approaches to the Philosophy of Language” at the
American Philosophical Association Central Division Meeting in Saint Louis,
February 19, 2015.
Organizer and chair of panel, “Self-Awareness, Subjectivity, and No-Self” at the
American Philosophical Association Eastern Division Meeting in Philadelphia,
December 28, 2014.
Organizer of panel, “Buddhism and Science” at the American Philosophical
Association Eastern Division Meeting in Baltimore, December 28, 2013.
Panelist, “Ecumenicism in Tibet,” University of Colorado, Boulder, April 18,
2013.
Organizer of panel, “What is Buddhist Philosophy?: Perspectives on a
Discipline,” at the American Philosophical Association Eastern Division Meeting,
December 28, 2012.
Chair/Commentator on panel, “Buddhist Ideas on Conventional Truth and their
presentation in Moonshadows,” at the American Philosophical Association
Eastern Division Meeting, December 28, 2012.
Panelist, “Dignāga’s Ālambana-parīkṣā and its Commentaries,” American
Academy of Religion Annual Meeting, November 19, 2012.
Organizer of panel, “The Place(s) of Body in Buddhist Thought,” at the American
Philosophical Association Eastern Division Meeting, Washington, DC, December
28, 2011.
Chair of workshop “Analytic Philosophers and Asianists on Buddhism: What is
Conventional Truth and What's True about it?” in Kathmandu, Nepal, November
26, 2008.
Organizer of panel, “Ineffability in Tibet,” at American Academy of Religion
(AAR) Annual Meeting in San Diego, November 19, 2007.
Chair of panel, “Re-Thinking Reason, Re-Viewing Buddhist Views,” American
Academy of Religion Annual Meeting in Washington DC, November 19, 2006.
Foreign Language Skills
Tibetan (Central dialect, can comprehend Amdo and Kham dialects)
Sanskrit (reading)
Chinese (some Mandarin)
Nepali (basic knowledge)
Spanish (intermediate knowledge)
References
Prof. David Germano ([email protected]) 434-924-6728
Prof. Jay Garfield ([email protected]) 413-585-3649
Prof. John Powers ([email protected]) +612 6125 9509
Prof. Jonathan Gold ([email protected]) 609-258-4489