Ellen Posman

Dr. Ellen Posman holds degrees in comparative religion from Stanford University, Harvard University and the University of California, Santa Barbara. She teaches a variety of classes on themes in comparative religion such as religion and violence, religion and the environment, religion and women, religion in America and religion and the afterlife, in addition to specialized classes in her specific areas of expertise, Asian religions and Judaism.

Posman also led a study-abroad trip to India during winter break 2007-2008 in which BW students investigated the ways religion intersects with poverty, globalization and development in India. She has received multiple grants to fund travel-oriented research. She lived in Tibetan Buddhist refugee communities in India and Nepal from 1999 to 2001, participated in a faculty peace delegation to Israel and Palestine in 2006, visited Turkey as part of an interfaith dialogue group in 2008, and spent time researching Buddhism and culture in Taiwan in 2004, Thailand in 2011 and Sri Lanka in 2015. She is featured as a scholarly expert on the issue of Theravada Buddhist nuns seeking full ordination in the documentary film Bhikkhuni: Buddhism, Sri Lanka, Revolution.

In addition to sociological research, her interests include textual research; she received a grant to participate in a 2013 National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) summer seminar on classical Buddhist texts. Posman has published on religion and violence, religion and vegetarianism, religious exile and diaspora and religion in film. She has a passion for teaching and engages in the scholarship of teaching, including contributions to an anthology on pedagogies for civic engagement in religious studies. She also served as coeditor of the “Spotlight on Teaching” section of Religious Studies News, a publication of the American Academy of Religion.

Education:

Dissertation Title: "There's No Place Like Home: An Analysis of Exile in the Jewish and Tibetan Buddhist Traditions"

Doctoral Field Exams:
Southeast Asian/East Asian Buddhism (Ninian Smart, Committee Chair)
Indo-Tibetan Buddhism (Alan Wallace)
History of Judaism (Richard Hecht)
Comparative Methodology (Barbara Holdrege)

Dissertation Committee:
Richard Hecht (Committee Chair)
Barbara Holdrege
Vesna Wallace

Languages:
Reading Proficiency in French, German, Spanish, Hebrew, Sanskrit, Pali, Tibetan
Speaking Proficiency in Spanish, Hebrew, Tibetan

Teaching Experience:

July 2014–present
Professor. Religion Department, Baldwin Wallace University, Berea, Ohio.
Courses include (among others):

• Introduction to Religion
• Religion for the Citizen
• Religions of India
• Religions of China and Japan
• Death and Dying in the World's Religions
• Women and Religion
• Religion and Violence
• Religion and the Environment
• American Religious Pluralism
• Buddhist Culture in Asia
• Buddhism in America
• The Jewish Liturgical Year
• Introduction to the Hebrew Bible
• Religion, The Body, and Gender
• Asian Religious Reformers
• Cleveland’s Religious Communities

July 2008–July 2014
Associate Professor, Religion Department, Baldwin Wallace University, Berea, OH
(See above for courses taught)

August 2002–July 2008
Assistant Professor, Religion Department, Baldwin Wallace University, Berea, OH
(See above for courses taught)

January 2002–June 2002
Teaching Associate. Religious Studies Department, University of California, Santa Barbara
Course instructor for "Biblical Hebrew."

March 2001–June 2001
Teaching Associate. Religious Studies Department, University of California, Santa Barbara
Course instructor for "Religious Traditions of India."

August 2000–December 2000
Adjunct Instructor. Antioch Buddhist Studies Program, Bodh Gaya, India
Course instructor for "Beginning Tibetan Language" and "Contemporary Buddhist Culture"
for a program run in Bodh Gaya, India through Antioch University in Yellow Springs, Ohio

June 1999–August 1999
Teaching Associate. Religious Studies Department, University of California, Santa Barbara
Course instructor for "Religion and Western Civilization: The Ancient Period."

September 1997–June 1999
Teaching Assistant. Writing Program, University of California, Santa Barbara
Course instructor for Writing 2, the equivalent of Freshman Composition

March 1996–June 1997
Teaching Assistant. Religious Studies Department, University of World's Religions,"
"Judaism, Christianity and Islam," "Religion and Western Civilization: The Modern Period,"
"Hindu Myth and Image," "South Asian Buddhism," and "The Bodhisattva Ideal"

Research Experience:

September 2015–February 2016 Research Scholar. Conducted Ethnographic Research on The Issue of Full Ordination for Theravada Nuns in Sri Lanka and Thailand.

July 2013 Research Scholar. Conducted Research on Buddhism and Gender and
Buddhism and Violence in Classical Buddhist Texts as part of an NEH
Seminar. Mangalam Research Center, Berkeley, CA.

July 2011 Research Scholar. Conducted Research on Buddhism and Social,
Economic, and Environmental Rights in Thailand as part of a CIEE seminar.

August 2007 Research Scholar. Conducted ethnographic research on Tibetan Buddhist nuns in South India.

May 2006 Research Scholar. Conducted Research in Turkey as part of an Interfaith Dialogue Group sponsored by the WPCC (Western Pennsylvania Cultural Center).

June 2005 Research Scholar. Conducted Research in Israel and Palestine as part of faculty delegation from FFIPP (Faculty for Israeili-Palestinian Peace).

July 2004–August 2004 Research Scholar. Conducted ethnographic research on Chinese Buddhist Culture and American Buddhist Culture in Kaohsiung, Taiwan.

September 1999–June 2000 Research Scholar. Conducted textual and ethnographic research regarding the Tibetan Buddhist exile in Dharamsala, India.

February 1997–June 1997 Research Assistant. Research assistant for Dr. Randall Garr, Professor of Semitic languages and Near Eastern cultures, University of California, Santa Barbara. Research tasks included compiling a bibliography of Rabbinic literature with an emphasis on the Mishnah and Mishnaic Hebrew.

January 1996–August 1996 Research Assistant. Congregations and Generational Cultures Project, University of California, Santa Barbara in conjunction with Duke University, Durham, North Carolina. Conducted ethnographic research on two congregations in Los Angeles while devoting particular attention to generational issues.

June 1994–November 1994 Research Assistant. Pluralism Project, Harvard University. Documented the religious landscapes of Washington D.C. and Minneapolis Minnesota, and conducted in-depth ethnographic research on the Tibetan Buddhist community of New York City.

Publications/Papers Preseted: