Phillip Scott Ellis Green (Ph.D. completed, 2014)
Dr. Green received his BA in comparative religion from the University of Washington in 2002, and after living abroad in Japan for three years returned to earn his MA in religion (emphasis on early Indian Buddhism) at the University of Florida in 2007. His MA thesis examined Buddhist narratives found in avadana literature; specifically, he examined how images of women were portrayed and understood in a Buddhist collection of avadanas known as the Avadanashataka. Dr. Green earned his Ph.D. in 2014 from the University of Florida. His dissertation research examined Buddhist traditions among the Khmers during the tenth century via a reexamination of the architectural, art historical, and epigraphical sources in Old Khmer and Sanskrit. His research was supported by an UF Alumni Fellowship, a Ph.D. Dissertation Research Fellowship through the Center for Khmer Studies (CKS), and a field research grant from Friends of Khmer Culture (FOKCI). Dr. Green currently teaches Sanskrit and Asian religions at the University of Florida.
Caleb Simmons (PhD student 2014)
Dr. Simmons is currently an Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Arizona. He specializes in religion in South Asia, especially Hinduism. His research specialties span religion and state-formation in medieval and colonial India to contemporary transnational aspects of Hinduism. His current book project, The Goddess and the King: Cāmuṇḍēśvari and the Fashioning of the Woḍeyar Court of Mysore, examines goddesses and kingship in medieval and early modern South India, through exploring the devotional relationship between the court of the South Indian kingdom of Mysore and their tutelary deity Cāmuṇḍēśvari as expressed within their genealogical material. He also has publications and continuing research interests related to a broad range of contemporary topics, including ecological issues and sacred geography in India; South Asian diaspora communities; and material and popular cultures that arise as a result of globalization—especially South Asian religions as portrayed in comic books and graphic novels. He teaches courses on Hinduism, Indian religions, and method and theory of Religious Studies.