Karen Derris

• Ph.D., Committee on the Study of Religion, Harvard University
• M.T.S., Harvard Divinity School
• A.B., Brown University

Karen Derris' research focuses on the intersection of literature, ethics, and history in pre-modern Buddhist traditions. She is currently a part of a collaborative research project on religious studies pedagogies and civic engagement funded by the Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion. She is also the Virginia Hunsaker Chair in Distinguished Teaching.

As a scholar of Buddhist traditions in South and Southeast Asia, Derris' work focuses on the central importance of community in Buddhist ethical and spiritual development. This interpretation of Buddhist literature offers a different perspective on the tradition than dominant discourses in scholarship on the solitary, individualistic focus of Buddhism. By focusing on narrative texts, previously undervalued in scholarship, she uncovers the ways in which relationships over lifetimes support ethical and spiritual development as a process of dependence on others who aid transformation and realization.

Derris' work is in conversation with other Buddhist studies scholars exploring the intersection of narratives and ethics and the central importance of community in Buddhist thought and practice. Collaborative work at invited workshops ("Contours of the Moral Person: Conference in Theravada Buddhist Ethics," Amherst College, Aug. 17–20, 2005) aims to result in collaborative publications in the future.

She has begun a new area of research in pedagogy in religious studies. Her recent article, "How to Learn from World Religion Textbooks" (Teaching Theology and Religion, October 2009) considers best approaches for developing students' analytical skills in the representations of religions, and she is conducting a collaborative research project, "Religion Studies Pedagogy and Civic Engagement," with 15 scholar-teachers of religious studies across the country funded by the Wabash Center and the Lilly Foundation.

• Buddhism
• Religion

• Derris, Karen. "Seeing a Cosmic Sangha: Paccekabuddhas in Pali Commentaries and Mural Paintings at a Thai Monastic Hall." Submitted, Journal of the American Academy of Religion.
• Derris, Karen. "How to Learn from World Religion Textbooks." Teaching Theology and Religion (October 2009).
• Derris, Karen. "When the Buddha Was a Woman: Reimagining Tradition in the Theravada." Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion 24, no. 2 (2008): 29–44.
• Derris, Karen, and Natalie Gummer, eds. Defining Buddhism(s): A Reader. Equinox Press, 2007.
• Derris, Karen. "Buddhas and Bodhisattvas: Ethical Significance and Practices." In The Encyclopedia of Religion, 2nd ed. Macmillan Press, January 2005.
• Derris, Karen. "Dhyana." In Encyclopedia of Buddhism. Macmillan Press, November 2003.

• "Teaching Religion for Civic Values," group research project funded by Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Religion and Theology Lilly Foundation, 2008–2010
• Wabash Research Grant, Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Religion and Theology Lilly Foundation, summer 2007
• Wabash Fellowship, Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Religion and Theology Lilly Foundation, 2006–2007
• Faculty Research Grant, University of Redlands, 2006
• Faculty Seed Grant from the Center for Business, Ethics and Society, University of Redlands, October 2004
• Award for Distinction in Teaching, Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning, Harvard University, 1996, 1997, 2002
• Charlotte Newcombe Fellowship, Woodrow Wilson Foundation, 1999–2000
• Harvard Kennedy, Knox, Sheldon Travel Fellowship, Harvard University, Thailand, 1998–1999
• Fulbright Institute for International Education, Thailand, 1998–1999 (declined)
• Mellon Dissertation Research Grant, Harvard University, 1998