About Jue Liang

Jue Liang is a scholar of Tibetan Buddhism. She holds a BA and MA from Renmin University of China (2009, 2011), an MA from the University of Chicago (2013), and a PhD from the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia (2020). Her research and teaching engage with questions about continuities as well as innovations in the gender discourses of Buddhist communities. She is also interested in the theory and practice of translation in general, and translating Tibetan literature in particular. Jue’s first book, entitled Conceiving the Mother of Tibet: The Early Literary Lives of the Buddhist Saint Yeshe Tsogyel, uses new literary sources previously unexamined and contributes critical new data to current scholarship on women and gender in Tibetan Buddhism. It presents new insight into the formation of Yeshe Tsogyel’s literary tradition and suggests new ways of understanding gender in Buddhist traditions that can be broadly applicable to other fields. Jue is currently working on two new projects. The first is titled “Souls on the Road: Pilgrimages to Tibet in the Chinese Religious Revival.” It centers around expressions of religiosity found on the two major roads connecting Sichuan Province and Tibet Autonomous Region in China in the 1990s and 2000s. This book will be the first to treat traveling as a mode of spirituality in contemporary China and road as the site of its expression. The other, “A New Treasury of Dharma: Modern Style Libraries in Tibetan Buddhism”, is a study of libraries in contemporary Tibetan Buddhist communities worldwide.

Jue Liang is a scholar of Tibetan Buddhism. She is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies and Severance Professor in the History of Religion at Case Western Reserve University.

Jue's website

NBN Episodes hosted by Jue:

January 15, 2026

Near Light We Shine

Sara Ann Swenson

Hosted by Jue Liang

Sara Swenson is Assistant Professor of Religion and Affiliated Faculty in Asian Societies, Cultures, and Languages at Dartmouth College. Her areas of …

January 2, 2026

Buddhist Masculinities

Megan Bryson and Kevin Buckelew

Hosted by Jue Liang

Listen:

While early Buddhists hailed their religion's founder for opening a path to enlightenment, they also exalted him as the paragon of masculinity. Accord…

May 28, 2025

Just Awakening

Jessica X. Zu

Hosted by Jue Liang

Just Awakening: Yogācāra Social Philosophy in Modern China (Columbia University Press, 2025) uncovers a forgotten philosophy of social democracy inspi…

May 9, 2025

Making the Invisible Real

Catherine Hartmann

Hosted by Jue Liang

Dr. Catherine Hartmann is Assistant Professor of Asian Religions in the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at University of Wyoming. She r…

July 8, 2024

Shattered Grief

Natasha L. Mikles

Hosted by Jue Liang

The COVID-19 pandemic left millions grieving their loved ones without the consolation of traditional ways of mourning. Patients were admitted to hospi…

June 21, 2024

Tibetan Magic

Cameron Bailey and Aleksandra Wenta

Hosted by Jue Liang

Tibetan Magic: Past and Present (Bloomsbury, 2024) focuses on the theme of magic in Tibetan contexts, encompassing both pre-modern and modern text-cul…

May 20, 2022

Renunciation and Longing

Annabella Pitkin

Hosted by Jue Liang

In the early twentieth century, Khunu Lama journeyed across Tibet and India, meeting Buddhist masters while sometimes living, so his students say, on …

January 3, 2022

A Buddhist Sensibility

Dominique Townsend

Hosted by Jue Liang

Founded in 1676 during a cosmopolitan early modern period, Mindröling monastery became a key site for Buddhist education and a Tibetan civilizational …