Orientation

The goal of this blog is to help me organize my mind and to be a work space for my scholarly thoughts.

I hope to keep track of what I am reading and what I am thinking about it, so that I can start to figure out where I want to go with all of this.

It might help the big outside world to give some introduction. Not that anyone will be reading this persay, but if someone finds it helpful or amusing, I guess I would be okay with that. It would be lovely to find some like minded souls, or even some different minded souls who can at least discuss what I am trying to probe intellectually. I sometimes feel as if I am adrift in a place where no one else thinks about the things I do.

Lets start here. I am a senior at the University of Missouri, majoring in Anthropology and Religious Studies, with a minor in South Asian Studies. My particular area of interest lies in Buddhism, particularly of the Southeast Asian Theravada variety, even more specifically in the Cambodian variety.

I have traveled to Cambodia twice now, and I hope to go back there next year with a Fulbright Research grant. *fingers crossed* My spoken khmer is passable, and my written khmer is nonexistant. Same goes for my spoken japanese, which is quickly slipping away from me after four years of study in high school... four years ago. My written japanese is more existant than my written khmer, but not much. I have some reading/translation ability in Sanskrit and Pali. I've taken two semesters of Sanskrit at the college level, and am currently enrolled in my first semester of Pali as a reading course.

I have many intellectual and personal goals which relate to my own studies more and less closely.

People (academics) I admire greatly: (Partial List I hope to add to significantly)
At my own university:
Signe Cohen
Dan Cohen
Mary Shenk
Bob Flanagan
Dennis Kelley
Rabia Gregory
Nathan Hofer

And abroad:
David Chandler
Sedara Kim
Judy Ledgerwood
Anne Hansen
Rita Gross
Karma Lekshe Tsomo
Penny Edwards
John Marston
Philip Kear