Jan Willis
Janice Dean Willis (born in the 1950s in Docena) is a Buddhist scholar, author, and professor of religion at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut.
Willis left Birmingham to attend Cornell University in Ithaca, New York where she completed a bachelor of arts in philosophy in 1969. While at Cornell she was able to take a summer-long study trip to India. She returned many times and became a pupil of the Tibetan master Lama Thubten Yeshe.
She went on to earn a master of arts in philosophy from Cornell in 1971, and a PhD in Indic and Buddhist Studies from Columbia University in New York City in 1976. Her doctoral dissertation was entitled "A Study of the Chapter on Reality Based Upon the Tattvartha-patalam of Asanga's Bodhisattvabhumi."
While pursuing her doctoral degree, Willis taught at the University of California-Santa Cruz. In 1977 she accepted a visiting professorship to Wesleyan University where she has remained. She has served as acting director of Wesleyan's Center for African American Studies (1985-86) and as chair of the Department of Religion (1983-1984, 1988-1990, 1997-1998). Since 1992 she has held the Walter A. Crowell Professorship of Social Sciences.
Publications
- Willis, Jan (1972) The Diamond Light of the Eastern Dawn: An Introduction to Tibetan Buddhist Meditation. New York: Simon & Schuster
- Willis, Jan (1979) On Knowing Reality: The Tattvartha Chapter of Asanga's Bodhisattvabhumi. New York: Columbia University Press
- Willis, Jan, editor (1989) '"Feminine Ground: Essays on Women and Tibet. Ithaca, N.Y.: Snow Lion Publications
- Willis, Jan (1995) Enlightened Beings: Life Stories from the Ganden Oral Tradition. Boston: Wisdom Publications.
- Willis, Jan (2001) Dreaming Me: An African American Baptist-Buddhist Journey. New York: Riverhead Books
External links
- Janice Willis c.v. at Wesleyan.edu
- Book review of Dreaming Me.