KHK Visiting Research Fellow 2011
Full Professor, Central Eurasian Studies, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, USA

Since 1994 Christopher Beckwith is Full Professor at Indiana University’s Department of Central Eurasian Studies (Bloomington, Ind.). From 1976 to 1994 he was a faculty member of the Department of Uralic and Altaic Studies (Lecturer 1976, Assistant Professor 1978, Associate Professor 1987). He has been Visiting Professor at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, the National Museum of Ethnology in Osaka, the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, the University of Vienna and the Sorbonne. He has been granted several awards and fellowships, including the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship in 1986.

Christopher Beckwith’s research interest is currently focusing on the following fields: ancient and early medieval Central Eurasian and East Asian history and linguistics, early Buddhisms, Old Tibetan inscriptions, Old Chinese reconstruction, Mandarin morphophonology, ancient and medieval Chinese-Central Eurasian onomastics, and religious interaction between Central Eurasia and the periphery. During his stay in Bochum he will further concentrate on the latter aspect.

Education

• Ph.D., Inner Asian Studies, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, USA, 1977
• M.A., Tibetan, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, USA, 1974
• B.A., Chinese, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, USA, 1968

KHK Fellowship

Duration: July 2011 - January 2012
Project: The Influence of Central Eurasian Religious Beliefs on the Cultures of the Periphery