Lore Agnes Fellow, Ruhr Universität - Bochum

All-Creating: Tradition Building by Longchenpa in the 14th Century 

Adjunct Faculty, University of Denver
Courses in Buddhism

In my work, I look at the adaptation and evolution of themes in contemplative practices through South and Central Asia. This reflection makes use of multiple aspects of religion such as literature, praxis, cultural, and philosophical components. Primarily, I focus on how various embodied components of being human such as affective, performative, and conceptual thought integrate in contemplative practices to transform an individual.
My new current research, using an interdisciplinary approach, looks at how Longchenpa creates a systematic Nyingma Great Completeness Buddhist tradition that integrates both effortful practices and effortless meditations, and which became standard for the tradition in the 14th century.
My work also incorporates Tibetan-English translation work. I have primarily translated mahayoga texts in the Tibetan Nyingma lineage such as the  Third Dodrupchen Jigme Tenpa’i Nyima’s Staircase that leads to Lotus Light and Excellent Instructions on Guru Yoga, Ratna Lingpa’s Wish-fulfilling Jewel: Devotion as the Teacher, and Longchenpa’s Prayers of the Lama Yangtik: Cloudbanks of Nectar.

Research Interests: Tibetan Buddhism, Contemplative Research, Women in Buddhism.

Former Academic Positions

• 15/08/2022 - 15/12/2024: Post-doctoral Fellow, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark, currently affiliated researcher.
• 01/08/2020 - 30/05/2024: Lecturer in Religious Studies, University of North Carolina - Wilmington: Asian Religions, asynchronous online delivery method.
• 15/06/2022 - 30/12/2024: Instructor for Advanced Classical Tibetan language, Rangjung Yeshe Institute, Kathmandu, Nepal.
• 01/01/2022 - 01/06/2022: Adjunct Faculty, Naropa University, Boulder, CO: Foundations of Buddhism, Mahayana Buddhism, undergraduate and graduate, synchronous and in-person.
• 01/01/2022 - 15/04/2022: Adjunct Faculty, University of Denver, Denver, CO: Religions of India, undergraduate, synchronous and in-person.
• 01/02/2020 - 30/12/2021, University of Oxford: The Oral History of Tibetan Studies.
• 15/02/2021: Guest Lecturer, Modern Hinduism; Gender, Identity in South Asia, University of Denver, synchronous online delivery method.
• 15/01/2016 - 15/05/2016: Instructor, Buddhist Art and Literature, Rice University, Houston.
• 15/08/2015 - 15/12/2015: Instructor, Introduction to Tibetan Language, Rice University, Houston.

Education

• 31/08/2020: PhD title conferred
• 15/08/2013 - 20/08/2020 Ph.D. Religious Studies in Buddhist Studies, Rice University, Houston.
• 15/08/2009 - 01/06/2012 M.A. Religious Studies - Indian and Tibetan Buddhism, Nāropa University, Boulder, Colorado.
• 01/09/1998 - 31/12/2000; 01/01/2004 - 15/06/2005 B.F.A. Awarded 2005, cum laude. University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio.

Other Relevant Training

• 20/05/2025 - 01/08/2025 Training Embodied Critical Thinking and Understanding
• 01/08/2021 - 15/08/2021 Oral History Center Summer Institute, OHC at the Bancroft Library, UC-Berkeley.
• 01/03/2018 - 15/03/2018 Eliciting Interview Training, Claire Petitmengin, PhD Dawn Mountain, Houston, Texas (USA)
• 15/10/2015 - 22/10/2015 Eliciting Interview Training , Claire Petitmengin, PhD France Other Relevant Employment
• 01/08/2021 - 31/12/2022 Catalogue Researcher & Translation Coordinator, Khyentse Vision Project. 
• 01/01/2020 - 01/06/2020 Sacred Writes and Tricycle Magazine: The Buddhist Review Partnership.
• 01/01/2017 - 30/09/2017 Bibliographic data entry, Tsadra Foundation, Boulder. 
• 01/01/2011 - 01/05/2013 Internship, Tsadra Foundation, Boulder.

Monographs

• Ford, Renée. Devotion’s Tapestery: Doing, Feeling, and Being in Buddhist Practice. In process to be submitted to University of Virginia Press. In Progress.
• Ford, Renée. Contemporary Women, Traditional Rituals and Well-rounded Education: Tekcholing Nunnery and its Redefined Buddhist Monasticism. In Progress.

Articles, Peered Reviewed

• Ford, Renée. “Tears of Devotion: Microphenomenological Interviews Alongside Textual Readings” in IATS Proceedings. Leiden: Brill, forthcoming.
• Ford, Renée. “I Feel Different: Affect in Contemplative Practices Expressed in Microphenomenology-inspired Interviews and Considerations” in Journal of Contemplative Studies, forthcoming.
• Ford, Renée. “Tibetan Buddhist studies in Europe” in Handbook of Buddhism in Europe, Leiden: Brill, forthcoming.
• Ford, Renée. “Longchenpa’s Lineage Prayer” in Longing to Awaken: Buddhist Devotion in Tibetan Poetry and Song. Charlotttesville: University of Virginia Press, 2024, 100 - 113.
• Ford, Renée and Adam Pearcey, Trans. Essential Instructions on Guru Yoga: The Staircase that Leads to Lotus Light (bla rnam la nye bar mkho Ba’i yi ge pad+ma ‘od du bgrod pa’i them skas bzhugs). Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo.  https://www.lotsawahouse.org/tibetan-masters/dodrupchen-III/staircase-lotus-light-guru-yoga-instructions. 2022.
• Ford, Renée. 2020. "Devotion, a Lamp That Illuminates the Ground: Non-Referential Devotional Affect in Great Completeness." Religions 11, no. 3: 148.
• Ford, Renée, Rachael Griffiths, Anna Sehnalova, & Daniel Wojahn. 2021. “Glimpses of The Oral History of Tibetan Studies.” Buddhist Studies Review 38.2, 253 - 263. https://doi.org/10.1558/bsrv.21197.
• Ford, Renée. “Trust in Times of Uncertainty.” In Tricycle Magazine 30 August 2021. https://tricycle.org/article/tibetan-buddhism-faith/.
• “Tibetan Book of the Dead,” in the Encyclopedia of Psychology and Religion. Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 2016.
• Ford, Renée. “We Don’t Need the Guru: Shambhala Facebook Group and (Re)Creating Vajrayana Buddhism.” International Journal of Hindu Studies 26, 29 August 2022, 215 - 236.
• Renée Ford, "Longchenpa Drime Wozer," Treasury of Lives, accessed January 18, 2021, http://treasuryoflives.org/biographies/view/Longchenpa-Drime-Wozer/2882.

Book Reviews

• Ford, Renée. History of Uyghur Buddhism. For Tricycle Magazine, Fall 2024. https://tricycle.org/magazine/uyghur-buddhism-silk-road/. Accessed 6 September 2024.
• Ford, Renée. Mind Beyond Brain: Buddhism, Science, and the Paranormal for Nova Religio 24, no. 2 (November 2020), 132-134.
• Ford, Renée. The Life of Jamgon Kongtrul the Great for Himalaya: The Journal of the Association for Nepal and Himalayan Studies Vol. 40, no. 1 (2020), Edited by Mason Brown, PhD.
• Ford, Renée. Atiśa Dipamkara: Illuminator of the Awakened Mind for Himalaya: The Journal of the Association for Nepal and Himalayan Studies Vol. 40, no. 2 (2021), Edited by Mason Brown, PhD.

Professional Organizations

• International Society for Contemplative Research, Board of Directors Member and Secretary
• H-Buddhism, Editor
• International Association of Tibetan Studies
• International Seminar of Young Tibetologists
• International Association of Buddhist Studies
• American Academy of Religion
• Association for Asian Studies