Sarah Jacoby

Assistant Professor of Religion
Department of Religious Studies
Office: Crowe Hall, 1860 Campus Drive, 4-149
Phone: 847-467-1304
E-Mail: s-jacoby@northwestern.edu

Office Hours: TH 3:30 to 5:30pm (Winter 2012)

Sarah Jacoby studies South Asian Religions with a specialization in Tibetan Buddhism. She received her B.A. from Yale University, majoring in women's studies, and her M.A. and Ph.D. (2007) degrees from the University of Virginia's Department of Religious Studies. She joined Northwestern University in 2009 after completing a postdoctoral fellowship at the Society of Fellows in the Humanities at Columbia University.

Her research interests include Indo-Tibetan Buddhist doctrine and ritual in practice, gender studies, Tantric literature, autobiography studies, Buddhist revelation, Buddhism in contemporary Tibet, and Eastern Tibetan area studies. Her doctoral dissertation, entitled "Consorts and Revelation in Eastern Tibet: The Auto/biographical Writings of the Treasure Revealer Sera Khandro (1892-1940)," is an analysis of the biographical writings of the most prolific female author in Tibetan literature. Her dissertation explores the ways in which Sera Khandro represents her role as a revealer of Buddhist scriptures and artifacts (a gter ston) and as a consort in the nomadic highlands of early twentieth century Golok, Eastern Tibet. She is currently working on a book manuscript based on this research entitled Love Revelations: The Autobiography of a Tibetan Buddhist Ḍākinī. Other publications include a book she co-edited with Antonio Terrone entitled Buddhism Beyond the Monastery: Tantric Practices and their Performers in Tibet and the Himalayas (Brill, 2009).

Courses she teaches include Introduction to Buddhism, South Asian Goddess Traditions, Buddhism and Gender, Buddhist Biography, and Theory and Methods in the Study of Religion.

Selected Works

Books

Co-edited with Antonio Terrone. Buddhism beyond the Monastery: Tantric Practices and their Performers in Tibet and the Himalayas. Leiden: Brill, 2009.

Articles

• “To be or not to be Celibate: Morality and Consort Practices According to the Treasure Revealer Sera Khandro’s (1892-1940) Auto/biographical Writings.” In Sarah Jacoby and Antonio Terrone (eds), Buddhism beyond the Monastery: Tantric Practices and their Performers in Modern Tibet. Leiden: Brill, 2009.

• "This Inferior Female Body:’ Reflections on Life as a Treasure Revealer Through the Autobiographical Eyes of Se ra mkha’ ‘gro (Bde ba’i rdo rje, 1892-1940).” Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies. 32/1-2 (2009/2010): pp. 115-150.

• “Revelation and Community in Early Twentieth-century Mgo log Religious Encampments (sgar).” Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies (forthcoming).