DEPARTMENT OF RELIGIOUS STUDIES

 

Ray Buckner is a PhD Student in Religious Studies at Northwestern University. His dissertation project, titled “Queer and Transgender Buddhism in Thailand: Religious and Aesthetic Lives Beyond the Monastery,” analyzes the interventions of queer and transgender Thai Buddhist artists in Bangkok and Berlin. Examining vanguard films, paintings, flower arrangements, fashion, and drag performances, Ray’s project traces how queer and trans artists at once inherit and subvert orthodox Thai Buddhist views on queer desire and trans embodiment—forging their own Thai Buddhist practices that affirm queer and trans lives.

Ray received his MA in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from The Ohio State University. He has published peer-reviewed articles in The Journal of Global Buddhism and Religion. He has also published academic essays in American Religion and The Revealer. In his free time, Ray writes for Lion’s Roar Magazine, Buddhadharma: The Practitioner’s Quarterly, and The Institute of Buddhist Studies’ Ten Thousand Things Blog. Ray is advised by Robert Orsi.