One of the earliest American scholar-practitioners of Tibetan Buddhism will visit campus in early October. Jan Willis, professor of religion at Wesleyan University (Conn.), will discuss "The Ethics of Interrelatedness." This Goodspeed Lecture Series event will be at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday (Oct. 3) in Slayter Auditorium and is free and open to the public. Willis will also visit students in Professor Carla Ingrando's class "Women's Spirituality" and Professor John Cort's "Buddhism" class on Wednesday.

Willis has studied with Tibetan Buddhists in India, Nepal, Switzerland, and the United States for more than three decades, and has taught courses in Buddhism for more than 25 years. She earned her bachelor and master's degrees in philosophy at Cornell University and her doctorate in Indic and Buddhist Studies at Columbia University.

She is the author ofThe Diamond Light: An Introduction to Tibetan Buddhist Meditation(1972),On Knowing Reality: The Tattvartha Chapter of Asanga's Bodhisattvabhumi(1979),Enlightened Beings: Life Stories from the Ganden Oral Tradition(1995); and the editor ofFeminine Ground: Essays on Women and Tibet(1989). Her most recent book isDreaming Me: An African American Woman's Spiritual Journey(2001), reprinted in paperback asDreaming Me: From Baptist to Buddhist, One Woman's Spiritual Journey, in 2002.

As a practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism, Willis also has published numerous essays and articles on Buddhist meditation, hagiography, women and Buddhism, and Buddhism and race. In December of 2000, Time Magazine named Willis one of six "spiritual innovators for the new millennium." In 2003, she was a recipient of Wesleyan University's Binswanger Prize for Excellence in Teaching.

Calendar Listing:

CALENDAR LISTING: Denison University, Granville -- The Goodspeed Lecture Series presents Jan Willis to speak on "The Ethics of Interrelatedness"; 7:30 p.m., Tuesday (Oct. 3), Slayter Auditorium. Free and open to the public. Call 740-587-6241 to confirm information.

About Denison:

Denison University, founded in 1831, is an independent, residential liberal arts institution located in Granville, Ohio. A highly selective college enrolling 2,100 full-time undergraduate students from all 50 states and dozens of foreign countries, Denison is a place where innovative faculty and motivated students collaborate in rigorous scholarship, civic engagement and the cultivation of independent thinking.

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