Faculty News - Professor Robert DeCaroli

Professor Robert DeCaroli was awarded a 2019-20 Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Research Fellowship in Buddhist Studies from the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS). DeCaroli’s project was one of just 81 funded projects from more than 1,100 appli-cations that ACLS received for the 2019-20 funding year. His research examines the inter-section of geography, archaeology, and tex-tual sources to understand the relationship between South Asian pre-Buddhist terrestrial gods and spirits and the early Buddhist com-munity. The cults of these deities were typically tied to specific regions, and DeCaroli’s work will use inscriptions and pilgrims’ accounts to pin-point their locations in India and Sri Lanka. He will trace the influence of these spirit cults upon the spread of Buddhism through South Asia. Professor DeCaroli begins his fellowship in 2020.