Anne M. Blackburn

Anne M. Blackburn holds the prestigious Old Dominion Foundation Professorship in the Humanities and is a distinguished faculty member in the Department of Asian Studies at Cornell University's College of Arts and Sciences. She serves as a core faculty member for both the South Asia Program (SAP) and Southeast Asia Program (SEAP), and is also affiliated with the Religious Studies Program.

• Department of Asian Studies
• Religious Studies Program
• South Asia Program (Core Faculty and Advisory Council)
• Southeast Asia Program (Core Faculty)

Her research focuses on Buddhist institutional history, political economy, intellectual history, and literature, with particular emphasis on intellectual-political centers in Sri Lanka (formerly Lanka) during the 2nd millennium A.D., locations in Burma, Thailand, and India, and the circulatory processes that shaped these connections. Professor Blackburn's work explores Buddhist monastic culture and Buddhist participation in networks linking Sri Lanka and mainland Southeast Asia before and during colonial presence in the region.

Her scholarly output demonstrates significant trends in Buddhist studies, particularly in examining trans-regional connections across the Indian Ocean, the role of Pali textual traditions, and the intersection of Buddhism with political formations. Her work increasingly focuses on comparative approaches, as seen in her co-edited volume on Buddhist and Islamic Orders in Southern Asia, which examines parallel developments in religious network formation.

• Old Dominion Foundation Professorship in the Humanities
• ACLS fellowship for her 2024 book Buddhist-Inflected Sovereignties Across the Indian Ocean: The Pali Arena 1200-1550
• Active membership in multiple scholarly associations including the American Academy of Religion, American Institute for Sri Lankan Studies, Association for Asian Studies, International Association of Buddhist Studies, Pali Text Society, Phi Beta Kappa, and Royal Asiatic Society of Sri Lanka

Professor Blackburn maintains an active research agenda with numerous publications including monographs, edited volumes, and journal articles. Her current project, Monks, Texts, and Relics: Towards a Connected History of 2nd-millennium Buddhisms in Southern Asia, continues her exploration of interconnected Buddhist histories across South and Southeast Asia. She teaches courses on Buddhism in the Indian Ocean World, Buddhist modernity, and Buddhism and politics in South and Southeast Asia.