Benjamin J. Nourse

Benjamin J. Nourse serves as Assistant Professor of Buddhist Studies at the University of Denver and holds a Senior Fellowship with the Andrew W. Mellon Society of Fellows in Critical Bibliography at Rare Book School.

His academic background includes a B.A. in Asian Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and M.A./Ph.D. degrees in Religious Studies from the University of Virginia.

Nourse specializes in the material history of Tibetan Buddhist texts, with core expertise in woodblock publishing systems, the Kangyur/Tengyur canon, and Dunhuang manuscripts. His research bridges religious studies, bibliography, and East Asian material culture through rigorous analysis of textual production networks.

His 2025 monograph The Power of Publishing in Early Modern Tibetan Buddhism establishes foundational scholarship on 17th-18th century Tibetan print culture, while his broader publication record demonstrates consistent focus on Buddhist textual transmission across journals like East Asian Publishing and Society and edited volumes on Tibetan printing traditions.

Major recognitions include:

• Fulbright-Hays Fellowship
• Florence Tan Moeson Fellowship (Library of Congress)
• Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship in Critical Bibliography
• University of Wisconsin Libraries Grants
• Jefferson Trust Grants

Nourse actively shapes his field through conference leadership, having organized University of Virginia's 2014 Symposium on the Tibetan Book and University of Denver's 2017 Buddhist Book Cultures forum to advance collaborative research in Buddhist bibliographic studies.