Jessica Marie Falcone

Dr. Jessica Marie Falcone is a Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Kansas State University's College of Arts and Sciences, where she serves as Program Coordinator for Anthropology and manages the Religious Studies and Museum Studies certificates. Her academic work bridges anthropology and religious studies, focusing on transnationalism, diaspora, and digital material culture in Buddhist contexts.

• Education: PhD in Sociocultural Anthropology (Cornell University, 2010); MA in Development Anthropology.

Her research explores themes like futurity/temporality, globalization, and the anthropology of gift exchange, with fieldwork conducted in India and virtual worlds. She is currently writing an ethnography about Buddhist community-building at a Zen temple in Hawai'i. Her publications analyze topics such as digital ephemerality in virtual religious spaces and the cultural dynamics of transnational Tibetan Buddhism.

Dr. Falcone has received prestigious awards, including the 2020 Ron Gaches Teaching Award for innovative upper-level undergraduate instruction and the 2014 Edward C. Dimock Prize for her book Battling the Buddha of Love. She has also been honored with a fellowship from the American Institute of Indian Studies and a Society for Humanistic Anthropology award for ethnographic fiction.

At Kansas State University, she has taught diverse courses such as the Anthropology of Futurity, Ethnomusicology, and Asian Religions, emphasizing creative ethnographic methodologies and interdisciplinary approaches. Her work continues to address transformations in religious practices and cultural identities across global and digital landscapes.