Gloria (I-Ling) Chien, Ph.D.

Dr. Gloria (I-Ling) Chien is an Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Gonzaga University.
Before coming to Gonzaga in 2017, she taught courses in Buddhism, Eastern Religions, and Religion and Film at Virginia Commonwealth University.

She conducts bibliographic analysis of the Tibetan Buddhist master Tokmé Zangpo's (1295–1369) biographies and Collected Works in order to shed light on the cultural legacy of Tibetan Buddhist Lojong (mind training) meditation tradition. Her research has taken her to Nepal, India, China, and Tibet. Inspired by her research, she became a certified instructor in the Cognitively-Based Compassion Training® contemplation program developed at Emory University. In the spring of 2018, she taught a CBCT® course entitled “Compassion Meditation and Happiness” to promote emotional well-being in Gonzaga’s students and to enlarge their ethical considerations of others. This course was funded by the Office of the Dean at the College of Arts and Sciences. Her publication based on this course is featured in this GU news article. Dr. Chien’s peer-reviewed articles concern topics such as Tokmé Zangpo’s life and Collected Works, Ignatian pedagogy, teaching Buddhism in higher education, and Chinese religions in film.

To promote scholarly discussion on teaching Buddhism, she established and co-chairs the Buddhist Pedagogy Seminar at the American Academy of Religion (2019–2023). She is the recipient of 2019–20 Faculty Award for Teaching Excellence for Tenure-Track Faculty at GU. Upon request, she became the advisor of the student meditation club in 2021. Information on the club can be found in the Gonzaga Bulletin. To bring her scholarship and specialties to the general public, Dr. Chien has led several contemplation sessions for various groups, such as for the ZoNE Essential Skills Series and the Spokane Public Library.

In her spare time, Dr. Chien enjoys playing racquetball, going snowboarding, and making vegan dishes.