Dr. Gloria (I-Ling) Chien is an Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Gonzaga University. She received her Ph.D. in Religious Studies from the University of Virginia. 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, or mind training. Lojong is a particular type of compassion meditation.
Dr. Chien's research has taken her to Nepal, India, China, and Tibet. Her article "Examining the Blo sbyong Component in Thogs med bzang po's Collected Works" presents a pioneering understanding of the textual organization in Tokmé Collected Works. She is currently preparing a book manuscript concerning Tokmé Zangpo's idiosyncratic interpretation of Lojong.
Inspired, in part, by her research on Lojong compassion meditation, Dr. Chien became a certified teacher in the Cognitively-Based Compassion Training (CBCT) program affiliated with 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.
Before coming to Gonzaga in 2017, Dr. Chien taught courses in Buddhism, Eastern Religions, and Religion and Film at Virginia Commonwealth University. In her spare time, Dr. Chien enjoys playing racquetball and making vegan dishes.
