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

Dr. Gloria Chien (I-Ling) 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 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" is 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.

Before coming to Gonzaga in 2017, Dr. Chien taught courses in Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhism, Eastern Religions, Daoism, as well as Chinese Religions and Medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University. Dr. Chien is currently completing a teacher certificate program on Cognitively-Based Compassion Training (CBCT) organized by the Emory-Tibet Partnership, which is affiliated with Emory University. In the spring of 2018, she will teach a CBCT course titled “Compassion Meditation and Happiness” at Gonzaga in order to promote students' emotional well-being and enlarge their ethical concerns for others. This course is funded by the Office of the Dean at the College of Arts and Sciences.