Dan Hirshberg, Associate Teaching Professor in the Center for Asian Studies, teaches courses in Tibetan and Himalayan Studies, often relying on high-impact practices and contemplative pedagogy. He completed his BA in Religion at Wesleyan University, his MA in Indo-Tibetan Buddhism (Shedra Track) at Naropa University, his PhD in Tibetan Studies at Harvard University, and has held fellowships at UC Santa Barbara, LMU Munich, and UVa’s Contemplative Sciences Center. Before moving to Boulder, he was an Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Mary Washington, where he designed and directed one of the first Contemplative Studies programs for undergrads, established a Japanese-style garden on campus, and led study abroad programs to Nepal and Japan. His research centers on cultural memory, the narrative of Tibet’s conversion to Buddhism, and the apotheosis of its protagonist, Padmasambhava, in literature and iconography. His first book, Remembering the Lotus-Born: Padmasambhava in the History of Tibet’s Golden Age (Wisdom Publications, Studies in Indian and Tibetan Buddhism, 2016), won Honorable Mention for the E. Gene Smith Book Prize from the Association for Asian Studies.