Faculty

Kate Hartmann’s primary research focus is on the intellectual history of pilgrimage in Tibet, but she also researches Buddhist ethics, as well as Buddhist approaches to addiction and recovery. Her book Making the Invisible Real: Practices of Seeing in Tibetan Pilgrimage Literature is forthcoming from Oxford University Press.

She received her PhD in Buddhist Studies from Harvard University in 2020, an MA in the History of Religions from the University of Chicago in 2013, and a BA in Religious Studies from the University of Virginia in 2011.

As part of her training, Kate has spent extended periods of time living in Asia. She has spent summers backpacking across India, living with Tibetan Buddhist nuns in Ladakh, in Dharamsala working in the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, studying at the Dunhuang caves in China, travelling to Lhasa, and conducting research around Boudha in Nepal. She speaks modern colloquial Tibetan and conducts research in Classical Tibetan and Sanskrit.

As a scholar and teacher, Kate has long been interested in the practices religions develop to transform people's experience of the world. She aims to help students understand Buddhist traditions through deep engagement with primary sources, a process that helps illuminate central Buddhist concepts while embracing the internal diversity of Buddhist traditions. She balances an irreverent and down-to-earth style with deep respect for Buddhist texts, traditions, and practitioners. She teaches both online and in-person courses on the history and philosophy of Buddhism and other Asian religions, and has presented at lectures and conferences around the country.

Courses taught: 

• BS 101 | Intro to Buddhism: History, Philosophy, and Practice
• BS 110 | Pilgrimage and Buddhism

Selected Publications: 

• Forthcoming. Making the Invisible Real: Practices of Seeing in Tibetan Pilgrimage. Oxford University Press.

• 2024. “The Twelve-Step Path? Mindfulness and Ethics in Buddhist Addiction Recovery Literature,” Mindfulness, May. On the theme of “The Ethics of Mindfulness,” edited by Eviatar Shulman. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-024-02355-0.

•  2023. “How to See the Invisible: Attention, Landscape, and the Transformation of Vision in Tibetan Pilgrimage Guides,” History of Religions 62:4, May, 313-339. https://doi.org/10.1086/724562.

• 2023. “Karmic Opacity and Ethical Formation in a Tibetan Pilgrim’s Diary,” Journal of Religious Ethics 51:2, May , 1-21. https://doi.org/10.1111/jore.12435. 

• 2022. "Against Pilgrimage: Materiality, Place, and Ambivalence in Tibetan Pilgrimage Literature,” Revue d'Etudes Tibétaines 65, October, 127-158.

•  2021. “Necessary Questions of Chö: Uses and Abuses of Religion in Dondrup Gyel’s ‘Tulku,’” in Himalaya Vol. 40.2 (Fall), 6-17. https://doi.org/10.2218/himalaya.2021.6600.

•  2013. Translation of “Tulku” by Dondrup Gyel, in The Tibet Journal Vol. XXXVIII No. 3 & 4 (Autumn-Winter), 35-55.