Welcome!

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Ines Ziling Wan (Chn. 萬子菱) is a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of History at the University of South Dakota. She completed her Ph.D. in East Asian Studies and M.S. in Geographic Information Systems Technology at the University of Arizona in 2026. She is the recipient of the 2026 Khyentse Foundation Best Graduate Student Award, the 2024 Young Scholar Award from the China Times Cultural Foundation, the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation Dissertation Fellowships (2024-25), the Khyentse Foundation Buddhist Studies Doctoral Fellowship (2024-25) and Khyentse Foundation PhD Scholarship (2025); the awardee of the Taiwan National Science and Technology Council Taiwanese Overseas Pioneers Grants (2024-2025, declined the offer). She received her MA in Buddhist Studies (2017) from Fo Guang University, Taiwan.

 

Currently, she serves as associate editor for the Encyclopedia of Hangzhou Buddhist Culture (Brill, 2026). She worked at the Center for Buddhist Studies as a Graduate Assistant Program Coordinator, assisting with an archive digitalization project, academic events, map database management, social media and newsletters, etc. (2022-2026).

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Her research interests include history of East Asian religion, Chinese Chan (Jpn. Zen) Buddhism, regional studies, miracle stories, and digital humanities. Her dissertation examines miracle narratives, karmic discourse, and religious authority in early modern (16th–18th c.) Chinese Chan Buddhism by focusing on the Xianguo suilu 現果隨錄 (Record of Present-Life Karmic Retribution), the first miracle tale collection compiled by a Chan master. ​​