A Passion for Asian Cultures

Before my job at Northwestern University, I served as an East Asia Analyst in Chicago and I also was an Assistant Professor of Tibetan Buddhist Studies in the Graduate Institute of Religious Studies at National Chengchi University in Taipei, Taiwan. There I was also the co-teacher at the Aikido Club.

My research features politics, literature and religion in modern and contemporary China and its borderlands, with a concentration on violence and ethno-religious politics (Tibetans and Uyghurs). I have studied and worked extensively in numerous Asian countries including India, China (eastern provinces and Tibetan regions), Taiwan, and Nepal, and has conducted fieldwork in various parts of Western China including eastern Tibetan areas of Qinghai and Sichuan, Kashgar and Urumqi in Xinjiang, and along the Himalayas in northern Nepal and India. Antonio works with several relevant Asian languages including Mandarin Chinese, Tibetan, Japanese, and more recently Uyghur. Since the 1990s, because of my studies, work, and research, I have had the privilege of travelling to and live with some of the most fascinating communities in East Asia including India, China, Tibet and Xinjiang in China, Nepal, Japan, and Taiwan.

At Northwestern University I teach several courses, including “East Asian Classics”, “Religion and Politics in the People’s Republic of China”, “Buddhism and Violence in Asia”, “Introduction to Modern Tibetan Literature”, “Theory and Method in the Study of Buddhism and Violence”, “Buddhist Modernism”, “Readings in Tibetan Literature”, and “Martial Arts and Literature in East Asian Cultures.”

With Dechen Osel Dorje at his Buddhist retreat monastery in Eastern Tibet (2003)

As a professor of Tibetan Buddhist Studies at National Chengchi University in Taipei (Taiwan, 2015)

Working for ICT in Amsterdam (2005)

With my friend Zungdu visiting the Larung gar Five Sciences Buddhist Academy in Eastern Tibet (2005)

With my two Tibetan Buddhist teachers, Dechen Osel Dorje and Tashi Gyaltsen (Eastern Tibet, 2004)

Visiting Terchen Osel Ling in Eastern Tibet (2010)