Meet Our New Professor of Buddhist Studies, Dr. Kati Fitzgerald

The Religious Studies Program is thrilled to announce the hiring of Dr. Kati Fitzgerald. Supported by the Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation, Dr. Fitzgerald will take up a position as Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation Assistant Professor. Her appointment is split between the Religious Studies Program and the Department of Cultural Studies & Comparative Literature.

Dr. Fitzgerald has a PhD in comparative studies from The Ohio State University. She specializes in contemporary Tibetan religions. Her work focuses on the lives and religious experiences of the Buddhist laity. She uses primarily ethnographic methods in contemporary Tibet to understand the religious theories of everyday Buddhists. Her first book project is an ethnographic exploration of the religious labor of lay women in Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Region. The book shows how women’s labor — in home, labor and delivery, child rearing, and religious communities — creates a model of Buddhism that includes labor of the body, labor of speech, and labor of the mind. Her second book project explores the writings of Buddhist female political prisoners and shows how these writings are simultaneously devotional literature and political communication.

Prof. Fitzgerald has teaching experience in Buddhist studies and religious studies, and she will be teaching RELS 1002 - Introduction to Religion in fall 2026.