Eric Huntington is an interdisciplinary scholar of Buddhist studies. He employs methods from religious studies, art history, and area studies to investigate complex topics of doctrine, ritual, philosophy, and visual and material culture.
Specializing in Southern and Central Asia, he also addresses issues of transnational connection and comparison. His work traces long histories and contrasts disparate traditions to better understand both widespread features of religion and the unique ideas, practices, and objects of specific cultural contexts.
Huntington has received numerous awards and fellowships for his scholarship, including a book prize for his monograph and fellowships at the Society of Fellows in the Liberal Arts at Princeton University and the Ho Center for Buddhist Studies at Stanford University. He is currently a T. T. and W. F. Chao Assistant Professor of Transnational Asian Studies at Rice University.
Huntington travels widely across Asia, gathering a wealth of material for research. Documenting ritual practices and objects of art and material culture, he employs photography, video recording, interviews, and archival work.
In both his research and his teaching, Huntington uses innovative digital tools and technologies. He has created interactive lessons, photographic databases, and numerous original illustrations.
Huntington has taught at Princeton, Stanford, Rice, and Washington Universities in departments of Religion, Asian Studies, and Art History. Many of his classes feature the same interdisciplinary approach that defines his research, and he has also taught in subjects as diverse as biographical literature, pilgrimage and sacred geography, comparative cosmology, and visual culture studies.
