Natasha Heller
@nlheller.bsky.social
Scholar of Chinese religion (mainly Buddhism) and within that scope especially interested in literature and trees at present
The Kuroda Institute is pleased to announce a symposium on Nov 21 to honor Peter Gregory—use the QR to access the full program
September 24, 2025 at 8:08 PM
The Kuroda Institute is pleased to announce a symposium on Nov 21 to honor Peter Gregory—use the QR to access the full program
Reposted by Natasha Heller
Franz Metcalf @franzmetcalf.bsky.social reviews Natasha Heller's @nlheller.bsky.social new book on Buddhist picture books for children.
"These books become the material form of modern family Buddhism, giving rise to new practices rooted not in the temple but in the home."
Accessible Link
"These books become the material form of modern family Buddhism, giving rise to new practices rooted not in the temple but in the home."
Accessible Link
How to Raise a Little Bodhisattva
In Taiwan, a new generation of children’s books quietly transforms Buddhist family life.
tricycle.org
August 11, 2025 at 11:23 AM
Franz Metcalf @franzmetcalf.bsky.social reviews Natasha Heller's @nlheller.bsky.social new book on Buddhist picture books for children.
"These books become the material form of modern family Buddhism, giving rise to new practices rooted not in the temple but in the home."
Accessible Link
"These books become the material form of modern family Buddhism, giving rise to new practices rooted not in the temple but in the home."
Accessible Link
My review of Don Lopez’s amazing new history of Buddhism
The history of Buddhism presents unique challenges. The first is that Buddhist texts imagine a timeline that stretches backwards and forwards in almost'Self can be both illusory and deeply felt.'
Natasha Heller on a single-volume 2,500-year history
www.the-tls.com/religion/bu...
Natasha Heller on a single-volume 2,500-year history
www.the-tls.com/religion/bu...
August 6, 2025 at 12:58 AM
My review of Don Lopez’s amazing new history of Buddhism
State Sen. Creigh Deeds asks the BOV: “What is your understanding of the importance of shared governance in a university? What is your understanding of the significance of having lost the confidence of the people who educate students in that university?” www.cavalierdaily.com/article/2025...
Virginia General Assembly demands answers about Ryan's resignation in Aug. 1 letter
In a 10-page letter obtained by The Cavalier Daily, State Sen. Creigh Deeds, D-Charlottesville, demanded written responses and documentation from University Rector Rachel Sheridan and University Vice ...
www.cavalierdaily.com
August 2, 2025 at 9:24 PM
State Sen. Creigh Deeds asks the BOV: “What is your understanding of the importance of shared governance in a university? What is your understanding of the significance of having lost the confidence of the people who educate students in that university?” www.cavalierdaily.com/article/2025...
A simple idea: faculty should be represented in the search for UVa’s next president: www.cavalierdaily.com/article/2025...
www.cavalierdaily.com
August 1, 2025 at 9:21 PM
A simple idea: faculty should be represented in the search for UVa’s next president: www.cavalierdaily.com/article/2025...
Reposted by Natasha Heller
To be clear, the Olympic swimmer is not the problem. www.cavalierdaily.com/article/2025...
4 RELIGIOUS STUDIES FACULTY: Where are the humanities professors?
Lawyers, financiers, teachers, students and, yes, Olympic swimmers belong on the search committee. But, surely, faculty members who carry out a core mission of the University belong there, too.
www.cavalierdaily.com
August 1, 2025 at 5:32 PM
To be clear, the Olympic swimmer is not the problem. www.cavalierdaily.com/article/2025...
I am annoyed by people who write in library books but especially astounded by this—at least it is not in pen!
July 24, 2025 at 12:35 PM
I am annoyed by people who write in library books but especially astounded by this—at least it is not in pen!
Reposted by Natasha Heller
We're pairing up contingent historians with contingent scholars in other fields for a face off! Click through to learn more and let us know if you want to participate.
Face/Off
Lots of scholars from different disciplines study and write about things that happened in the past. So what, if anything, makes history a separate and coherent discipline? While Contingent is a histor...
contingentmagazine.org
July 8, 2025 at 6:21 PM
We're pairing up contingent historians with contingent scholars in other fields for a face off! Click through to learn more and let us know if you want to participate.
Reposted by Natasha Heller
The title is a little misleading, but this is a clear explanation of what’s happened at UVa. TLDR: the people appointed or elected to represent the University are in fact its opponents. www.nytimes.com/2025/06/30/o...
Opinion | What the University of Virginia Should Have Done
www.nytimes.com
June 30, 2025 at 12:59 PM
The title is a little misleading, but this is a clear explanation of what’s happened at UVa. TLDR: the people appointed or elected to represent the University are in fact its opponents. www.nytimes.com/2025/06/30/o...
Reposted by Natasha Heller
Polo Buddies and Rental Cabs: The Donkeys of Tang China and Their Poetic Destinies www.medievalists.net/2022/06/donk... #MedievalChina
Polo Buddies and Rental Cabs: The Donkeys of Tang China and Their Poetic Destinies - Medievalists.net
The humble donkey was a constant presence across Tang China and a regular feature in the day-to-day business of people from all walks of life. How were these animals remembered by writers of the time?
www.medievalists.net
June 21, 2025 at 3:17 PM
Polo Buddies and Rental Cabs: The Donkeys of Tang China and Their Poetic Destinies www.medievalists.net/2022/06/donk... #MedievalChina
Reposted by Natasha Heller
More polling just dropped -- by a pretty huge margin Americans think that having international students at US universities is good for the country, not bad -- 56% to 14% (+42)
and for 18-29 YOs, nearly 1/2 say international students are "very good"
and for 18-29 YOs, nearly 1/2 say international students are "very good"
June 3, 2025 at 5:57 PM
More polling just dropped -- by a pretty huge margin Americans think that having international students at US universities is good for the country, not bad -- 56% to 14% (+42)
and for 18-29 YOs, nearly 1/2 say international students are "very good"
and for 18-29 YOs, nearly 1/2 say international students are "very good"
Reposted by Natasha Heller
This policy, which is so real it was published on the State Department's actual website and not its Substack, is about as bad a policy as one could imagine for American national security and prosperity. The Rubio of 4 months ago would call it insane. Which it is.
www.state.gov/releases/off...
www.state.gov/releases/off...
New Visa Policies Put America First, Not China - United States Department of State
Under President Trump’s leadership, the U.S. State Department will work with the Department of Homeland Security to aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students, including those with connections to ...
www.state.gov
May 28, 2025 at 11:25 PM
This policy, which is so real it was published on the State Department's actual website and not its Substack, is about as bad a policy as one could imagine for American national security and prosperity. The Rubio of 4 months ago would call it insane. Which it is.
www.state.gov/releases/off...
www.state.gov/releases/off...
Academic friends, how do you think about summer writing? What strategies or resources have been useful for you? What are the biggest challenges?
May 5, 2025 at 3:05 PM
Academic friends, how do you think about summer writing? What strategies or resources have been useful for you? What are the biggest challenges?
Reposted by Natasha Heller
In 1871, Harper’s Weekly published a wood engraving depicting the interior of a San Francisco Chinese temple, a rare print subject before the 1906 earthquake.
Clues suggest it shows the main hall of Eastern Glory Temple located off Jackson St. on St. Louis Alley. 🧵
🗃️ 📜 #Chinatown
Clues suggest it shows the main hall of Eastern Glory Temple located off Jackson St. on St. Louis Alley. 🧵
🗃️ 📜 #Chinatown
April 25, 2025 at 3:53 PM
In 1871, Harper’s Weekly published a wood engraving depicting the interior of a San Francisco Chinese temple, a rare print subject before the 1906 earthquake.
Clues suggest it shows the main hall of Eastern Glory Temple located off Jackson St. on St. Louis Alley. 🧵
🗃️ 📜 #Chinatown
Clues suggest it shows the main hall of Eastern Glory Temple located off Jackson St. on St. Louis Alley. 🧵
🗃️ 📜 #Chinatown
Reposted by Natasha Heller
On this farm and creamery run by Hindu devotees and modeled after a traditional Indian gaushala, both soil and soul are cultivated with God in mind.
religionnews.com/2025/04/25/o...
religionnews.com/2025/04/25/o...
On a dairy farm run on Hindu principles, cow 'friends' yield milk and higher consciousness
PORT ROYAL, Pennsylvania (RNS) — Hare Krishna farmers produce 'non-violent,' or ahimsa, dairy from cows that are loved and cared for.
religionnews.com
April 26, 2025 at 5:00 PM
On this farm and creamery run by Hindu devotees and modeled after a traditional Indian gaushala, both soil and soul are cultivated with God in mind.
religionnews.com/2025/04/25/o...
religionnews.com/2025/04/25/o...
Reposted by Natasha Heller
Pitches for this are due Sunday. If you know someone who might want to contribute, please share this with them!
Call For Pitches: The Losses
“But you could go work for the government! Or museums—maybe a non-profit?” Grad students and adjuncts leaving academic history in the United States have often gotten the above advice from well-meaning...
contingentmagazine.org
April 22, 2025 at 11:21 PM
Pitches for this are due Sunday. If you know someone who might want to contribute, please share this with them!
Reposted by Natasha Heller
Want to brush up on your skills about fighting back against repression and political interference in #highered? Join an online session for the April 17 #DayofActionforHigherEd. Register: www.dayofactionforhighered.org/events
April 14, 2025 at 8:01 PM
Want to brush up on your skills about fighting back against repression and political interference in #highered? Join an online session for the April 17 #DayofActionforHigherEd. Register: www.dayofactionforhighered.org/events
Reposted by Natasha Heller
"This art project is a single grafted tree that produces 40 varieties of apricots, cherries, peaches, plums, and other stone fruits."
what!
www.popsci.com/environment/...
what!
www.popsci.com/environment/...
A tree with 40 different fruits planted in Philadelphia
Move over, Liberty Bell.
www.popsci.com
April 4, 2025 at 9:25 PM
"This art project is a single grafted tree that produces 40 varieties of apricots, cherries, peaches, plums, and other stone fruits."
what!
www.popsci.com/environment/...
what!
www.popsci.com/environment/...
“The fires gutted the 1,300-year-old Gounsa temple in Uiseong city”
South Korea: at least 18 dead in 'worst' fires in nation's history
South Korea: at least 18 dead in 'worst' fires in nation's history
The wildfires are threatening cultural sites and "rewriting the record books", according to authorities.
www.bbc.com
March 26, 2025 at 10:42 AM
“The fires gutted the 1,300-year-old Gounsa temple in Uiseong city”
Reposted by Natasha Heller
"For Western scholars of China, the era before the pandemic now feels like a distant golden age." Yanzhong Huang on the withering of academic engagement with China thanks to domestic factors in both countries, as well as heightened tensions between Beijing and Washington.
Opinion | Restoring Academic Ties With China Is a Matter of U.S. National Security
Decisions on U.S. policy toward China are being made based on diminishing insight into the country’s internal dynamics.
buff.ly
March 2, 2025 at 1:45 PM
"For Western scholars of China, the era before the pandemic now feels like a distant golden age." Yanzhong Huang on the withering of academic engagement with China thanks to domestic factors in both countries, as well as heightened tensions between Beijing and Washington.
Reposted by Natasha Heller
The Fulbright Foreign Student Program invites graduate students from abroad to come study in the US and guarantees funding for them to do so paid in a monthly stipend. Yesterday, some FFSP scholars received notification that they're only getting a week of their stipend.
March 1, 2025 at 11:57 AM
The Fulbright Foreign Student Program invites graduate students from abroad to come study in the US and guarantees funding for them to do so paid in a monthly stipend. Yesterday, some FFSP scholars received notification that they're only getting a week of their stipend.
I love our library
The University of Virginia has created a website of archived government websites—bookmark it—you’re going to need it later.
guides.lib.virginia.edu/c.php?g=1451...
guides.lib.virginia.edu/c.php?g=1451...
LibGuides: Government Information Data Rescue: Home
A guide linking to trusted repositories that have rescued U.S. government data
guides.lib.virginia.edu
February 13, 2025 at 5:31 PM
I love our library
Reposted by Natasha Heller
Recently published by Natasha Heller: Literature for Little Bodhisattvas: Making Buddhist Families in Modern Taiwan uhpress.hawaii.edu/title/litera...
Literature for Little Bodhisattvas: Making Buddhist Families in Modern Taiwan
In Literature for Little Bodhisattvas, Natasha Heller makes two key interventions: first, she argues that picturebooks are a new genre of Buddhist writing, and second, she calls attention to an eme…
uhpress.hawaii.edu
February 11, 2025 at 9:48 AM
Recently published by Natasha Heller: Literature for Little Bodhisattvas: Making Buddhist Families in Modern Taiwan uhpress.hawaii.edu/title/litera...
Reposted by Natasha Heller
Thomas Jefferson's Monticello design notebook from 1771 contains a description for a "Chinese temple" - it was never built.
Loosely based on Chinese Buddhist pagodas, this would have been an open air gazebo (sometimes also called a pagoda).
#ManuscriptMondays 🗃️
Loosely based on Chinese Buddhist pagodas, this would have been an open air gazebo (sometimes also called a pagoda).
#ManuscriptMondays 🗃️
![Manuscript page from the Massachusetts Historical
Society with "Chinese temple" written on top. [https://www.masshist.org/thomasjeffersonpapers/doc?id=arch_N119&archive=arch&query=chinese&tag=text&num=10&rec=5&numRecs=5#firstmatch]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:4hvou72rzzukk3zaujqrr5kk/bafkreigylavp5er6lxwbic44ybnj2vwysreykinsgg4qdbz3tcaq7a7nei@jpeg)
February 3, 2025 at 6:18 PM
Thomas Jefferson's Monticello design notebook from 1771 contains a description for a "Chinese temple" - it was never built.
Loosely based on Chinese Buddhist pagodas, this would have been an open air gazebo (sometimes also called a pagoda).
#ManuscriptMondays 🗃️
Loosely based on Chinese Buddhist pagodas, this would have been an open air gazebo (sometimes also called a pagoda).
#ManuscriptMondays 🗃️
@arianam.bsky.social could you add me to the Buddhism starter pack?
February 1, 2025 at 1:13 PM
@arianam.bsky.social could you add me to the Buddhism starter pack?