Dr. Paula Arai

Paula Arai received her Ph.D. in Buddhist Studies from Harvard
University, specializing in Japanese Sōtō Zen. She trained at Aichi
Senmon Nisōdō for 4 months under the tutelage of Aoyama
Shundō Rōshi. She is author of Painting Enlightenment: Healing
Visions of the Heart Sutra––The Buddhist Art of Iwasaki Tsuneo
(Shambhala Publications), Women Living Zen: Japanese Buddhist
Nuns (Oxford University Press), and Bringing Zen Home: The
Healing Heart of Japanese Buddhist Women’s Rituals (University
of Hawai’i Press). Approaching her research with focus on
embodied experience, she has received a range of support,
including from Fulbright and the American Council of Learned
Societies. She has curated exhibits of Iwasaki’s Heart Sutra
paintings at the Museum of Art at Louisiana State University, the
Crow Collection of Asian Art in Dallas, and the Morikami
Museum in Delray Beach Florida, which opens May 8, 2021. Arai
is currently a professor of Buddhist Studies at Louisiana State
University, holding the Urmila Gopal Singhal Professorship in
Religions of India.