Radich, Michael

Michael Radich took up his post at VUW in 2005, and received his doctorate from Harvard University in 2007. In 2009, he spent three months at Kyōto University as a visiting scholar, at the invitation of Professor Shingū Kazushige. His first monograph, published in 2011, treats the history of the Buddhist story of the sins and redemption of King Ajātaśatru, as it changed across two thousand years of Buddhist history in India, China and Japan. In the winter term of 2013-2014, he was the Numata Visiting Professor of Buddhist Studies at the Hamburg University Numata Center for Buddhist Studies. Dr Radich also spent the entirety of 2015 in Hamburg, this time on a Humboldt Fellowship for Experienced Researchers from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, hosted by Prof. Dr. Michael Zimmermann.

Dr Radich teaches mainly Asian Religions and Buddhism. He currently pursues research in the following areas:

• the transmission of Buddhism to China from India and various other intermediate transition zones;
• the translation of Buddhist texts into Chinese;
• doctrines about the special bodies of the Buddha;
• problems of authorship and ascription in the Chinese Buddhist canon;
• the development of computer-assisted methods and tools for the philological examination of classical Buddhist  texts, especially in Chinese;
• the works of Paramārtha (499-569), an important Indian missionary-monk to China;
• tathāgatagarbha/Buddha-nature doctrine;
• the Mahāparinirvāṇa-mahāsūtra;
• features and conditions of the rise and early development of Mahāyāna Buddhism.