Category Archives: Blog

My latest Huffington Post piece, “Reading Maimonides in Beirut,” shares the challenges and joys of teaching religion and philosophy in Lebanon…

When my colleagues and I were journeying through Mongolia to visit remote archaeological sites, we hopped on some camels for a different perspective…

After giving a talk on Mongol archaeology at the National University of Mongolia, I hit the road with my colleagues to study remote archaeological sites far from the capital…

After spending the afternoon with Buddhist nuns in Mongolia, I passed by this striking graffiti on my way to dinner…

I’ve been on the road this summer visiting faraway Buddhist temples and monasteries in Mongolia–this temple complex, nestled in the mountains, was one of my favorites…

This summer, I’ve been whirling like a dervish through Mongolia–can’t shake those Sufis, no matter how far I travel…

There’s nowhere I feel more at home than in a yurt–and staying in a yurt in Mongolia this summer has been a dream come true. It won’t be easy to leave yurt life behind…

Due to some far-flung summer travels and a Fulbright fellowship, I will not have regular access to the internet this summer. I will, however, be updating this blog when I can with links to my upcoming articles and publications. Wishing anyone reading this a happy and relaxing summer…peace.

This summer, I’ll be taking my Indonesian gamelan skills on the road–from Beirut to Bali and beyond…

I started off my summer travels whirling east from this Mevlevi Sufi lodge in Tripoli to the other side of this wild and whirling world…

On my way home tonight from tai chi class in Beirut, I noticed this small shrine with a candle dedicated to Saint Charbel inside. A Maronite monk and priest, St. Charbel (d. 1898) spent 23 years of his life as a solitary hermit in Lebanon. In describing this saint, Pope Paul VI (who presided over St. Charbel’s beatification), said: “A hermit of Mount Lebanon is enrolled in the number of the blessed…a new eminent member of monastic sanctity has by his example and his intercession enriched the entire Christian people…may he make us understand, in a world largely fascinated by wealth and comfort, the paramount value of poverty, penance and asceticism, to liberate the soul in its ascent to God.”

And you, vast sea, sleepless mother,
Who alone are peace and freedom to the river and the stream,
Only another winding will this stream make, only another murmur in this glade,
And then shall I come to you, a boundless drop to a boundless ocean…

— Khalil Gibran