We warmly welcome Prof. Dr. Daniel M. Stuart as an Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Fellow

8 October 2025

Photo: Daniel Stuart

During his fellowship stay from October 2025 to July 2028, Prof. Dr. Daniel M. Stuart from the University of South Carolina will work on his project The Saddharmasmṛtyupasthānasūtra and the Visionary Structure of Buddhist Cosmology (Chapter 6, Heaven of the Thirty-three Gods).

The Saddharmasmṛtyupasthānasūtra—a major Sanskrit source from Buddhism’s “middle period” (ca. 1st–5th centuries CE)—offers the most extensive treatment of Buddhist cosmology in any surviving Sanskrit text. It presents a yogic practitioner’s visionary experience of the five realms of existence, integrating cosmological vision with Buddhist ethics, philosophy of mind, and contemplative practice. Prof. Stuart’s project will produce a critical edition and study of the first half of Chapter 6, which focuses on the Heaven of the Thirty-three Gods. This work will provide scholars with new access to one of the most important sources for understanding Buddhist cosmology, visionary experience, and the literary culture of early South Asian Buddhism.

Daniel M. Stuart is Associate Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of South Carolina. He holds an MA in Sanskrit Literature and a PhD in Buddhist Studies from the University of California, Berkeley. His research examines the history and transformation of Buddhist contemplative practices from premodern South Asia to the global present. He is the author of Thinking about Cessation (2013), A Less Traveled Path (2015), The Stream of Deathless Nectar (2017), S. N. Goenka: Emissary of Insight (2020), and Insight in Perspective (2024).

We are delighted to welcome Professor Stuart to Hamburg and look forward to an inspiring collaboration during his Humboldt fellowship.