Dirck Vorenkamp, associate professor of religious studies, is a man of many contrasts and interests. At 6 foot, 5 inches, the tattooed, bearded, Harley-riding, former SWAT team member is also a soft-spoken Buddhist and practicing vegetarian engaged in a scholarly and personal quest for insight into the human condition.
A native of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, he attended high school in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and enrolled at the University of Tulsa on a football scholarship, intending to teach history and coach high school football. Instead, he found himself a member of the City of Tulsa police department, where for four years he served as a police officer and was twice awarded the “Chief’s Commendation” for outstanding performance in the line of duty.
Finding himself questioning the meaning of and reasons behind the human
tragedies and
behaviors he encountered daily, he became interested in Asian religions
and left to pursue advanced graduate study in Eastern religions and philosophy,
first at the University of Kansas, where he earned a master’s
degree in East Asian languages and cultures, and subsequently at the
University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he received the Ph.D. in Buddhist
studies.
Joining the Lawrence Department of Religious Studies in 1997, he now teaches Indian and Asian religions and philosophy in both the religious studies and East Asian languages and cultures curricula and was recognized with the Freshman Studies Teaching Award in 2000.
Able to conduct research in both Japanese and Chinese, he has published in the Journal of Asian Studies, the Journal of Chinese Philosophy, Philosophy East and West, and the Encyclopedia of Monasticism and has been active in the American Academy of Religion.
For the past six years, he has been consumed with translating into English one of the literary works of the late 7th-century Chinese Buddhist thinker Fa-tsang, the first time such a translation has appeared in any Western language. His forthcoming book, Fa-tsang’s Commentary on the Awakening of Faith, will be published by the Edwin Mellen Press.
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