About
International Institute for Asian StudiesLeiden University
Rapenburg 59
Leiden 2311 GJ
Netherlands
Dr. Ulrich Timme Kragh (known as ‘Tim’) is a Medievalist specialized in Asian Studies. The focus of his research has been on Jain and especially Buddhist history of ideas and literary history in India, Tibet, and China, relying of methods of classical philology, literary criticism, religious studies, and Area Studies. He received the PhD degree in Tibetan Studies from Copenhagen University (2004). Alongside his academic studies, he completely nine years of traditional training in Buddhist philosophy and doctrine studying with Tibetan refugee scholar-monks at the Karmapa International Buddhist Institute in New Delhi, India. He has since done research and taught at Harvard University (2004-2007), Florida State University (2007-2008), Geumgang University in South Korea (2008-2010), and Leiden University (2011-). In 2011, he began working on a new theory and method of text-based history, which he calls ‘Textory’. The theory is an att empt to unite a narrative view of history with a philological concept of the text as an empirical object. He is also researching the linkage between Asian traditions of rhetoric, literary theory, and historiography in India, China, and Tibet. Further, he is doing work on cultural heritage and history, and theories of literary history.