David Loy will begin his term as the Besl Family Chair of Ethics/Religion & Society in the Spring of 2006. Dr. Loy was born in the Panama Canal Zone and did his undergraduate studies at Carlton College in Northfield, Minnesota, and for a year studied analytic philosophy at the University of London’s King College. He did post-graduate work in Asian philosophy at the University of Hawaii, where he received a masters degree. He received his Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Singapore. He has taught in Singapore and Japan, where he currently teaches philosophy and religion at Bunkyo University.

He is the author of Nonduality: A Study in Comparative Philosophy (Yale University Press, 1988), Lack and Transcendence: The Problem of Death and Life in Psychotherapy, Existentialism, and Buddhism (Humanities Press, 1996), A Buddhist History of the West: Studies in Lack (State University of New York Press, 2002), and The Great Awakening: A Buddhist Social Theory (Wisdom Publications, 2003). He is also the editor of Healing Deconstruction: Postmodern Thought in Buddhism and Christianity (Scholars Press, 1996) and coauthor with his wife, Linda Goodhew, of The Dharma of Dragons and Daemons: Buddhist Themes in Modern Fantasy (Wisdom Publications, 2004).

In addition to his academic work, David Loy is an authorized teacher in the Sanbo Kyodan lineage of Zen Buddhism where he completed formal koan training under Zen Master Yamada Koun Roshi.

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