Read about the speakers, chair, and student researchers of the 2024 Buddhist Philosophy Speaker Series below.
Amber Carpenter is Senior Research Fellow at the Einstein Forum (Potsdam) and Visiting Professor at King’s College, London. Before that she taught for several years at Yale-NUS College, joining her two primary areas of research, in ancient Greek and in classical Indian Buddhist philosophy, into a single activity: philosophy. Some fruits of this work have just appeared as Crossing the Stream, Leaving the Cave (co-edited with Pierre-Julien Harter, 2024). She has held research fellowships with the Templeton Trust and the University of Melbourne, and jointly headed the Integrity Project, which produced the edited volume of Portraits of Integrity (2020). In addition to several journal articles in Greek philosophy, focusing especially on Plato’s metaphysics, epistemology and philosophy of mind, she wrote Indian Buddhist Philosophy (2014).
Siddharth Chintalacheruvu '24 is a Yale-NUS philosophy grad who took Prof Sherice’s inaugural Topics in Buddhist Philosophy course. Since then, Buddhist philosophy has sat rent-free in his head (in a good way). He is also a Management Associate at The Lo & Behold Group.
Jay L. Garfield directs the Buddhist Studies Program and Tibetan Studies in India program at Smith College. He is also visiting professor of Buddhist philosophy at Harvard Divinity School, Professor of Philosophy at Melbourne University, and Adjunct Professor of Philosophy at the Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies. Academicinfluence.com has identified him as one of the 50 most influential philosophers in the world over the past decade.
Garfield’s research addresses topics in the foundations of cognitive science and the philosophy of mind; metaphysics; the history of modern Indian philosophy; topics in ethics, epistemology and the philosophy of logic; the philosophy of the Scottish enlightenment methodology in cross-cultural interpretation; and topics in Buddhist philosophy, particularly Indo-Tibetan Madhyamaka and Yogācāra. He is the author or editor of over 30 books and over 200 articles, chapters, and reviews.
Vincent Lee '19 is a Philosophy PhD candidate at the University of Toronto. He is writing his dissertation that brings together Vasubandhu and Spinoza on the theme of individuation. More broadly, he is interested in the histories of early modern European and classical Indian metaphysics, and the thematic resonances and divergences between them.
Nicholas Lua '19 is an an MA (History) graduate from Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and BA (History) graduate from Yale-NUS College. He studies the Tantric religions in Ancient Southeast Asia (600-1400 CE), and is interested in how the region’s religious thought and practice can reframe scholarly understandings of the broader Sanskrit Cosmopolis. To apprehend these phenomena, Nicholas tries to combine philological readings of Sanskrit and Old Javanese texts with contextual analysis of Southeast Asia’s material culture. More broadly, Nicholas is also interested in how later cultures in Southeast Asia interpret, relate to, and deploy their distant “Classical” pasts. Nicholas has been inspired by ideas from across the Liberal Arts and Sciences, Literature and Philosophy in particular.
Mak Rui Teng, Phoebe '22 is a Philosophy PhD student at the University of New Mexico. Their research interests lie in the intersection of Buddhist ethics and contemporary social change, and they are particularly interested in the project of imagining futures. Outside of doing readings, teaching, and battling seasonal allergies, Phoebe can be found writing love letters via snail mail to their friends.
Zulhaqem holds a masters in Buddhist Studies. His research interests lies in the philosophy of religion and religious theology. He is also co-founder of Project Hills, a ground up initiative dedicated to supporting underprivileged families and individuals in public rental housing estates in Singapore. Project Hills offers essential support and services to uplift communities in need. When he is not running around the rental estates, he dabbles in interfaith and cultural activities.
Sherice Ngaserin
Organizer, Chair
Sherice Ngaserin '18 is a Lecturer in Philosophy at Yale-NUS College and an affiliated faculty member of the National University of Singapore's Buddhist Studies Group. Her primary research interests lie in South Asian Buddhist philosophy, metaphysics of gender, Ancient Greek philosophy, and innovative pedagogical methods. She was the inaugural Yale-NUS Overseas Graduate Scholar and collaborator for a Yale-NUS Grant on Buddhist-Platonist Dialogues. She designed the Advanced Topics in Buddhist Philosophy course, and is currently supervising the Buddhist philosophy projects being conducted by our student researchers.
Dr. Ngaserin completed her PhD at the University of Michigan in August 2023. Before that, she received a BA (Hons.) in Philosophy and Global Antiquity (Sanskrit; Greek) from Yale-NUS College.
Ahn Yehoon
Student Researcher
Ahn Yehoon '25 is a final-year student at Yale-NUS College, majoring in Mathematical, Computational, and Statistical Sciences with a minor in Philosophy. For this course, he is studying Buddhist ethics and extremism. Outside of class, he likes reading religious texts and personal essays. Yehoon is an amateur but passionate tennis player. Besides good tennis sessions, Yehoon appreciates well-written news articles and quality screen-free time.
Ansh Akshintulu
Student Researcher
Ansh Akshintulu '25 is a fourth year student at Yale-NUS who is majoring in Philosophy. His primary research interests include Philosophy of Language and Philosophy of Mind, but he also likes to read about Buddhist Philosophy, Aesthetics, and Epistemology. Within Buddhist philosophy, he’s especially interested in the topic of anātman or the doctrine of no-self.
Jolly Cheong
Student Researcher
Jolly Cheong is a first year MA student at the Department of Philosophy at NUS. All his research interests revolve around moral philosophy. Primarily, he is interested in hedonism and moral naturalism. He is currently working on hedonic naturalism and the metaphysics of pleasure. Secondarily, he is interested in ethical systems such as those established by Christians and Buddhists.
Chua Yi Lin
Student Researcher
Chua Yi Lin '25 is a fourth year Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE) student at Yale-NUS. This is a photo Yi Lin took in Nepal!
Dylan Lee Pak Han
Student Researcher
Dylan Lee Pak Han '25 is a senior from Yale-NUS College, with a major in History and minor in Global Antiquity. He likes studying the Ancient History of various communities, as well as the concept of Classical Traditions. He also likes improv and plushies :3
Tesha Sengupta
Student Researcher
Tesha Sengupta '25 is a final year philosophy student at Yale-NUS College. She is interested in metaphysics and philosophy of math. In the Advanced Topics in Buddhist Philosophy class, she is focusing on the doctrine of momentariness and whether or not it leads to internal contradictions. Outside of philosophy, she enjoys watching F1, playing the violin, and cats!
Shibukawa Youhei
Student Researcher
Shibukawa Youhei (he/him) is currently pursuing his M.A. in Philosophy at NUS. His studies are in the way of words and how to do things with them; in particular, figurative language, slurs, discriminatory speech, testimony, lying and communication in unusual contexts. He is also interested in Indian philosophy, pedagogy, and more. Currently, he is looking into (non)-conceptualization in Yogācāra epistemology. In some far off possible world, he is a professional basketball player; in this world, he only plays for fun. His favourite punctuation mark is the em dash.
Wong Wan Qi
Student Researcher
Wong Wan Qi is a fourth year philosophy major and Global Antiquity minor from Yale-NUS College who is mostly obsessed with dead ancient Chinese men and their philosophies. If not hanging out with Classical Chinese Manuscripts, she is either brushing up on Sanskrit by reading/listening to sūtras and ślokas, or finding animals to pet. Wan Qi is also Dean of Faculty Student Associate for this Speaker Series.