Charlie Carstens is a Lecturer in the Asian Studies Department at the University of Massachusetts Boston. He has previously taught at Harvard University and at Buddhist and Christian universities in Southeast Asia. Trained in religious studies at Harvard, Carstens has spent years living in Buddhist monasteries and working on the preservation of Southeast Asian manuscripts. His teaching and research explore ritual and kingship, Pali and Burmese literature, economics, secularism, and the lived traditions of Buddhism across Asia.