Dr. Rima Vesely-Flad, Ph.D

Dr. Rima Vesely-Flad is the author of Black Buddhists and the Black Radical Tradition: The Practice of Stillness in the Movement for Liberation (New York University Press, 2022).  She is the Visiting Professor of Buddhism and Black Studies at Union Theological Seminary in New York City, where she teaches classes on Buddhism and social justice.  She formerly taught classes in philosopher and social theory, and directed the Peace and Justice Studies program, at Warren Wilson College.

In addition to teaching classes on Buddhism in the U.S. context, she writes and teaches on mass incarceration.  For several years she directed the Inside Out Prison Education Program, a partnership between Warren Wilson College and the Swannanoa Correctional Center for Women.  She is the author of Racial Purity and Dangerous Bodies: Moral Pollution, Black Lives, and the Struggle for Justice (Fortress Press, 2017).  You can learn more about her work on her website BuddhismandBlackVoices.com.