Former Bearcat Lauren Bausch awarded Fulbright research grant
Lauren Bausch.
Fulbright Program will fund her research in India
– Lauren Bausch, Ph.D. a 1999 Paso Robles High School graduate, received the Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence Award for research on April 14 for her continued research with Vedic texts and Buddhism in India. This grant is highly competitive and prestigious with over 800 awardees conducting research internationally for the 2023-2024 academic year.
“While in India, I will also connect with local Vedic and Buddhist practitioners, give lectures, and build a community of Vedic and Buddhist scholars in the U.S. and India. I look forward to meeting old friends and to making new ones,” said Bausch, who is currently a professor at the Dharma Realm Buddhist University in Ukiah, adding that the approved project “investigates the philosophy of language and causality articulated in middle and late Vedic texts…identifies and examines the discourses within these texts around the nature of man and the absolute creating itself to experience relativity, and situates the philosophy of the Brāhmaṇa texts in Indian intellectual history. Rather than interpret ritual activity through the lens of Mīmāṃsā and Vedānta, this research probes the cosmologies, mythology, and explanatory connections found throughout the Brāhmaṇa texts themselves.”
The Fulbright Program focuses on international collaboration in research with highly respected members of the field; Bausch will be part of a community of thousands of alumni who have become MacArthur Fellows, Nobel Prize winners, Pulitzer Prize awardees, and more. The application process for Bausch included receiving letters of recommendation and an invitation from the head of the Department of Pali and Buddhist Studies at Savitribai Phule Pune University, Professor Mahesh Deokar. The application was submitted in September 2022 and on April 14, Bausch “was so happy that I cried while reading the acceptance letter.”
A book release that Bausch edited, taken in Delhi in 2019.
Bausch graduated from UC Berkeley with a bachelor’s degree in Spanish and Political Science with high distinction in 2004, followed by a master’s degree in 2006 in Christian Spirituality from the Franciscan School of Theology, and a master’s degree in South and Southeast Asian Studies and a Ph.D. in South and Southeast Asian Studies with a Designated Emphasis in Critical Theory from UC Berkeley from 2011 to 2015.
During college, Bausch embarked on a study abroad experience in India that inspired her to follow the path of education; after a volunteer nonviolence training program in Colombia, Bausch realized that more experience and education on the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King was necessary for her future in education. She learned Sanskrit to better understand the “Bhagavadgītā,” which is a foundation for Gandhi’s teachings and later taught Sanskrit at Dharma Realm Buddhist University.
“In addition to serving as a cultural and intellectual bridge between two great countries, I look forward to undertaking research that will culminate in my first book based on original research. I will be working closely with many erudite professors in Pune, including Professors G.U. Thite, Mahesh Deokar, and Shrikant Bahulkar,” said Bausch, adding that “since I study ancient Indian thought, most of my work entails reading and translating middle and late Vedic texts in Sanskrit, but I will also study previous scholarship published on the Brāhmaṇa texts and interview Vedic pandits and priests…The last chapter of my proposed project will explore how the philosophy in the Brāhmaṇa texts continues in early Buddhism.”
Bausch, Professors Shrikant Bahulkar, Mahesh Deokar, and Lata Deokar (L-R) from the Department of Pali and Buddhist Studies at Savitribai Phule Pune University.
In addition to her preparatory work for classes, conferences, and translation of Sanskrit texts, Bausch enjoys gardening, traveling, meditating, and the Star Wars franchise. Bausch says that “Paso is a special community built on old-fashioned values of kindness, respect, and taking care of one another. I hope that as the city grows and gains popularity…that it will always maintain its heart and continue to nurture generations of people who care not just about how they’re getting ahead individually, but how we can benefit others because we’re all in this world together.”
Reflecting on her years in Paso Robles, Bausch holds fond memories such as the California Mid-State Fair, mass at St. Rose, making friends with foreign exchange students, holding the PRHS pole-vault record, Boot Barn visits, and the support of teachers and other community members.
“It is a huge honor to be selected and I can’t wait to be an academic ambassador, representing the United States of America and conducting research, in India…When I go to India as a Fulbrighter in July [2023], I will carry the Paso mantle along with our great nation’s and I will proudly represent everyone from my hometown who helped me along the way to receive this incredible honor and opportunity,” Bausch said.
