Beatrice Chrystall

Beatrice Chrystall

Lecturer on Pali
Beatrice Chrystall

Profile

Beatrice Chrystall is the Lecturer on Pali at Harvard Divinity School, teaching both during the academic year and in the Summer Language Program. She holds a PhD in South Asian Studies from Harvard University.

Beatrice has been teaching Pali at Harvard Divinity School, both during the academic year and at the Summer Language Program, since 2014. Before that she was teaching at Harvard’s Department of South Asian Studies, from where she also received her PhD. Her doctoral thesis, entitled “Connections without limit: The refiguring of the Buddha in the ‘Jinamahānidāna,’” was a study of a biography of the Buddha written in Pali in Thailand. The thesis examined the relations between literary form and ethics, and, as the Jinamahānidāna is a composite text, the role of intertextuality in Pali texts. Her particular interests are Buddhist narrative, ethics, literary traditions, language, and intertextuality. English by birth, she previously studied in Oxford and Paris.

Beatrice very much enjoys creating a collegial and collaborative environment where students support each other’s learning in a fun and relaxed atmosphere. For her comments about the Summer Language Program, please see “Separated in Flesh, Together in Spirit.” Beatrice is also very interested in the pedagogy of learning languages, and in developing a range of teaching methods that will allow people of all levels of language-learning aptitude to thrive in and enjoy learning Pali. She is also preparing a new primer for first year Pali, and working on a translation of the Jinamahānidāna.

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Alpha Grouping