Elizabeth (Liz) Angowski

Liz Angowski joined the religion department and the Buddhist studies program at Smith in 2026 as lecturer in religion. Before coming to Smith, she taught at Amherst College, Earlham College, and Trinity College.

Angowski is a scholar of Buddhist ethics and literature. Her research explores how narrative, poetic, and dramatic works shape moral life, with a focus on how stories of Buddhist exemplars travel, change, and impact audiences across Asia. Her book project examines what is likely the earliest full biography of Yeshé Tsogyal, the eighth-century woman revered as the matron saint of Tibet, and it shows how the literary aspects of the text draw readers into an intimate, transformative relationship with its heroine. A second project follows the story of Vessantara, a prince who gives away his wife and children to perfect the virtue of generosity, from its Chinese and Tibetan Buddhist canonical versions to Tibetan histories and a popular Tibetan opera performed across the Himalayas and East Asia. Across these projects, she brings Buddhist literature into conversation with Euro-American literary theory and the comparative study of scripture, asking what it means for a life story to be read as sacred text aimed at helping readers understand and interpret their own lives.

For the 2026–27 academic year, Angowski will offer courses on the Buddha, Buddhist ethics, and Tibetan Buddhism.

Publications

Translator, “The Sūtra of Prince Arthasiddhi” (Toh 351). 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, forthcoming.

Translator, Verses for Prasenajit (Toh 322). 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2024.

“Auto/Biography for the End of the World: A Treasure Theory of Reading Revealed Life Stories,” in Living Treasure: Buddhist and Tibetan Studies in Honor of Janet Gyatso. Edited by Holly Gayley and Andrew Quintman. Wisdom Publications, 2023.

“The Scriptural Life.” Symposium on Excessive Saints: Gender, Narrative, and Theological Invention in Thomas of Cantimpré’s Mystical Hagiographies. Syndicate, April 2022.

“The rDo Rje in the Details: A Note on sNa Nam rDo Rje Bdud ’joms (fl. eighth century) and His Role in Bringing Padmasambhava to Tibet.” Revue d’Etudes Tibétaines 62 (2022): 29–50.

Translator, The Sūtra of Vasiṣṭha (Toh 333). 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, 2022.