Rima Vesely-Flad, Ph.D., is founding director of the Initiative for Black Buddhist Studies and a visiting affiliate fellow at Princeton University. A scholar, author and educator, Rima explores the intersections of Buddhism, race, social justice and liberation movements.
She is the author of The Fire Inside: The Dharma of James Baldwin and Audre Lorde, Black Buddhists and the Black Radical Tradition: The Practice of Stillness in the Movement for Liberation and Racial Purity and Dangerous Bodies: Moral Pollution, Black Lives, and the Struggle for Justice. Her work examines how contemplative practice, spiritual traditions and social movements inform struggles for justice and human flourishing.
Rima is a two-time Fulbright Scholar, having conducted research and teaching in South Africa and Ghana. She has received support from organizations including the Fetzer Institute, the Henry Luce Foundation and the Frederick Lenz Foundation. An experienced educator, she has taught at institutions including Sarah Lawrence College, Warren Wilson College, Union Theological Seminary and Sing Sing Prison.
