Rafal K. Stepien is a scholar of religion, philosophy, and literature. His research is inter-disciplinary, cross-regional, and poly-glottic, ranging among Buddhist and Islamic texts composed in Sanskrit, Chinese, Arabic, and Persian. He is a primarily a specialist of Indian and Chinese Buddhist philosophy and literature, but cultivates a complementary interest in Arabic- and Persian-language Islamic philosophical and literary texts.
Since July 2023, Rafal has been a Research Associate at the Institute for the Cultural and Intellectual History of Asia of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna. Between 2023 and 2028, he is the Principal In…
Rafal K. Stepien is a scholar of religion, philosophy, and literature. His research is inter-disciplinary, cross-regional, and poly-glottic, ranging among Buddhist and Islamic texts composed in Sanskrit, Chinese, Arabic, and Persian. He is a primarily a specialist of Indian and Chinese Buddhist philosophy and literature, but cultivates a complementary interest in Arabic- and Persian-language Islamic philosophical and literary texts.
Since July 2023, Rafal has been a Research Associate at the Institute for the Cultural and Intellectual History of Asia of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna. Between 2023 and 2028, he is the Principal Investigator leading a research project funded by the European Research Council (ERC) studying Chinese Buddhist philosophy (CHINBUDDPHIL). He is concurrently an Associate Editor at the Journal of Buddhist Philosophy. Previously, Rafal has been the inaugural Cihui Foundation Faculty Fellow in Chinese Buddhism at Columbia University, the inaugural Berggruen Research Fellow in Indian Philosophy at the University of Oxford, a Humboldt Research Fellow in Buddhist Studies at the Karl Jaspers Centre for Advanced Transcultural Studies at Heidelberg University, the Soudavar Memorial Research Scholar in Persian Studies at the University of Cambridge, the Assistant Professor of Asian Religions at Hampshire College, and the Assistant Professor in Comparative Religion at Nanyang Technological University.
Rafal has also undertaken supplementary studies and research as an Exchange Scholar in the Committee on the Study of Religion at Harvard University, as a Visiting Scholar in the Cambridge Inter-faith Programme at the University of Cambridge, as a Visiting Researcher in the Centre of Buddhist Studies at the University of Hong Kong, as a Visiting Fellow in the Department of History and Civilization at the European University Institute, and at Bologna, Damascus, Tehran, Esfehan, Peking, and Fo Guang Universities, among others. He holds a BA with double major in English and Philosophy from the University of Western Australia; a BA and MA in Oriental Studies from the University of Oxford, an MPhil in Asian and Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Cambridge, and an MA, MPhil, and PhD in East Asian Languages and Cultures (Religion) from Columbia University.
