Dr. Miriam Levering is Emerita Professor of Religious Studies and Asian Studies at the University of Tennessee in the United States.  Since March of 2010 she has been an International Adviser to Rissho Kosei-kai in Tokyo, where she now makes her home.  She received her Ph.D. in the Comparative History of Religion from Harvard University in Massachusetts, USA in 1978, after studying Chinese language at the Inter-university Language Center at National Taiwan University in Taipei from 1969-70 and Zen history at Tokyo University and Komazawa University in Tokyo from 1972-74.  She studied again at the Inter-University Language Center in Taipei from 1979-80.  In addition to the University of Tennessee, she taught at Bates College and Oberlin College in the United States, London University School of Oriental and African Studies in England, the Faculty of Religious Studies at McGill University in Canada, and Sophia (Jochi) University in Tokyo.  She was the President of the (U.S.A.) Society for the Study of Chinese Religion for a number of years, has led various program units of the American Academy of Religion, and is currently the President of the Society for Buddhist-Christian Studies.  She has edited two books and written numerous articles, largely on the history of women in Chinese Chan Buddhism and on the history of Buddhism in the Song Dynasty.  Her most recent publication is on the image of Song dynasty Chan master DahuiZonggao given in his writings in Dale Wright and Steven Heine, eds., Zen Masters, published by Oxford University Press in 2010.  Recently she has completed a study of stories and records of children in Chinese Buddhism for a forthcoming Oxford University Press volume on children and childhood in Buddhism.  This book is edited by Vanessa Sasson; it will be called Little Buddhas. She likes the Lotus Sutra, Chan Buddhism, Chinese culture, Japanese art and theater, and Asian—especially Chinese--food.