Dr. Lina Verchery is a scholar of Buddhism and an independent filmmaker who teaches at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand Aotearoa. Lina holds a PhD in Buddhist Studies and an M.Div. in Buddhist Ministry, both from Harvard University, where her interdisciplinary work on Chinese Buddhist monastic life drew on over fifteen years of textual, multi-media, and ethnographic research in Taiwan, Asia, and throughout the global Chinese diaspora. Lina’s teaching and research center on how the histories, philosophies, and practices of Buddhism can illuminate modern questions of urgent concern. She regularly publishes about the intersection of Buddhism and art, ecology, and interspecies ethics, and is executive editor of the Yin-Cheng Journal of Contemporary Buddhism. An award-winning filmmaker, Lina’s documentary, experimental, and educational films about Buddhism and connected topics have been screened in festivals and on televisions networks around the world.