Hi! My name is Connor and I am one of the page authors for HIST 338 in its spring 2023 iteration. I am a religion major and digital arts and humanities (DGAH) minor at Carleton, and I teach rock climbing at the campus bouldering cave and rope wall. For the past year, I have also helped Carleton’s outdoor club, CANOE, organize and lead climbing trips outside, including a freezing but amazing ice climbing trip (that’s me up there in the picture)! Besides being active and getting outside, I love to read, eat delicious foods, travel, drink tea, learn, and watch basketball, soccer, and old episodes of The Simpsons.

As I wrap up my time at Carleton, I’ve been working on my senior comprehensive project, which draws on ethnographic fieldwork I conducted in the Indian state of Sikkim to challenge misconceptions about Buddhism and articulate its complexity and context as a religion that continues to be deeply embedded in particular geographies and landscapes. I focus particularly on the sacred mountain Khangchendzonga, the third highest peak in the world, to describe how its surrounding landscape is historically conditioned, presently contested, and irreducible to the terms of discussion in Western (mis)conceptions about Buddhism. As a senior, I have also compiled a digital portfolio of my DGAH work that you can explore by clicking here.