Tricycle Welcomes Its Next Buddhism Public Scholar
Nataly Shahaf, who studies Buddhism, visual culture, and the supernatural in modern China, will join Tricycle this fall as a Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Buddhism Public Scholar. The post Tricycle Welcomes Its Next Buddhism Public Scholar appeared...
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Nataly Shahaf, who studies Buddhism, visual culture, and the supernatural in modern China, will join Tricycle this fall as a Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Buddhism Public Scholar.
Buddhism Public Scholars at an ACLS event, 2025, New York. Frederick Ranallo-Higgins, Hillary Langberg, Zim Pickens, Kris Anderson, and Jeremy Manheim.
On May 27, the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) announced that Tricycle will be one of four host institutions for its 2026 Buddhism Public Scholars. Supported by the Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Global, this program places early-career PhD scholars in professional roles at museums and publications that focus on Buddhist art, thought, and practice.
Nataly Shahaf, Tricycle’s new scholar, is a postdoctoral researcher at Princeton University and the Institute for Advanced Study. She received her PhD from Columbia University and studies Buddhism, visual culture, and the supernatural in modern China. Her upcoming book, Multiple Exposures: Ghost Photography, Buddhism, and Visual Heritage in Early Twentieth-Century China, explores how photography and other visual technologies affected Buddhist religious practice and thought during the early Republican era, and how Buddhist ideas influenced the reception of these technologies. Tricycle readers may remember her review essay from the Spring 2025 issue.
“I’ve always understood scholarship as a practice that emerges through conversation and community,” Shahaf said. “I’m excited to join Tricycle as a fellow and contribute to a space that brings rigorous inquiry together with lived Buddhist practice, especially in the dialogue between Buddhism and science that shapes my work as a historian.”
Shahaf will join Tricycle in September, succeeding Zim Pickens, who has been an associate editor and Buddhism Public Scholar since 2024. Pickens spent much of his 20s living with Tibetan Buddhist communities in Kathmandu before earning his PhD in South and Southeast Asian Studies at UC Berkeley. He has written on a wide range of Buddhist topics for Tricycle and coauthored “From the Academy,” a monthly newsletter on Buddhist thought and scholarship for premium subscribers. Pickens also played a key role as an editor and writer for the recent redesign of Tricycle’s Buddhism for Beginners.
“I was particularly drawn to Tricycle because it provides space for perspective from across the Buddhist traditions. During my tenure, I drew primarily on my background in Tibetan Buddhism,” Pickens said. “The next Buddhism Public Scholar brings expertise in an entirely different area, and I’m sure she will find a home at Tricycle too.”
The 2026 cohort also includes fellows at the Lion’s Roar Foundation, the Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art, and the Courtauld Institute of Art in London. This is the third time Tricycle has hosted a Buddhism Public Scholar, beginning with Frederick M. Ranallo-Higgins in the program’s first year in 2022.
This new group of fellows arrives just a few months after the passing of Robert H. N. Ho, who died in Vancouver on November 30, 2025, at age 93. His commitment to Buddhist studies and to sharing its insights with the wider world helped make the Buddhism Public Scholars program possible. Tricycle is grateful for his vision and for the ongoing support of the Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Global.
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