Arist Bravo

Arist is an MA student at the DSR. He has an HBA in computer science and religious studies, where much of his undergraduate coursework was oriented in Buddhism. Arist is interested in the relationship between models of religion and those models’ users. On the one hand, he considers how interpretations of religion are constructed and are influenced by one’s philosophical convictions (especially in cross-cultural contexts between Theravada Buddhism and Christianity). On the other hand, he examines how those interpretations change the ways in which people approach religious phenomena. To pursue such avenues of research, Arist examines how Western intellectuals have written about Pali narratives and Burmese Buddhist culture. Ultimately, he hopes to understand the implications of religious studies for living in increasingly pluralistic societies.