The Center for Buddhist Studies and the Department of East Asian Studies are pleased to announce the recipients of the 2026 Khyentse Foundation Doctoral Fellowship, Yuyu Zhang and Tianyao Feng. An award ceremony took place in conjunction with the East Asian Studies ceremony on Friday, May 8, 2026.
Yuyu Zhang is a Ph.D. candidate in Chinese Buddhism in the Department of East Asian Studies at the University of Arizona. She holds an LL.M. from Shanghai University and an M.A. in Asian Studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her research focuses on Chan Buddhism from the tenth through the thirteenth centuries, with particular attention to Chan literature, visual culture, and the relationship between textual practices and image-making.
Her dissertation, "Within the Cloister: Painting and Practice in Chan Monasteries in Song China," examines how Song-dynasty Chan monks understood, engaged with, and used images in monastic life. She is also interested in narratives surrounding Chan practitioners’ itinerant training, enlightenment experiences, and deathbed accounts in Song-dynasty sources, as well as the roles of women in Buddhist history across East Asia. Her work has appeared in the Journal of Chinese Buddhist Studies, Critical Review for Buddhist Studies, and Religions. Website: https://eas.arizona.edu/people/yuyuzhang
Tianyao Feng is an incoming Ph.D. student in the East Asian Studies program at the University of Arizona. Holding an M.A. in History from the National University of Singapore and a B.A. from the City University of Hong Kong , Tianyao's research investigates the transregional evolution of the Navasaṃjñā (Nine Contemplations) in Buddhist visual culture. By examining early Central Asian cave environments, such as the Kizil and Toyok Grottoes , alongside later East Asian developments , Tianyao explores how visual and spatial practices shaped practitioners' embodied understandings of impermanence. Recently, Tianyao's work has been accepted for presentation at the Mechademia Conference. Tianyao is deeply honored to receive the Khyentse Foundation Graduate Fellowship, which will be instrumental in supporting this transregional research.
Thanks to the generous support of the Khyentse Foundation, the Center for Buddhist Studies and the Department of East Asian Studies established a doctoral fellowship, which awards $25,000 each year to support one or more students. For more information: Student Awards | Center for Buddhist Studies | University of Arizona.