Douglas Ober is an Honorary Research Associate at the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs at the University of British Columbia and a Visiting Assistant Professor in History at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado. He is a historian of South Asia, Buddhism, and colonialism. With more than a decade of archival and ethnographic research experience across a dozen countries in Asia, Dr. Ober has written on numerous Asia-related issues, such as foreign diplomacy in colonial and postcolonial India, self-immolation in contemporary Tibet, Hindu nationalism and colonial architecture, Soviet influence in Asia, Victorian literature, and anti-caste activism, among other issues.

His first book, Dust on the Throne: The Search for Buddhism in Modern India, was co-published in 2023 by Stanford University Press and Navayana Publishing. The book, which the Los Angeles Review of Books called “broadly researched and vividly illuminated…eloquent and incisive, even lyric,” tells the story of Buddhism’s re-discovery and revival, its global manifestations, and the influential role that Buddhism and colonialism played in the making of modern Asia. He has also co-edited, with the anthropologist David Geary, two major collections of essays on the history, anthropology, and politics of heritage and homelands, in the journals South Asian History and Culture and Comparative Studies in South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. Dr. Ober has delivered more than a dozen public lectures in Asia, Europe, and North America, and his writings have appeared in both popular and academic outlets, such as Modern Asian Studies, Journal of Global Buddhism, Journal of Buddhist Ethics, Arches, and the Oxford Research Encyclopedia. A former US Fulbright Fellow to India and Neubauer Fellow at the University of Chicago, Ober’s research has been funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada, the United States National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), and Association for Asian Studies (AAS).

Alongside his formal academic work, Dr. Ober has designed and run several experiential education programs in the Indian Himalayas, Sino-Tibetan borderlands, and Baja peninsula of Mexico. He has served on management committees and boards serving Tibetan refugees in India and Nepal, and on issues of global migration research and administration in Canada.

Dr. Ober is also an avid rock climber, runner, all-around backcountry enthusiast, and generally enjoys any time spent outside. He welcomes email connections and contacts and can be reached at douglas.ober@ubc.ca or dober@fortlewis.edu.