Biography
Simona Lazzerini received her Ph.D in Religious Studies from Stanford University in 2023. She held a postdoctoral fellowship at UC Berkeley and taught at Fairfield University before joining Holy Cross.
Simona is a scholar of East Asian Buddhism, focusing on China and Japan. Her research investigates how the worship of Buddhist gods and demons spreads and changes across East Asia. Her current book project, stemming from her doctoral dissertation, explores the evolution of the worship of the ex-demoness-turned-goddess Harītī in China and Japan. Her next project delves into the study of daiaragyō, an austere ascetic training that Japanese Nichiren monks undergo to become exorcists and master special initiated prayers.
Simona’s fields of interest include demonology, female deities, Nichiren Buddhism, exorcism, East Asian visual and material culture, and the intersection between religion and popular culture.