Dr. Thomas Patton completed his Ph.D. in Asian Literature, Religion, and Culture from the Department of Asian Studies at Cornell University in 2013. A proponent of multi-disciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches to the study of Southeast Asia, his teaching and research is attentive to religion in Southeast Asia, particularly focusing on historical and ethnographic interests engaging Buddhist, and increasingly Islamic, phenomenon in relation to Burmese cultural contexts, issues of gender and class, and politics. His current research is on lived religion in Myanmar, specifically examining local cults of saints and peoples’ relationships with them, shrines, miracles, and other manifestations of religious devotion.