Eliza Rockefeller '17 awarded the Rintels Prize

The Dean of the Faculty has announced that Religion major Eliza H. Rockefeller '17 has just been awarded the Jonathan B. Rintels Prize for the best honors thesis in the Arts and Humanities for the Class of 2017. In their commendation of her thesis, "Enlightenment in a Female Body: The Creation of the Togdenma Lineage of Tibetan Buddhist Yoginis," the selection committee noted, "With a passion for her subject and dogged research practice, Rockefeller brings to life the practices of a group of female Buddhist nuns who are subtly transforming the patriarchal traditions of Tibetan Buddhism." They also commented, "The enormous amount of time, energy, and imagination taken for Rockefeller to pursue her fieldwork in India is equaled only by the original and surprising conclusions about yogini agency that she arrives at in her thesis." They noted further, "Rockefeller showed intellectual determination and creativity in gleaning important insights for her thesis from an unusual mix of memoirs, newsletters, internet sources, and oral interviews." Eliza's thesis advisor was Religion Professor Reiko Ohnuma, and her thesis can be found in the Rauner Special Collections Library's Dartmouth College History collection.