Johan Elverskog is Dedman Family Distinguished Professor, Chair of Religious Studies, and, by courtesy, Professor of History at Southern Methodist University. He is the author and editor of nine books including the multiple award-winning Buddhism and Islam on the Silk Road and the forthcoming The Buddha’s Footprint: An Environmental History of Asia. During this academic year he is co-director of the international conference Global Environmental Borderlands in the Age of Empire, which is convening at SMU-in-Taos this fall and at Stanford University in the spring.