Constantine is a scholar of religion and performance focusing on the role of aesthetics in ritual efficacy. He is a Postdoctoral Associate and Lecturer at Yale University through the Institute of Sacred Music. He received his Ph.D. on the East Asian Religions track of the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures at Columbia University.
His book project is based on his dissertation, “Dancing Tantra: Body, Text, and Performance in Tibetan Tantric Buddhism,” which explores Tibetan performance theories found in dance texts produced in Tibet from the 13th century to the present. By compiling and analyzing an archive of dance texts—alongside ethnographic fieldwork and learning from monastic dancers in India and the United States—he combines historical analysis, textual interpretation, and performance-based methodology. His work reveals how dance-writing became a discursive arena in which Tibetan Buddhist scholars theorized and re-theorized performance and ritual aesthetics across the longue durée of Tibetan Buddhist intellectual history.
Previously, Constantine received an M.A. in East Asian Studies from Columbia University, an M.A. in Performance Studies, and a B.F.A. in Drama and Dramatic Writing, both from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. For more information about Constantine’s research and teaching, you can visit him online at constantinelignos.phd.