Funie Hsu, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of American Studies at San José State University. Her interdisciplinary research and writing touches upon issues related to education, colonialism, gender, American Buddhism, race, and mindfulness. She received a Ph.D. in Education from the University of California Berkeley, an Ed.M. from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and a B.A. in Asian American Studies from the University of California, Davis. Prior to her academic career, she was an elementary school teacher in Los Angeles Unified. Funie was raised, and continues to practice, in a Taiwanese Humanistic Buddhist tradition, which she credits for cultivating an early affinity for non-human animals, and is a more recent student of the Jodo Shinshu tradition.