Paula Arai received her Ph.D. in Buddhism from Harvard University. She is the author of Women Living Zen: Japanese Buddhist Nuns, which was generously funded by a Fulbright grant. She is currently working on a book titled Healing Zen: Japanese Buddhist Women's Rituals of Transformation, funded by Fulbright, the American Counsel of Learned Societies, and a Mellon Grant. Arai is currently an associate professor of Buddhism at Louisiana State University. She and her son have started a Japanese Taiko drum group called Ki Daiko.