Louis Komjathy (“Dr. K”; Ph.D., Religious Studies; Boston University) is a leading independent scholar-educator, outsider-scholar, and translator. He also has been described as an academic dissident, court exile, thought-criminal, and “the most dangerous man inside/outside of academia.” Some have conjectured that he is the multi-locating superhero known as the Black-5. He is founding Director and Distinguished Professor of Unlearning at The Underground University (TUU) and founding co-editor (with Kate Townsend) of Square Inch Press (SIP), a newly-established independent Daoist publisher. He researches and has published extensively in Animal Studies, Contemplative Studies, Daoist Studies, and Religious Studies, following specific interests in contemplative practice, embodiment, and mystical experience. In addition to over thirty academic articles and book chapters, Dr. Komjathy has published twelve books to date. These include the more recent Introducing Contemplative Studies (Wiley-Blackwell, 2018), the first and only book-length introduction to the emerging interdisciplinary field; Entering Stillness: A Guide to Daoist Practice (with Kate Townsend) (Square Inch Press, 2022), a poetic and practical introduction to tradition-based Daoist practice-realization from an applied, committed, and lived perspective; Primer for Translating Daoist Literature (Purple Cloud Press, 2022), a practical introduction to translating classical Chinese Daoist literature and the first bilingual Daoist sourcebook; the Twentieth Anniversary Edition (TAE) of the classic Handbooks for Daoist Practice (Square Inch Press, 2023), which is the first and only tradition-based Daoist sourcebook of Daoist literature; and the long-awaited Daode jing: A Contextual, Contemplative, and Annotated Bilingual Translation (Square Inch Press, 2023), which is the first Daoist contemplative translation utilizing a Daoist scholar-practitioner approach. He is currently working on a number of independent book projects focusing on Daoist commentary literature, Daoist meditation, and Daoist views of immortality, which address interpretive issues related to hermeneutics, praxis, and time, respectively. His larger work explores cross-cultural practices and perennial questions related to contemplative awareness, embodied aliveness, and beyond-states. He lives in semi-seclusion on the Northshore of Chicago with his wife Kate Townsend, dog-companion Takota (Friend-to-Everyone), and surrounding forested ravines and birdsong.
