Serinity Young lives in New York City where she is a Research Associate in the Dept. of Anthropology at the American Museum of Natural History and teaches at Queens College. She received her Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1990 and has received numerous grants and awards, including a Fulbright and being a fellow at the Center for Writers and Scholars of the New York Public Library. She has done fieldwork in India, Tibet, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Russia. Three of her books have been written for high school students: Buddhism: An Introduction, and Hinduism: An Introduction, and Richard Francis Burton: Explorer, Scholar, Spy.