Jessica Aylen Hermosillo Pena was awarded the 2021 Buddhist Studies Essay Prize (Betsy Tang and Kent W. Ho Award) for her work on childbirth and Buddhism, a final research project in the class “The Buddhist Body” (EAS 190). Hermosillo tackled the paradox of reproduction within a religious tradition that seeks liberation from the world, and combines Indian sutras with notes by Japanese monk-scholars, texts of aristocratic birth rituals, and teachings from Tibet to explore the topic and present a surprising resolution to the problem.