Julia Heather Cross (B.A. '09) is a Ph.D. candidate at Harvard in the Dept. of East Asian Languages and Civilizations. She is in her last year of her Ph.D. Her dissertation focuses on relic worship in Japan in the Heian and Kamakura periods, examining the phenomenon from both an art historical and Buddhist studies perspective. She traveled to Japan to study specific reliquaries and manuscripts related to her project.