Matthew T. Kapstein is a scholar of Tibetan religions, Buddhism, and the cultural effects of the Chinese occupation of Tibet.
Kapstein graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a bachelor's degree in Sanskrit in 1981.
He completed his Ph.D. at Brown University in 1987 under the direction of James Van Cleve.
In 2002 he moved to the Centre de recherche sur les civilisations asiatiques et orientales of the École pratique des hautes études in Paris, retaining a position at Chicago as Numata Visiting Professor of Buddhist Studies.
[2] He has been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences since 2018,[2][3] and is one of four co-editors of the journal History of Religions.