Teaching Buddhism in 2025

The humanities, religion departments, and Buddhist Studies programs are all under threat as state legislators cut funding, politicians interfere with liberal arts curricula, and students struggle to grasp the value and relevance of these fields of study. How and why do we teach Buddhist Studies in this environment? This roundtable addresses these questions from diverse perspectives, centering faculty working at financially vulnerable institutions or in states in which higher education is under legislative attack. We will provide a moderated discussion; our panelists’ comments coalesce around the following themes: legislative threats and departmental closures, pedagogy, the devaluing of the humanities alongside the emphasis on STEM, skill-based learning, and the legibility of our curricula to students. Our aim is to triage Buddhist Studies pedagogy in 2025.