The Future/s of Religious Studies: The View from Teaching South Asian Religions

This roundtable discusses challenges and future/s in teaching Religious Studies in U.S. higher education through reflections by established educators who teach about South Asian religions and who are experienced with departmental administration. The study of South Asian religions played a formative role in defining Religious Studies as a humanities and social sciences discipline, and in making the field a model in terms of its inclusivity, global representation, and use of the comparative method. How have the contributions of teaching and researching South Asian religions been impacted by the current national discourse, university administrative decisions, departmental developments, and student perceptions, and what does it mean for the profile of Religious Studies generally? Our cross-institutional discussion critically examines current trends in pedagogy such as interdisciplinarity, Westernization, big themes, intercultural competence, and AI within these structural changes, and their challenges and possibilities for Religious Studies in the academy.