Resisting Empire: The Experiences of Buddhist Chaplains in a Safety Net Hospital

This roundtable convenes six Buddhist chaplains serving in a U.S. urban safety-net hospital to examine how Buddhist spiritual care is practiced, and contested, inside institutions shaped by borders, austerity, and racialized inequality. Framed for the AAR presidential theme “Future/s,” the session treats chaplaincy as a frontline site where futures are negotiated: patients facing deportation, homelessness, addiction, and terminal illness; hospitals navigating shrinking public resources; and Buddhism becoming embedded in secular-professional workplaces. Through brief anonymized “micro-verbatims” and a facilitated, case-based reflection method, participants will identify the Buddhist resources most operative at the bedside and the advocacy moves chaplains can make within clinical teams. Attendees will leave with transferable tools for justice-oriented spiritual care and a research agenda linking Buddhism-in-practice to innovations in chaplaincy.