Buddhism in the Bay Area

The San Francisco Bay Area is home to some of the oldest and most racially and linguistically diverse Buddhist communities in the United States. This course engages differences in power and representation in Buddhist temples and centers across the Bay Area, focusing on Asian American institutions and other communities of color. We will also explore the entanglement of race, religion, and the appropriation of mindfulness-based practices in Silicon Valley. In addition to reading works by anthropologists and sociologists of religion, we will conduct fieldwork with local communities to build a more representative picture of Buddhist life in the Bay Area from the nineteenth century to the present.