Kate Crosby

Professor Kate Crosby holds the position of Professor of Buddhist Studies in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at King's College London since 2013. She previously served as Director of the Centre of Buddhist Studies at SOAS and held academic roles at the Universities of Edinburgh, Lancaster, Cardiff, and Oxford. She has held visiting positions at McGill University, Dongguk University, and the Buddhist Institute in Phnom Penh.

Her research focuses on Theravada Buddhism, Pali and Sanskrit literature, and Buddhist practices in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia. She has conducted extensive fieldwork across Theravada countries and collaborates with local scholars. Crosby co-edits the journal Contemporary Buddhism and leads projects such as the Theravada Civilizations Project and the AHRC Religion and Society grant on Boran Kammatthana meditation.

Her recent work examines the historical relationship between pre-modern Theravada meditation practices and technologies of transformation like Ayurvedic medicine. She explores how modern Western concepts displaced traditional practices post-19th century. Fieldwork in Cambodia investigates the revival and decline of meditation traditions post-Khmer Rouge. She also works on editing Sinhala-Pali meditation manuals and studies disrobing practices in monastic communities.

Crosby teaches undergraduate courses on Introduction to Buddhism, Buddhist Ethics, and Theravada Buddhism, as well as graduate modules on Buddhist arts and manuscript studies. Her advisory work includes the Bodleian Library’s project cataloguing Shan texts in the UK and Thailand. She welcomes PhD students researching Theravada Buddhism, meditation, or Pali/Sanskrit literature.

Key collaborations include work with Andrew Skilton and Amal Gunasena on meditation traditions and the Siyam Nikaya. Current projects include a book on monastic disrobing and editing conference volumes on meditation studies.