Timothy Loftus
Adjunct Professor
Timothy Loftus is a scholar of religion whose research focuses on contemporary Buddhism, caste and social justice, and the legacy of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar in modern South Asia. His work explores how marginalized communities mobilize religious traditions as tools for ethical formation and political transformation. He has a particular interest in the intersection of religion, secularism, and social movements.
Professor. Loftus earned his Ph.D. in Religion from Temple University, where he specialized in Buddhist Studies. His dissertation, “The Three Jewels of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar: Buddhism from the Margins,” examined Ambedkarite Buddhist communities in India. He also holds an M.Div. in Indo-Tibetan Buddhism from Naropa University and served as a hospice and trauma chaplain in the University of Pennsylvania Health System, bringing an applied dimension to his academic work.
His recent publications include: “Ambedkar and the Buddha’s Saṅgha: The Ground for Ambedkarite Buddhist Ethics,” in Caste: A Global Journal on Social Exclusion; “Dalit Feminism as Postsecular Feminism,” in Postsecular Feminisms (Bloomsbury, 2018), and an article in the Journal of Buddhist Philosophy on karma and social action. Professor Loftus was awarded a Fulbright-Nehru Research Grant for fieldwork in India and has held fellowships from the U.S. Department of Education and Temple University. He has presented his work at the American Academy of Religion and the Association for Asian Studies, and served as a guest lecturer at universities and institutes across the U.S. and India.
Prior to his appointment at Georgetown University in Qatar, Professor Loftus taught at Moravian University and Temple University. His courses have included Religions of India, Women, Religion, and Film, Atheism, and Death and Dying in World Religions. His teaching combines student-centered pedagogy with a comparative, global approach to religious studies.