Trent Walker

Trent Walker is Assistant Professor of Southeast Asian Studies and Thai Professor of Theravada Buddhism at the University of Michigan, where he teaches Pali, Buddhist studies, and Southeast Asian literature. Trent earned his PhD from UC Berkeley and completed postdocs at Stanford and Chulalongkorn University, Thailand. A specialist in Cambodian, Lao, Thai, and Vietnamese religion, literature, and music, he has been a student and performer of Pali and Khmer chanting traditions since 2005.

Coming of age as a young Buddhist in the Bay Area in the early 2000s, Trent is indebted to wise teachers from a variety of local communities and lineages. In Cambodia, he studied under chanting masters Prum Ut, Koet Ran, and Yan Borin in Kampong Speu and Phnom Penh, and spent five months as a novice monk guided by Samdech Pin Sem in Siem Reap.

Trent’s publications include Until Nirvana’s Time: Buddhist Songs from Cambodia (winner of the 2024 Khyentse Foundation Prize for Outstanding Translation) and several dozen articles, translations, and essays on Southeast Asian Buddhist texts, histories, and recitation practices. He regularly co-leads chanting retreats with Chenxing Han at the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies.