How to disable links in taxonomy term node fields I have a list of rendered taxonomy terms in a node sidebar, rendered as h2 tags, linked to the taxonomy page for that tid.  I don't want that term to link anywhere, so I want to remove the link and just leave a plain rendered h2 tag.

Where is the best place to do this?  It feels like a presentation change, so should I do it in a preprocess function?  It also feels like a functional thing, so should I remove the link within a hook somewhere?

How is the best Drupal-appropriate way to do this?
If I understand your question correctly you can change it on the 'Manage Display' tab of your content type, make sure to select 'Teaser' at the top right

If you're using the build in article type it is at admin/structure/types/manage/article/display/teaser