Head of Department Prof. Dr. Ute Hüsken
Since 2017 Ute Hüsken is Professor and Head of the Department of Cultural and Religious History of South Asia. She joined Heidelberg University coming from Oslo University, where she had been professor of South Asia Studies (Sanskrit) since 2007. Before that, she had been member and project leader in the collaborative research project “dynamics of ritual” at Heidelberg University (SFB 619).
Hüsken’s main research fields are Buddhist studies, Hindu studies, Ritual and Festival studies and Gender studies. In most of her most recent work she combines methods of textual research (Sanskrit, Pali, Tamil) and anthropology.
Her major publications include Die Vorschriften für die Buddhistische Nonnengemeinde im Vinaya-Piṭaka der Theravādin (Reimer, 1997), When Rituals Go Wrong. Mistakes, Failure, and the Dynamics of Ritual (Brill, 2007), Viṣṇu’s Children. Prenatal life-cycle rituals in South India (Harrassowitz, 2009), and numerous edited volumes mainly in the fields of gender and ritual studies. Together with Ronald Grimes and Barry Stephenson she edits The Oxford Ritual Studies Series (OUP).
Selected Publications
Laughter, Creativity, and Perseverance: Female Agency in Hinduism and Buddhism, ed. by Ute Hüsken (Religion, Culture, and History Series of the American Academy of Religion). New York: Oxford University Press, 2022.
Temples, Texts, and Networks: South Indian Perspectives, ed. by Malini Ambach, Jonas Buchholz, and Ute Hüsken. Heidelberg: HASP, 2022.
Nine Nights of Power: Durgā, Dolls and Darbars, ed. by Ute Hüsken, Vasudha Narayanan & Astrid Zotter, New York: SUNY, 2021.
“Ritual remedies: overcoming murder in a South Indian temple.” In Beyond Courtrooms and Street Violence: Rethinking Religious Offence and its Containment, ed. by Vera Lazzaretti and Kathinka Frøystad. London: Routledge, 2022, pp. 13-24.
“Tradition, Innovation, and Resistance? Training Girls in Sanskrit and Vedic Rituals.” In Laughter, Creativity, and Perseverance: Female Agency in Hinduism and Buddhism, ed. by Ute Hüsken (Religion, Culture, and History Series of the American Academy of Religion). New York: Oxford University Press, 2022, pp. 192-214.
“South Asian Festival Culture.” In Routledge Handbook of South Asian Religions, ed. by Knut A. Jacobsen, Abingdon: Routledge, 2021, pp. 384-398.
Contact
Department of Cultural and Religious History of South Asia
South Asia Institute, Universität Heidelberg
Voßstraße 2, Building 4130
D-69115 Heidelberg
Room: 130.01.15
Phone: +49 (0) 6221 - 54 15 261
E-mail: huesken@uni-heidelberg.de
Consultation hours: by appointment via e-mail