Senior Professor Prof. Dr. Axel Michaels
Senior Professor of Classical Indology. Current fields of interest are social history and history of Hinduism, theory of rituals, life cycle rites of passage in Nepal as well as the cultural and legal history of Nepal. Major book publications include: Kultur und Geschichte Nepals (Kröner 2018; Engl.: Nepal – A History from the Earliest Times to the Present, Oxford University Press 2024); Homo ritualis. Hindu Rituals and its Significance for Ritual Theory (Oxford University Press, 2016); Der Hinduismus – Geschichte und Gegenwart, 3. Aufl., C.H. Beck, 2024 (Engl.: Hinduism. Past and Present, Princeton University Press, 2004); Śiva in Trouble. Rituals and Festivals at the Paśupatinātha temple of Deopatan, Nepal (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008)
- Senior Professor of Classical Indology (Since 2016)
- Former Director of the Department "Cultural and Religious History of South Asia (Classical Indology)" 1996 - 2016
- Head of the research unit „Documents on the History of Religion and Law of pre-modern Nepal”
- Chairman of the board of trustees of the von Portheim-Stiftung (since 2020)
- Founding Director of Centre for Asian and Transcultural Studies (CATS)
- Director of the cluster of excellence “Asia and Europe”
- Speaker of the Collaborative Research Centre 619 "Dynamics of Ritual" of German Research Foundation (DFG) (2002 - 2013)
- Speaker of the German Research Foundation Council 106 "Ethnologie, Religionswissenschaft, Außereuropäische Kulturen" (2004 - 2011)
- Speaker of the Indology Chapter of the Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft (2001 - 2004)
Contact
Prof. Dr. Axel Michaels
Voßstraße 2, Building 4130
D-69115 Heidelberg
Room: 130.03.07
Phone: +49 (0) 6221 - 54 15 209
E-mail: michaels@hcts.uni-heidelberg.de
Consultation hours: by appointment via e-mail