My academic expertise is constituted by four domains: (1) geographical, i.e., South Asia, esp. Indian languages, cultures and religions; (2) the interface of nature, culture and religion, esp. rituals around sacred trees/sacred groves/sacred forests in India; ritual and conceptual dimensions of the 'green burial movement'; and critical discourses on the concept of 'nature'; (3) ritual dynamics among Hindustanis in the Netherlands, and acculturation processes in diaspora communities in general; (4) theoretical-conceptual reflections on diversity and complexity, esp. in religious and ritual studies, and 'is-ought' fallacies in culture-specific views of 'nature'.

 - associate professor and senior lecturer Tilburg University, Faculty of Humanities and Digital Science, Department of Culture Studies (since 1981, resp. 2006)

My current educational activities are in three major domains:

(1) general: introduction to the phenomenon of diversification of diversity in a cultural-religious perspective; the ways in which various forms of local, trans-local and global diversity are approached academically; and online-offline dynamics

(2) specific: introduction to the lifeworld of Hinduism and Buddhism, both in their historical and contemporary aspects and appearances, in the Asian origins as well as their diasporic and westernised versions

(3) specific: the study of culturally determined behaviour, particularly in the form of ritual (rites and rituals, festivities, celebrations, the symbolic order, techniques of interiorisation, the experience of nature, visual culture) and in the form of ethical choices (with special attention to body, physicality, and the domain of the senses)

Click here for my courses.

- Deborah de Koning (NWO-project 'Ravanisation'/Sri Lanka)

- Bowo Sugiarto (Muslim migrants in Bali/ritual studies)

- Farah Izza (Qur'an recitation/Muslim women's organizations Indonesia)