Tineke Nugteren

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, Department Cultural Religious Studies (since 1981, resp. 2006)

- in Tilburg: member Educational Committee Liberal Arts and Sciences; member and presider Educational Committee TSH; tutor of the Bachelor study RSC (Religion in Society and Culture); coordinator of the Bachelor study RSC and the Master WR (World Religions, Utrecht University); member Educational Board Research Master Theology & Religious Studies

- National: board member of the BCOO (Support Committee Education and Research) of NOSTER; assistant professor Religion Studies, Radboud University, Nijmegen; general secretary of NGG (Dutch Society for the Study of Religion) from 2002 to 2008; affiliated fellow of the research group Religious Diversity, Leiden University

- European: General Treasurer EASR (European Society for the Study of Religion) since 2013

- Global: review officer of the editorial board and peer reviewer of the Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture (JSRNC)

My current educational activities are in three major domains:

(1) general: introduction to the phenomenon of religion and religiosity in contemporary society, the ways in which those are approached academically, and religious diversity in multicultural society

(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 religious 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.

- external member PhD committee Radboud University for the public defense of D.H. Luijendijk's dissertation Kalarippayat: The structure and essence of an Indian martial art, Nijmegen, 2008

-member reading committee PhD dissertation Logan Sparks, Tilburg, december 2011

- first supervisor PhD project Cultural-religious socialisation among Hindustani children, to be started Autumn 2011