Dr. Ehud Halperin

Dr. Ehud (Udi) Halperin earned his Ph.D. from Columbia University in 2012, after which he joined the East Asian Studies Department at Tel Aviv University. Halperin studies contemporary lived Hinduism in the Indian Himalaya, exploring issues relating to religion, society and practice in the region and beyond. In 2015 Halperin won a four-year Individual Research Grant of the Israel Science Foundation. As part of this project, he is now completing a book manuscript about the cult of the Indian Himalayan goddess Hadimba, and the narratives, rituals and controversies that are associated with her. The book will be published by Oxford University Press as part of a series by the American Academy of Religion, entitled Religion, Culture, and History Series. Halperin teaches courses on Indian goddess, Himalayan Hinduism, Hindu ritual, Pilgrimage, History of Hinduism, and others.    

Ph.D. Columbia University, Department of Religion 2012

M.A. Columbia University, Department of Religion 2004-2006

B.A. (Cum Laude) Tel Aviv University (Israel), East Asian Studies & Philosophy 1997-2001

Indian goddesses, Hindu ritual and sacrifice, Religion and ecology, Himalayan religion, lived Hinduism.

Books

The Many Faces of a Himalayan Goddess: Hadimba, Her Devotees, and Religion in Rapid Change. Oxford University Press. Forthcoming. 

Articles & Reviews

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Is the Goddess Haḍimbā Tantric? Negotiating Power in a Western Himalayan Sacrificial Arena. International Journal of Hindu Studies. Forthcoming.

Palanquins of the Gods: Indigenous Theologies, Ritual Practice, and Complex Agency in the Western Indian Himalayas. Religions of South Asia. Forthcoming.

Winds of Change: Religion and Climate in the Western Himalayas. Journal of the American Academy of Religion 85.1 (2017): 64-111.

A Vehicle for Agency: Rath Rituals and the Construction of Himalayan Devtas as Complex Agents. European Bulletin of Himalayan Research 48 (2016): 5-42.

The Age of Kālī: Contemporary Iterations of the Kaliyug in the Kullu Valley of the Western Himalayas. Nidān: An International Journal for the Study of Hinduism 26.1 (2014): 42-64.

‘Making Faces: Self and Image Creation in a Himalayan Valley by Halka Hingorani.’ Review for the European Bulletin of Himalayan Research 44 (2014): 106-10.

India@ 21st.Century: Socio-Economic and Political Transformation in Contemporary India. Catalog Essay for the exhibition: “Critical Mass: Contemporary Art from India,” 31.5.2012 - 16.12.2012, Herta and Paul Amir Building, Tel Aviv Museum of Art (co-authored with Rotem Geva, published in May 2012).