Name: David M. Knipe
Department: Languages & Cultures of Asia/Women’s Studies
Position: Professor
Email address: dmknipe@facstaff.wisc.edu
Areas of gender-related research: Languages & Cultures of Asia
Types of approaches or methodologies: Current field and textual research: Coastal Andhra Pradesh, South India; Sanskrit and Telugu written and oral traditions concerning classical and regional goddesses, their mythologies, rituals and symbols; particular emphasis on ritual possession phenomena and possession speech, including women possessed by deified (deceased) children. Methodologies: The history of religions, the comparative study of religions, ritual studies, gender studies
Courses in women’s/gender studies: Women's Studies / Religious Studies / LCA 464: Goddesses and Feminine Powers. Also segments of RS / LCA 369, 416, 418, 422, 479, 616, 620
Geographic regions(s): India
Selected publications:
1991. Hinduism: Experiments in the Sacred. San Francisco: Harper Collins
Book chapters such as "When a wife dies first: The musivayanam and a female Brahman ritualist in coastal Andhra," "Becoming a veda in the Godavari Delta," "Softening the cruelty of God: Folklore, ritual, and planet Ðani (Saturn) in southeast India," "Night of the growing dead: A virabhadra cult in coastal Andhra," "Hinduism and the tradition of Ayurveda."