Knut Axel Jacobsen - Curriculum Vitae#
Current position
- Professor, History of Religions, Department of Archaeology, History, Cultural Studies and Religion, University of Bergen (AHKR), Norway, 1996 - present
Previous university employment
- 1.1.1995-30.04.1996 Post doc scholar Norwegian Research Council, at the University of Oslo, History of Religions.
- 1.1.1991-30.06.1994 Ph.D. scholar Norwegian Research Council, at University of California at Santa Barbara, Religious Studies
Education and degrees
- 1994 Ph.D., Religious Studies, University of California at Santa Barbara
Academic fellowships and awards
- 2025 Senior Fellow, Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies
- 2024 J.P. and Beena Khaitan Fellowship, Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies (OCHS),
- 2022 Shivadashani Fellowship, Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies (OCHS)
- 2015 Elected Member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters
Academic grants
- 2009 - 2013 One of five participants in the project “Sikh Identity Formation: Generational Transfer of Traditions in the Nordic Countries,” a NORDCORP project funded by the Nordic Research Councils for the Humanities and Social Sciences (NOS-HS), 2009 - 2013.
- 2004 Project planning grant for Nordic project on “Religious pluralism in the Nordic countries,” Nordic Research Councils for the Humanities and the Social Sciences (NOS-HS), 2004.
- 1999 Research project on “Religious pluralism in Norway: Hinduism” funded by the Research Council of Norway, 1999.
- 1995 Post.doc. on project on Sāṃkhya traditions funded by the Research Council of Norway 1995 - 1997 (declined April 1996, started as professor UiB). 36 months.
- 1991 Ph.D. on Sāṃkhya traditions fully funded by the Research Council of Norway 1991-1994. 42 months.
Field work abroad
- 1990 - 2024 Numerous periods of fieldwork in India to investigate Sāṃkhya and Yoga traditions, Hindu traditions of salvific space, rituals, processions and festival culture. Fieldwork Hindu diasporas in Mauritius and Malaysia.
Publication
Published around 45 books and over 100 articles.
MOST IMPORTANT MONOGRAPHS IN ENGLISH
- 2025 Jacobsen, Knut A. Hinduism in the World. London: Routledge.
- 2018 Jacobsen, Knut A. Yoga in Modern Hinduism: Hariharānanda Āraṇya and Sāṃkhyayoga. London: Routledge.
- 2013 Jacobsen, Knut A. Pilgrimage in the Hindu Tradition: Salvific Space. London: Routledge.
- 2008 Jacobsen, Knut A. Kapila: Founder of Sāṃkhya and Avatāra of Viṣṇu. New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal.
- 1999 Jacobsen, Knut A. Prakṛti in Sāṃkhya-Yoga: Material Principle, Religious Experience, Ethical Implications. New York: Peter Lang; Indian edition: Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 2002.
MOST IMPORTED EDITED VOLUMES IN ENGLISH
- 2023 Jacobsen, Knut A. (ed.). Hindu Diasporas. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2023.
- 2021 Jacobsen, Knut A. (ed.) Routledge Handbook of South Asian Religions. London: Routledge, 2021.
- 2020 Jacobsen, Knut A. and Ferdinando Sardella (eds.). Handbook of Hinduism in Europe. Two volumes. Handbook of Oriental Studies. Section 2 South Asia. Leiden: Brill.
- 2020 Jacobsen, Knut A., John Cort, Paul Dundas and Kristi Wiley (eds.). Brill’s Encyclopedia of Jainism. Leiden: Brill, 2020.*2018 Jacobsen, Knut A. and Kristina Myrvold (eds.) Religion and Technology in India: Spaces, Practices and Authorities. Abingdon: Routledge.
- 2016 Jacobsen, Knut A. (ed.) Routledge Handbook of Contemporary India. Abingdon: Routledge. (2nd edition, 2024)
- 2015 Jacobsen, Knut A., Mikael Aktor and Kristian Myrvold (eds) Objects of Worship in South Asian Religions: Forms, Practices and Meanings. Abingdon: Ashgate.
- 2012 Jacobsen, Knut A. (ed.) Yoga Powers: Extraordinary Capacities Attained Through Meditation and Concentration. Leiden: Brill.
- 2009-2023 Jacobsen, Knut A. (ed.) Brill's Encyclopedia of Hinduism. Seven Volumes Leiden: Brill.
- 2009 Jacobsen, Knut A. (ed.) Modern Indian Culture and Society. 4 vols. Editor. London: Routledge.
- 2005 Jacobsen, Knut A (ed.) Theory and Practice of Yoga: Essays in Honour of Gerald James Larson. Leiden: Brill. Indian edition: Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 2008.
- 2004 Jacobsen, Knut A. and P. Pratap Kumar (ed.) South Asians in Diaspora: Histories and Religious Traditions. Leiden: Brill.
2024 Jacobsen, Knut A. 2024. “The ritual of parikramā, Hinduization of space and the case of Ayodhyā.” Contemporary South Asia 32. 1, 54-65.
2023 Jacobsen, Knut A. “Hindu Diasporas in Europe: Plurality as the Foundation of Growth,” in Knut A. Jacobsen, ed., Hindu Diasporas, 209-234. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
2023 Jacobsen, Knut A. “Pilgrimage Sites and Procession Rituals in the Hindu Diasporas,” in Knut A. Jacobsen, ed., Hindu Diasporas, 328-353. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
2023 Jacobsen, Knut A. “Pilgrimage Space, Hinduization of Space, Hindutva Politics of Space, and the Case of Ayodhyā as a Religious and Religiopolitical Hotspot.” Numen 70, 1: 95-112.
2022 Jacobsen, Knut A. “Hindu Diasporas and Gods on the Move: Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage in Hindu Europe.” In Gavin Flood (ed.), Blackwell Companion to Hinduism, Second Edition, 338-351. Wiley-Blackwell.
2021 Jacobsen, Knut A. “Early pilgrimage traditions in South Asia,” in Knut A. Jacobsen (ed.), Routledge Handbook of South Asian Religions, 111-123. London: Routledge, 2021.
2021 Jacobsen, Knut A. “Modern Sāṃkhya: Plurality of Sāṃkhya traditions in Modern India,” in Toke Lindegaard Knudsen, Jacob Schmidt-Madsen, and Sara Speyer (eds.), Body and Cosmos: Studies in Early Indian Medical and Astral Sciences in Honor of Kenneth G. Zysk, 408-420. Leiden: Brill 2021.
2020 Jacobsen, Knut A. “The Plurality of Hindu Traditions in Europe,” in Knut A. Jacobsen and Ferdinando Sardella (eds.), Handbook of Hinduism in Europe. Leiden Brill.
2020 Jacobsen, Knut A. “Hindu Processions in Europe,” in Knut A. Jacobsen and Ferdinando Sardella (eds.), Handbook of Hinduism in Europe. Leiden Brill.
2020 Jacobsen, Knut A. “Hindu and Sikh Processions in Europe: Material Objects and Ritual Bodies on the Move,” in Vasudha Narayanan (ed.), The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Religion and Materiality, 226-240. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley Blackwell.
2020 Jacobsen, Knut A. “Sāṃkhyayoga and the Internet: The website of a contemporary Hindu monastic institution,” in Xenia Zeiler (ed.), Digital Hinduism, 128-144. London: Routledge.
2018 Jacobsen, Knut A. “The diverse traditions of Sāṃkhya,” in Purushottama Bilimoria (ed.), History of Indian Philosophy, 200-210. Abingdon: Routledge, 2018.
Jacobsen, Knut A. “The material culture of Sāṃkhya: Kapila as object of worship.” In Knut A. Jacobsen, Kristina Myrvold, and Mikael Aktor (eds) Objects of Worship in South Asian Religions: Forms, practices and meanings. London: Routledge, 2015, s. 51-66
Service to the discipline
Founding editor and editor in chief of the Seven Volume, Brill’s Encyclopedia of Hinduism. Leiden: Brill, 2009-2023; founding editor of the two volume Brill’s Encyclopedia of Sikhism; founding editor of Brill’s Encyclopedia of Jainism.
On the editorial board of a number of international journals: South Asian Diaspora, Religions of South Asia, Contemporary Voice of Dalit, Nidan: Journal for the Study of Hinduism, Temenos: Nordic Journal of Comparative Religion. Peer reviewer of articles from a large number of journals such as Religion, Numen, Temenos, South Asian Diaspora, Contemporary South Asia, Contemporary Voice of Dalit.
External examiner of Ph.D. dissertations at University of London, University of Copenhagen, University of Southern Denmark, Århus University, Lund University, and Åbo University.
Member of Swedish Research Council evaluation panel Religious Knowledge, 2013-2015, Independent Research Fund Denmark evaluation panel Art, Architecture, Design, History, Religion, Theology, 2022-2025, and The Research Foundation – Flanders Cult4 (FWO, a Belgian public research council), 2023-2025.
Leader of the Norwegian Association of the History of Religions (Norsk religionshistorisk forening) 1998-2023.
Guest lectures and conference papers
Have over the years presented hundreds of conference papers at conferences in Asia, North America, Australia and Europe, and been invited keynote speaker for conferences at University of London, Monash University, Melbourne, Centre for South Asian Studies (CEIAS, CNRS-EHESS), Paris and Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski", Bulgaria. Given invited guest lectures at Universities in India, Germany, Sweden, Finland, USA, Canada, and Norway.
Current research priority areas
Sāṃkhya; Yoga; Hinduism, Hindu pilgrimage, festival and procession culture; Buddhism in India, Europe and Norway; Hindu diasporas, Religion and nature.
