Mikael Aktor

Curriculum

Job and other postitions
2026- Vice chairman in the corps of external examiners for Languagebased Areastudies responsible for Modern India- and South Asia Studies and Greenlandic and Arctic Studies.
09.2023- Associate Professor Emeritus
2022-2025 Vice chairman in the corps of external examiners for Languagebased Areastudies responsible for Modern India- and South Asia Studies.
2022-08.2023 Associate Professor Emeritus and Teaching Assistant of study of religions, University of Southern Denmark.
2020-22 Associate Professor Emeritus and Part-time Lecturer of study of religions, University of Southern Denmark
2018-2021 Vice chairman in the corps of external examiners for Global Language- and Area Studies with chairman responsibility for Indology, Modern South Asia Studies, Tibetology and South East Asia Studies (Indonesian and Thai)
2014-18 Vice chairman in the corps of external examiners for Indology and South Asia studies
2013 Member of the corps of external examiners for Indology and South Asia studies
2008-2020 Associate Professor of study of religions, University of Southern Denmark
2006- Member of the corps of examiners for Study of Religions
2005-07 Assistent Lecturer of Study of Religions, University of Southern Denmark
1999-2004 Assistent Professor of Study of Religions, University of Southern Denmark

Conference organization
2015 Convenor of three panels "Exploring Aniconism (1-3)" at the IAHR (International Association for the History of Religion) XXIst World Congress, Erfurt, 23-29 August 2015; co-convened by Milette Gaifman, Yale University.
2012 Convenor of the panel “Objects of Worship in the Lived Religions of South Asia: Forms, Practices and Meanings”, at 22nd European Conference on South Asian Studies, Lisbon, 25.-28. July 2012; co-convened by Knut A. Jacobsen and Kristina Myrvold.
2010 Convenor of the panel “Goddesses and Women: The Interchange of Divine and Human Aspects of Women in South Asian Religious Traditions”, IAHR’s (International Association for the History of Religions) XXh Quinquennial World Congress, Toronto, Canada.
2000 Convenor of the two-day panel “The Upaniṣads, Focus and Perspectives” at IAHR’s (International Association for the History of Religions) XVIIIth Quinquennial World Congress, Durban, South Africa.
1998 Convenor of the two-day panel "Untouchability - past and present" at 15th European Conference on Modern South Asian Studies, Charles University, Prague.

Field work
September-November 2014, Kathmandu and Muktinath, Nepal; Patna, Srikalahasti, Chennai, Thanjavur, India. Collection of material on the Pañcāyatanapūjā and four of the five stones worshipped in this.
December-January 2012-13, Omkareshwar, Madhya Pradesh, India. Collection of material and information on Bāṇaliṅga production.
January-May 2011. Varanasi, Ballia, Khajuraho and Madurai, India. Collection of material for research on Śivaliṅga iconography, practice, and interpretation.
15.-24. april, 2006. Soka Gakkai International (SGI), Tokyo and Osaka.
2004-2006. Soka Gakkai Denmark.

Education
1998 PhD in History of Religions, University of Copenhagen.
1995-1996 Guest researcher at School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.
1993 MA in History of Religions, University of Copenhagen.
1989 BA in History of Religions, University of Copenhagen.
1988-91 Courses and exams in Sanskrit and Pali, University of Copenhagen.
1986 Enrolled as a student at the Department of History of Religions, University of Copenhagen.

Research Interests

Hinduism
Ritual, Ritual objects, Iconography, Classical Hindu Law (dharmaśāstra).

In generel
Ritual Studies, Material Religion.

Other interests
Buddhism, Jainism, East- and Southeast Asian Religions. Contemporary India.

Research areas

My primary research is in the history of religions, with a special focus on Indian and East Asian religions. My PhD thesis from 1997 examined pre-colonial sources in medieval Indian Sanskrit law literature (dharmaśāstra) on the phenomenon of ‘untouchability’, which encompasses the many ritual precautions against the lower castes of society based on notions of certain people as causes of inauspiciousness and ritual pollution. Part of the study was conducted at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London.

I pursued this topic for a number of years and published the monograph Ritualisation and Segregation based on the thesis. I also published journal articles and chapters in anthologies on other aspects of pre-colonial Indian legal literature, particularly focusing on social structure and ritual regulations.

From 2009, my research was directed towards the emerging theorisations of material and visual religion. I conducted fieldwork in India and Nepal to investigate the use of aniconic objects, particularly certain stones, as centres of ritual activity. I developed a more refined conceptualisation of the relationship between aniconic and iconic visual styles.

In this context, I joined various international academic networks focussing on material religion, and in 2017 I published the bibliography ‘Material Religion’ as a sub-bibliography of the Oxford Bibliographies on Hinduism. I revised and updated the bibliography in 2024.

Alongside my teaching of Indian and East Asian religions, I have travelled extensively in India, Singapore, Malaysia and most recently in Cambodia to collect photo documentation of ritual practices within these religious traditions.

My current research interests are divided between two topics, body understanding and practice in Digambara Jainism and Khmer temples in Cambodia.