Curriculum

Olav Hammer (born 1958), Ph.D. in the history of religions from Lund university, Sweden (2001), became professor of the study of religion at the University of Southern Denmark in 2005 and emeritus professor in 2024. He has devoted most of his research to three academic fields: 1) religious movements with roots in the 19^th and 20^th century, especially movements in the broader Theosophical family, 2) ‘alternative’ religious beliefs and practices of the contemporary period such as controversial ideas about prehistory, and 3) critical responses to religious beliefs and practices. Hammer has written, co-authored, and edited well over a dozen books and has published numerous articles and book chapters. He was from 2009 to 2016 one of two executive editors of a flagship journal in the field of history of religions, Numen.