Dr Ophira Gamliel

Senior Lecturer (Theology & Religious Studies)

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1942-8870

Research interests

My main areas of research are in South Asian languages, cultures, and religions, past and present. I am especially interested in the history of connections and exchanges between religions and regions, communities and generations, peoples and institutions. Specifically, my area of expertise is Kerala history and culture, and Malayalam language and literature.

I studied and taught Sanskrit and Malayalam in Jerusalem and in Germany (Bochum and Tübingen). I am especially interested in event structures and semantic bleaching in various languages, including Hebrew, my native language.

I work on performance and ritual studies, especially in the context of shared festivals, and on the documentation and preservation of tangible and intangible cultural heritage.

My research on Kerala’s culture and society intersects with environmental humanities and climate change adaptation and transformation.

Research groups

Religion, Challenge & Change

Publications

List by: Type | Date

Jump to: 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2006 | 2005 | 2002 | 2001 | 1999

Number of items: 59.

2025

Gamliel, Ophira ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1942-8870 (2025) Arttham. In: Thomas, Renny and Perera, Sasanka (eds.) Decolonial Keywords: South Asian Thoughts and Attitudes. Tulika Books. ISBN 9788197938306 (In Press)

2024

Gamliel, Ophira ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1942-8870, Eliyahu, Meydad and Eliyahu, Yehoshua (2024) The lost Jew town of Kochi. In: Kribus, Bar, Pogossian, Zara and Cuffel, Alexandra (eds.) Material Encounters between Jews and Christians: From the Silk and Spice Routes to the Highlands of Ethiopia. ARC Humanities Press: Leeds. ISBN 9781641893879

Gamliel, Ophira ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1942-8870 (2024) Jūtamalayāḷavuṃ arabimalayāḷavuṃ tāratammya kāḻcappāṭil. In: Aboobacker, K. and Ul-Ihthisam, I. (eds.) Māppiḷamalayāḷaṃ: bhāṣayuṃ sāhittyavuṃ. Book Plus: Calicut. (Accepted for Publication)

Gamliel, Ophira ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1942-8870, Davies, John ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5823-4019, Eliyahu, Meydad, Sateesh, Resmi, Aravind, Sreedevi, Bhaskar, Arun, Sasidharan, Sarath Usha and E.V., Fathima (2024) Kappalile (In the Boat). [Film]

Gamliel, Ophira ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1942-8870 (2024) Zeugen zum Schweigen bringen: Der Fall Ghassan Abu-Sittah. [Website]

Gamliel, Ophira ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1942-8870 (2024) Ophira Gamliel on Malabar Jews. [Website]

Gamliel, Ophira ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1942-8870 and Kalluvalappil, Shihab Ayappally (2024) Arabi-Malayalam disaster ballads: performative poetry and community resilience. Nidān, 8(2), pp. 93-110. (doi: 10.58125/nidan.2023.2.24337)

Gamliel, Ophira ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1942-8870 (2024) Matrilineal Jews or slave descendants? Halakhic laws and trade alliances in medieval Malabar. In: Kooria, Mahmood (ed.) Customizing Islamic Law. Matrilineal Muslims of the Indian Ocean. Amsterdam University Press. (Accepted for Publication)

Gamliel, Ophira ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1942-8870 (2024) Sabeel, This Is Where We Stand: A Sabeel Reflection on Antisemitism. Scottish Episcopal Institute Journal, 8(1), pp. 47-50. [Book Review]

2023

Gamliel, Ophira ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1942-8870 (2023) Judaism in South India ca. 900s-1950s: Relocating Malabar Jewry. Arc Humanities Press: Michigan. ISBN 9781641890670

Gamliel, Ophira ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1942-8870 and Weinrich, Ines (2023) Reconnecting the Split Moon. [Website]

Gamliel, Ophira ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1942-8870 (2023) Self-praise hymns and mystical experiences. In: Elwert, Frederik, Freudenberg, Maren, Karis, Tim, Radermacher, Martin and Schlamelcher, Jens (eds.) Stepping Back and Looking Ahead: Twelve Years of Studying Religious Contact at the Käte Hamburger Kolleg Bochum. Series: Dynamics in the History of Religions, 13. Brill, pp. 182-214. ISBN 9789004549319 (doi: 10.1163/9789004549319_008)

Gamliel, Ophira ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1942-8870 (2023) Matthew Martin, Tantra, Ritual Performance, and Politics in Nepal and Kerala: Embodying the Goddess-Clan. European Bulletin of Himalayan Research, [Book Review] (In Press)

Gamliel, Ophira ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1942-8870 (2023) In Memoriam: Scaria Zacharia z”l. Journal of Jewish Languages, 11(1), pp. 10-14. (doi: 10.1163/22134638-bja10032)

2022

Gamliel, Ophira ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1942-8870, Eliyahu, Meydad and Eliyahu, Joshua (2022) עיר היהודים האבודה בקוצ'ין = The Lost Jew Town of Cochin. Pe'amim: Studies in Oriental Jewry, 167-8, pp. 53-100.

2021

Gamliel, Ophira ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1942-8870 (2021) കേരള ജൂത സമൂഹത്തിലെ തായ് വഴി സൂചനകള്‍ = Traces of Matriliny among Kerala Jews. [Website]

2020

Gamliel, Ophira ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1942-8870 (2020) Covid-19 transformation: towards a knowledge-sharing platform. DiscourseNet Collaborative Working Paper Series, 2, 13.

Gamliel, Ophira ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1942-8870 (2020) The story of the '99 floods. Kerala Calling, 40(10), pp. 79-80.

Gamliel, Ophira ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1942-8870 (2020) Malayalam and Kerala’s Covid-19 transformation: some thoughts during lockdown. [Website]

Gamliel, Ophira ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1942-8870 (2020) A Linguistic Survey of the Malayalam Language in Its Own Terms. Harrassowitz: Wiesbaden. ISBN 9783447112673

2019

Gamliel, Ophira ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1942-8870 (2019) Review of Homo Ritualis: Hindu Ritual and its Significance for Ritual Theory by Axel Michaels. Entangled Religions, 8, (doi: 10.13154/er.8.2019.8439)[Book Review]

Gamliel, Ophira ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1942-8870 (2019) The syntactic roles of touch in shared festivals in Kerala: towards an analysis of ritual categories. Entangled Religions, 10, (doi: 10.13154/er.10.2019.8436)

Gamliel, Ophira ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1942-8870 (2019) A Unique Hebrew Glossary from India: An Analysis of Judeo-Urdu, written by Aaron D. Rubin. Journal of Jewish Languages, 7(1), pp. 117-120. (doi: 10.1163/22134638-07010001)[Book Review]

Gamliel, Ophira ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1942-8870 (2019) My love affair with Kerala and its Jewish heritage. In: Mathew, K.S. and Nair, Yamini (eds.) One Heart Two Worlds: The Story of the Jews of Kochi. Stark World: Thiruvananthapuram, pp. 112-113. ISBN 9789382548034

Gamliel, Ophira ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1942-8870 (2019) The Mantrâṅkam Paribhāṣa from a historical linguistics perspective. In: Oberlin, Heike, Shulman, David and Mucciarelli, Elena (eds.) Two Masterpieces of Kūṭiyāṭṭam: Mantrāṅkam and Aṅgulīyāṅkam. Oxford University Press: New Delhi, pp. 153-165. ISBN 9780199483594 (doi: 10.1093/oso/9780199483594.003.0009)

2018

Gamliel, Ophira ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1942-8870 (2018) Jewish Malayalam in Southern India. In: Hary, Benjamin and Benor, Sarah Bunin (eds.) Languages in Jewish Communities, Past and Present. Series: Contributions to the sociology of language. De Gruyter: Berlin, pp. 356-378. ISBN 9781501504631

Gamliel, Ophira ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1942-8870 (2018) Who was the Fadiyār? Conflating textual evidence in Judeo-Arabic and Old Malayalam. Ginzei Qedem Genizah Research Annual, 14, pp. 9-42.

Cuffel, Alexandra and Gamliel, Ophira ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1942-8870 (2018) Historical engagements and interreligious encounters - Jews and Christians in premodern and early modern Asia and Africa. Entangled Religions, 6, pp. 1-33. (doi: 10.13154/er.v6.2018.1-33)

Gamliel, Ophira ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1942-8870 (2018) Aśu the convert: a slave girl or a Nāyar land owner? Entangled Religions, 6, pp. 201-246. (doi: 10.13154/er.v6.2018.201-246)

Gamliel, Ophira ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1942-8870 (2018) Back from Shingly: revisiting the premodern history of Jews in Kerala. Indian Economic and Social History Review, 55(1), pp. 53-76. (doi: 10.1177/0019464617745926)

Gamliel, Ophira ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1942-8870 (2018) On the warp and woof of language: Arabic, Malayalam and the Muḥyidīn Māla. Iśal Paitṛkam,

Gamliel, Ophira ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1942-8870 (2018) The Syntactic Roles of Touch in Shared Festivals in Kerala. Working Paper. Bochum Online Companion to Eurasian Religions in Contact, Bochum, Germany.

Gamliel, Ophira ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1942-8870 (2018) Textual crossroads and transregional encounters: Jewish networks in Kerala 900s-1600s. Social Orbit, 4(1), pp. 41-73.

2017

Gamliel, Ophira ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1942-8870 (2017) Fading memories and linguistic fossils in Jewish Malayalam. In: Kasten, Erich, Roller, Katja and Wilbur, Joshua (eds.) Oral History Meets Linguistics. Fürstenberg/Havel: Kulturstiftung Sibirien, pp. 83-106. ISBN 9783942883306

2016

Gamliel, Ophira ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1942-8870 (2016) The syntax of performance: the Mantrâṅkam as a case study. Nartanam: a Quarterly Journal on Indian Dance, XVI(3), pp. 166-194.

Gamliel, Ophira ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1942-8870 (2016) Jewish Malayalam. In: Handbook of Jewish Languages. Series: Brill's handbooks in linguistics. Brill, pp. 503-516. ISBN 9789004217331 (doi: 10.1163/9789004297357_017)

2015

Gamliel, Ophira ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1942-8870 and Amin, Edo (2015) Mantrāṅkam: Excerpts from the Puṟappāṭә (Malayalam and Sanskrit, with English subtitles). [Audio]

Gamliel, Ophira ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1942-8870 and Mar’i, Abed al-Rahman (2015) Bleached verbs as aspectual auxiliaries in colloquial modern Hebrew and Arabic dialects. In: Doron, Edit, Tirosh-Becker, Ofra and Benor, Sarah (eds.) Language Contact and the Development of Modern Hebrew. Series: Studies in Semitic languages and linguistics (84). Brill Academic Publishers, pp. 49-62. ISBN 9789004302006 (doi: 10.1163/9789004310896_005)

2014

Gamliel, Ophira ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1942-8870 and Amin, Edo (2014) Best Snack Ever (with English subtitles). [Audio]

Gamliel, Ophira ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1942-8870 (2014) Jewish Malayam. In: Stillman, Norman A. (ed.) Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World. Brill Online. (doi: 10.1163/1878-9781_ejiw_COM_000710)

Gamliel, Ophira ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1942-8870 (2014) Translation genres in Jewish Malayalam: stylistic and linguistic examination. Massorot, 16, pp. 137-172.

2013

Gamliel, Ophira ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1942-8870 (2013) The Hebrew component in Jewish Malayalam. In: Khan, Geoffrey (ed.) Encyclopedia of Hebrew Language and Linguistics. Brill: Leiden ; Boston, pp. 410-413. ISBN 9789004176423

Gamliel, Ophira ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1942-8870 (2013) The neglected history of Kerala Jews. Zmanim, 122, pp. 16-29.

Gamliel, Ophira ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1942-8870 (2013) Voices yet to be heard: on listening to the last speakers of Jewish Malayalam. Journal of Jewish Languages, 1(1), pp. 135-167. (doi: 10.1163/22134638-12340004)

2012

Gamliel, Ophira ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1942-8870 (2012) ‘And the women sing their songs’: the wedding songs of Kerala Jews. In: Pedaya, Haviva (ed.) ha-Piyut ke-tsohar Tarbuti : Kivunim Hadashim la-Havanat ha-Piyut ule-Havnayuto ha-Tarbutit = The Piyyut as a Cultural Prism : New Approaches. Van-Leer Institute: Jerusalem, pp. 266-315. ISBN 9789650206567

2010

Gamliel, Ophira ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1942-8870 (2010) The correct path to India. Haaretz, 7 Jul.

Gamliel, Ophira ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1942-8870 (2010) Documenting Jewish Malayalam in Israel: fieldwork description and data analysis. TAPASAM: A Quarterly Journal of Kerala Studies, 6(1), pp. 3-39.

Gamliel, Ophira ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1942-8870 (2010) Review of Narratology: Indian Perspectives by C. Rajendran. Advar Library Bulletin, 72-73, pp. 349-358. [Book Review]

2009

Gamliel, Ophira ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1942-8870 (2009) Jewish Malayalam. International Journal of Dravidian Linguistics, 38(1), pp. 147-175.

Gamliel, Ophira ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1942-8870 (2009) ‘Kerala project’: on documenting the linguistic heritage of Kerala Jews. Pe'amim, 122, pp. 129-153.

Gamliel, Ophira ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1942-8870 (2009) Oral literary forms in Jewish Malayalam. Journal of Indo-Judaic Studies, 10, pp. 47-60.

2008

Gamliel, Ophira ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1942-8870 (2008) Malayalam folksongs. In: Shulman, David and Weil, Shalvah (eds.) Karmic Passages: Israeli Scholarship on India. Oxford University Press: New Delhi l New York, pp. 46-82. ISBN 9780195697070

2006

Gamliel, Ophira ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1942-8870 (2006) Review of The Jews of Kerala, by P. M. Jussay. TAPASAM: A Quarterly Journal of Kerala Studies, 1(3), pp. 685-695. [Book Review]

2005

Gamliel, Ophira ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1942-8870 (2005) Hey there! Have you ever seen a parrot? Notes about the sukasandesam. TAPASAM: A Quarterly Journal of Kerala Studies, 1(2), pp. 284-314.

Gamliel, Ophira ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1942-8870 (2005) The vigil night song. TAPASAM: A Quarterly Journal of Kerala Studies, 1(3), pp. 548-574.

Sakkar̲iya, Skar̲iyā, Gamliel, Ofira ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1942-8870 and Johnson, Barbara C. (2005) Kārkul̲ali - Yefefiah - Gorgeous! : Jewish Women's Songs in Malayalam with Hebrew Translations. Ben Zvi Institute: Jerusalem. ISBN 9789652351005

2002

Gamliel, Ophira ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1942-8870 (2002) From the Rāmāyaṇa to the cloud messenger: the Kāvya genre in Sanskrit literature. In: Wasserman, Nathan (ed.) Hutim Nitvim: Reshitan Shel Sugot Sifrutiyot Be-tarbuyot `Atikot = Wool from the Loom: The Development of Literary Genres in Ancient Literature. Magnes Press: Jerusalem, pp. 125-148. ISBN 9789654931243

2001

Gamlîel, Ofira ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1942-8870 (2001) Yogim, Melakhim Ve-nashim Shememiyot = Yogis, Kings and Celestial Women: Translations of Selected Sanskrit Myths. Series: Sidrat Kôtarîm. Keter: Jerusalem. ISBN 9789650709693

1999

Gamliel, Ofira ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1942-8870 (1999) Shivah be-ya`ar ha-oranim: sipurim meha-mitologyah ha-Hodit = Shiva in the Forest of Pines: Translations of Selected Sanskrit Myths. Series: Sidrat Kôtarîm. Keter: Jerusalem. ISBN 9789650708054

This list was generated on Wed Jul 2 15:13:00 2025 BST.

Number of items: 59.

Articles

Gamliel, Ophira ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1942-8870 (2023) In Memoriam: Scaria Zacharia z”l. Journal of Jewish Languages, 11(1), pp. 10-14. (doi: 10.1163/22134638-bja10032)

Gamliel, Ophira ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1942-8870 (2020) Covid-19 transformation: towards a knowledge-sharing platform. DiscourseNet Collaborative Working Paper Series, 2, 13.

Gamliel, Ophira ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1942-8870 (2020) The story of the '99 floods. Kerala Calling, 40(10), pp. 79-80.

Gamliel, Ophira ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1942-8870 (2018) Aśu the convert: a slave girl or a Nāyar land owner? Entangled Religions, 6, pp. 201-246. (doi: 10.13154/er.v6.2018.201-246)

Gamliel, Ophira ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1942-8870 (2018) On the warp and woof of language: Arabic, Malayalam and the Muḥyidīn Māla. Iśal Paitṛkam,

Gamliel, Ophira ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1942-8870 (2018) Textual crossroads and transregional encounters: Jewish networks in Kerala 900s-1600s. Social Orbit, 4(1), pp. 41-73.

Gamliel, Ophira ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1942-8870 (2016) The syntax of performance: the Mantrâṅkam as a case study. Nartanam: a Quarterly Journal on Indian Dance, XVI(3), pp. 166-194.

Gamliel, Ophira ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1942-8870 (2014) Translation genres in Jewish Malayalam: stylistic and linguistic examination. Massorot, 16, pp. 137-172.

Gamliel, Ophira ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1942-8870 (2013) The neglected history of Kerala Jews. Zmanim, 122, pp. 16-29.

Gamliel, Ophira ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1942-8870 (2010) The correct path to India. Haaretz, 7 Jul.

Gamliel, Ophira ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1942-8870 (2009) Jewish Malayalam. International Journal of Dravidian Linguistics, 38(1), pp. 147-175.

Gamliel, Ophira ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1942-8870 (2009) ‘Kerala project’: on documenting the linguistic heritage of Kerala Jews. Pe'amim, 122, pp. 129-153.

Gamliel, Ophira ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1942-8870 (2009) Oral literary forms in Jewish Malayalam. Journal of Indo-Judaic Studies, 10, pp. 47-60.

Gamliel, Ophira ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1942-8870 (2005) The vigil night song. TAPASAM: A Quarterly Journal of Kerala Studies, 1(3), pp. 548-574.

Books

Gamliel, Ophira ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1942-8870 (2023) Judaism in South India ca. 900s-1950s: Relocating Malabar Jewry. Arc Humanities Press: Michigan. ISBN 9781641890670

Gamliel, Ophira ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1942-8870 (2020) A Linguistic Survey of the Malayalam Language in Its Own Terms. Harrassowitz: Wiesbaden. ISBN 9783447112673

Book Sections

Book Reviews

Gamliel, Ophira ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1942-8870 (2010) Review of Narratology: Indian Perspectives by C. Rajendran. Advar Library Bulletin, 72-73, pp. 349-358. [Book Review]

Gamliel, Ophira ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1942-8870 (2006) Review of The Jews of Kerala, by P. M. Jussay. TAPASAM: A Quarterly Journal of Kerala Studies, 1(3), pp. 685-695. [Book Review]

Research Reports or Papers

Audio

Gamliel, Ophira ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1942-8870 and Amin, Edo (2015) Mantrāṅkam: Excerpts from the Puṟappāṭә (Malayalam and Sanskrit, with English subtitles). [Audio]

Gamliel, Ophira ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1942-8870 and Amin, Edo (2014) Best Snack Ever (with English subtitles). [Audio]

Film

Website

Gamliel, Ophira ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1942-8870 (2024) Zeugen zum Schweigen bringen: Der Fall Ghassan Abu-Sittah. [Website]

Gamliel, Ophira ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1942-8870 (2024) Ophira Gamliel on Malabar Jews. [Website]

Gamliel, Ophira ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1942-8870 and Weinrich, Ines (2023) Reconnecting the Split Moon. [Website]

Gamliel, Ophira ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1942-8870 (2020) Malayalam and Kerala’s Covid-19 transformation: some thoughts during lockdown. [Website]

This list was generated on Wed Jul 2 15:13:00 2025 BST.

Grants

Digitisation project (major): Digitising Arabic manuscripts in Mattool, North Kerala (EAP1390), under the auspices of the Endangered Archives Programme at the British Library, (August 2021 – July 2022, ₤23,148) http://www.eap.bl.uk/project/EAP1390

Digitisation project (pilot): Locating and Sampling Arabic and Arabic-Malayalam Manuscripts in Kerala, South India (EAP1228), under the auspices of the Endangered Archives Programme at the British Library, (November – December 2019, ₤11,125) https://eap.bl.uk/project/EAP1228

Workshop: Toward Equitable Resilience: Social-Ecological Systems in the Changing Climate of the Indian Ocean Littoral – in collaboration with the School of Engineering and under the auspices of the Global Challenges Research Fund and the Scottish Funding Council (October 2019, ₤25,297)

Kerala State Higher Education Council Grant Erudite Scholar Lecture Series (Travel Grant, 2018)

Workshop: Arabic and Islam on the Move: Cross-Cultural Encounters between Arabia and Malabar 900s-1500s (May 2017, €10,000), https://ceres.rub.de/de/veranstaltungen/arabic-and-islam-move-cross-cultural-encounters/

Aranmula Award of the Third International Kerala History Conference ($200, 2015)
Käte Hamburger Kolleg project “Sensory Devotion and Inter-religious Encounters: Shared Festivals in Kerala (South India)” (€60,000, 2015)

Rothschild Fellowship for Post-Doctoral Studies Malayalam linguistics with Venugopala Panicker (2010)

Ben-Zvi Institute Grant: Documentation of Jewish Malayalam, in collaboration with Jarmo Forsström (2008-2009)

Jewish Languages Department Morag Award, Hebrew University (2008)

Rotenstreich Fellowship Grant, Hebrew University (2004-2008)

Sternberg Prize for Interfaith Understanding, Hebrew University (2000)

Supervision

I am happy to supervise PGR projects on the religions, cultures, history, and literature of South Asia, past and present.

I welcome projects on a wide range of topics from material culture and Indian Ocean history to languages and literatures, especially in the source languages Sanskrit, Malayalam, Hebrew, and Arabic. Among my areas of expertise are also environmental humanities, language documentation and ethnography, ritual theory, and the comparative study of mysticism.

Current projects under my supervision are:
Percy Arfeen, Transcending Boundaries: Material Culture of Sacred Spaces in Premodern and Early Modern Kerala, South India, co-supervised with Jessie Pons at the Center for Religious Studies (CERES), Ruhr University Bochum, under the auspices of DAAD: German Academic Exchange Service.

Haritha Venu, Progressive Politics and Transformation in a Context of Climate Crisis: Kerala's Subaltern Communities as a Case Study, co-supervised with Giovanni Picker and David Featherstone at the University of Glasgow, College of Arts, under the auspices of the Lord Kelvin Adam Smith Fellowship.

Amina Khan, Resurrecting the Heroines of South Asian Sufi Folklore as Muslim Feminists, co-supervised with Lloyd Ridgeon and Saeko Yazaki, part time project, Theology and Religious Studies, School of Critical Studies, University of Glasgow.

Anaïs Delcol, Peregrination as Conquest or Liberation of Oneself in Female Travel Writers' Works, co-supervised with Olivier Salazar-Ferrer and Ramona Fotiade, School of Modern Languages and Cultures, University of Glasgow.

Teaching

I co-teach the Level 1 course Religions in Asia, focusing on Buddhism.

I convene the Level 2 course Mysticism and Spirituality, with a focus on comparative mysticism, co-taught with experts on Judaism, Islam, Christianity, and Hinduism.

I convene two Honors courses Religion and Trade in Premodern Asia, focusing on the Indian Ocean and the Malabar Coast and South Asian Epic Traditions, focusing on the Ramayana and Mahabharata in translations, performance, and the arts.

I am the convener of a Malayalam summer school (here), and happy to guide students interested in pursuing the self-study of Sanskrit

Additional information

I am a visiting fellow at the University of Münster (October – December 2021, here)

I participate in three COP26 fringe events (here), Global Environmental History and Climate Change with Julia McClure, Zozan Pehlivan, Steven Serels, John Wing, and Amanda Power (October 27, here), Chaos, Floods, and Resilience with Ariel Zinder and Heather Walton (November 4), and Jungle Nama: Communicating Traditions of Spiritual Resilience in the Climate Emergency, with Amitav Ghosh, Ali Sethi and Salman Toor (November 8)

I co-convene the research cluster seminar series Religion, Challenge, and Change (here), which hosted a pandemic-related lecture series in 2021:

Yehoshua Granat (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem), Perception of Epidemics in Hebrew Poetry: From Biblical Antiquity to Early Modernity (February 2021)

Riyanti Djalante (ASEAN, Jakarta), Rajan Gurukkal (Kerala State Higher Education Council), and Yael Artzy-Randrup (University of Amsterdam), COVID-19, Social Dynamics and Religious Response: COVID-19, Floods and Earthquakes in Indonesia, lecture and roundtable discussion (March 2021)

Samuel Cohn (University of Glasgow), The Post-Black-Death Century: Economic Equality and Its Consequences (May 2021)

Among the guest lecturers I hosted at the TRS research seminar series are:
Menashe Anzi (Be’er Sheva), From Yemen to India and Back: Jewish Immigration and Knowledge Flows (February 2019)

Mehrdad Shokoohy (London), Mughal and Muslim Architecture in India (May 2019)

Ines Weinrich (Münster), Sounding the Birth of the Prophet Muhammad: Arabic Maulid Texts as Performative Devotion (November 2019)

Azeez Tharuvana (Calicut), Muslim Ramayanas (March 2020)

Deepra Dandekar (Berlin), Baba Padmanji and Vernacular Christianity in Nineteenth Century Maharashtra (March 2020)

Dr Ophira Gamliel

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Dr Ophira Gamliel

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