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Dr Rita Langer
M.A., Ph.D.(Hamburg)
Expertise
Current positions
Senior Lecturer in Buddhist Studies
Department of Religion and Theology
Contact
Press and media
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Research interests
Research
My research focuses on two different but complementary areas of Buddhism: (1) Buddhist ritual and its origin (in South and South East Asia, particularly Sri Lanka) and (2) Buddhist material culture and food. My approach is interdisciplinary and combines textual studies with field work. I have conducted extensive research into funerals rites and death rituals in Sri Lanka, Laos and Thailand as part of an AHRC funded project on Death Rituals in Southeast Asia and China. My current research project is concerned with food, merit and cosmology in Theravada Buddhism. I have conducted field work in Thailand, Laos and Myanmar but my main area of expertise is Sri Lankan Buddhism.
Teaching
My teaching responsibilities cover units in Buddhism and Indian Culture, as well as Sanskrit and Pāli. I have introduced well-subscribed units (open to second and third year students) on the “Religious and Cultural traditions of ancient India” and on “Death and Afterlife in Buddhism” and which make use of audio-visual material and primary sources in translation. In addition I have redesigned an existing, specialized unit concerned with history and practice of Theravada Buddhism in Asia (open to third year and MA students), by introducing audio-visual teaching material, which I generated during my field trips to Sri Lanka, Laos, Thailand and Myanmar. The study of Indian languages (Pali and Sanskrit) is essential for serious students of Buddhism and Hinduism. The Sanskrit unit has also attracted quite a few Classics students bringing up the number of students enrolled for the unit considerably. Besides, I am lead person for a new collaboratively taught unit (Religion&Theology and Classics&Ancient History) on “Ghosts, death and the afterlife” which had attracted over 80 students. I have this year introduce a new unit “Dissertation with fieldwork or work placement” which is an alternative to the mandatory dissertation unit at level 3.
Projects and supervisions
Research projects
Feeding humans and non-humans in Theravada Buddhism
Principal Investigator
Description
The Buddhist cosmology of the Pali texts comprises 31 realms reaching from beings in hell at the bottom of the scale to the gods of the formless realms with humans…Managing organisational unit
School of HumanitiesDates
01/04/2014 to 01/10/2014
Preacher and Ritualist: the role of the Theravada Buddhist monk
Principal Investigator
Description
Death rituals are the only life cycle ritual in which Theravada Buddhist monks are actively involved and thus provide an excellent context in which to observe the monk-laity relationship. The…Managing organisational unit
School of HumanitiesDates
01/03/2010 to 01/07/2010
BUDDHIST DEATH RITUALS OF SOUTH EAST ASIA AND CHINA
Role
Researcher
Description
The project was an interdisciplinary collaboration between anthropologists and experts in Religious Studies. The project was concerned with Laos and Thailand in Southeast Asia, and China, and was the first…Managing organisational unit
School of HumanitiesDates
01/01/2007 to 01/04/2010
Thesis supervisions
Verbal Magic in the Pali Canon
Supervisors
What the Buddha Felt
Supervisors
Religious hatred and its contribution to human conflict
Supervisors
Publications
Recent publications
17/03/2024A Celebration of Deities
Ten ways of making merit in Theravāda exegetical literature and contemporary Sri Lanka
Routledge Handbook of Theravāda Buddhism
Bahirava puja
The Transformative Power of Food
Material Religion