• Since 2014, Researcher and Head of the Editorial Program of the Research Unit “Documents on the History of Religion and Law in Pre-modern Nepal”
• 2006–2013 Researcher at the Collaborative Research Centre “The Dynamics of Ritual,” subproject “Life-cycle Rituals in Nepal,” Heidelberg University
• 2005–2006 Resident Representative, Kathmandu Branch Office, South Asia Institute, Heidelberg University
• 2009 Doctorate in Indology from Heidelberg University
  • Thesis: “The Initiation of the Indo-Parbatiyā in Nepal: Text and Practice of the Ritual”
• 2004 Master of Arts in Indology and Ethnology from the University of Leipzig
  • Thesis: “The Domestication of the Aghorīs: Kīnārām and the Gītāvalī”
• 1996–2004: Studies in Indology and Ethnology at the University of Leipzig

2018. Temporary Ascetics: The Brahmanic Initiation Ritual of the Bāhun and Chetrī in the Kathmandu Valley, Heidelberg ; Berlin: CrossAsia-eBooks. https://doi.org/10.11588/xabooks.316.440

2012. (with Janina Karolewski and Nadja Miczek). Ritual Design: A Cultural and Ritual Studies Analysis of “New” Rituals. Bielefeld: Transcript.

2010. (with Astrid Zotter). Hindu and Buddhist Initiations in India and Nepal. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz (Ethno-Indology 10).

2022. “Shades of Power: The Nāth Yogīs in Nepal,” in: Daniela Bevilacqua and Eloisa Stuparich (eds.), The Power of the Nāth Yogīs. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 197–226.

2020. “At the Pragmatic End of Scholasticism: Ritualists and their Textual Tradition,” in Gérard Colas and Émelie Aussant (eds.), Les scolastiques indiennes. Genèses, développements, interactions. Paris/Pondicherry: École française d’Extrême-Orient, 239–250.

2018. “Ascetics in Administrative Affairs: Documents on the Central Overseers of Jogīs and Saṃnyāsīs in Nepal,” in: Cubelic, Simon, Axel Michaels, and Astrid Zotter (eds.), Studies in Historical Documents from Nepal and India. Heidelberg: Heidelberg University Press, 445–491.

2018. “Vedic Practical Knowledge: Discipleship and Ritual in the Brahmanic Tradition,” in: Almut-Barbara Renger and Alexandra Stellmacher (eds.), Practical Knowledge in Religion and Philosophy: Production, Transmission, Change. Berlin, etc.: Lit Verlag, 225–239.

2016. “The Bonds of the Liberated: On Community among Hindu Ascetics,” in Gert Melville and Carlos Ruta (eds.), *Potency of the Common: Intercultural Perspectives on Community and Individuality*. Berlin/Boston: DeGruyter, 239–254.

2016. “The Cremation Ground and the Denial of Ritual: The Case of the Aghorīs and Their Forerunner,” in Ute Hüsken and Udo Simon (eds.), The Ambivalence of Denial: Danger and Appeal of Rituals. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 43–79.

2015. “Ritual Text in Hindu Initiation,” in: Hendrik Schulze (ed.), Musical Text as Ritual Object, Brussels: Brepols, 25–37.

2013. “Sacred Threads,” in Knut A. Jacobson et al. (eds.), Brill’s Encyclopedia of Hinduism, vol. 5, Leiden/Boston: Brill, 119–122.

2013. (with Gregor Ahn and Nadja Miczek) “Ritual Design,” in: Christiane Brosius, Axel Michaels, Paula Schrode (eds.), Ritual and Ritual Dynamics: Key Concepts, Theories, Discussions. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, UTB, 116–122.

2013. (with Janina Karolewski) “Ritual Design: A Popular Term and Its Scientific Application,” in: Yana Milev (ed.): D. A. A Transdisciplinary Handbook of Design Anthropology. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang Verlag, 290–297.

2013. (with Janina Karolewski) “Ritual Culture as Design Culture: Designed Rituals and Ritual Design,” in: Yana Milev (ed.): Design Cultures: The Expanded Concept of Design in the Field of Cultural Studies. Munich: Wilhelm Fink, 235–242.

2012. “Ritual: A Means to an End or an End in Itself?”, in: EWE 23.2, 231–233.

2012. “On Lines and Black Snakes: Design in Hindu Ritual,” in: Janina Karolewski, Nadja Miczek, and Christof Zotter (eds.), Ritual Design: A Cultural and Ritual Studies Analysis of “New” Rituals. Bielefeld: Transcript, 293–325.

2010. “Notes on the Evolution of an Initiation Ritual: The Vratabandha of the Bāhun and Chetri,” in: Astrid Zotter and Christof Zotter (eds.), Hindu and Buddhist Initiations in India and Nepal. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 17–44.