Institute of Asian and Oriental Studies (AOI) Dept. of Indology Nauklerstr. 35 | room 3.07 | 72074 Tuebingen phone: +49-7071-29-74005 Email: heike.oberlin[at]uni-tuebingen.de Office hours: Wednesday, 11-12 am, and on prior notice (please register by email)

Prof. Dr. Heike Oberlin (née Moser) is currently the Head of the Department of Indology. The Sapienza University in Rome recently honoured her with a visiting professor award (stay: March/April 2025). In March 2024, she was elected as Deputy University Equal Opportunities Officer of the University of Tübingen and to the board of the German University Association (Deutscher Hochschulverband DHV) at the University of Tübingen. She has also been a member of the University Council since 2021 and since 2020 she serves as spokesperson for the "State Representation of Academic Staff at Universities in Baden-Württemberg“ (Landesvertretung Akademischer Mittelbau an den Universitäten in Baden-Württemberg) and as deputy spokesperson for the Review Board 106 "Social and Cultural Anthropology, Non-European Cultures, Jewish Studies and Religious Studies" of the German Reserach Foundation DFG (2020-2024).

Prof. Dr. Heike Oberlin studied Indology and Social and Cultural Anthropology at Tübingen University. She earned her Ph.D. with "summa cum laude" in Indology at Würzburg with a work about the Sanskrit theatre Kūṭiyāṭṭam (Naṅṅyār-Kūttu - ein Teilaspekt des Sanskrittheaterkomplexes Kūṭiyāṭṭam, Harrassowitz 2008). From 1995 to 2001 she studied and performed Kūṭiyāṭṭam and Naṅṅyār-Kūttu with P.N. Girija and Painkulam Rama Chakyar at Kerala Kalamandalam in India. Since then she is involved in studying and teaching not only Kutiyattam but also the Malayalam language. In 2015 she established in cooperation with the Thunchath Ezhuthachan Malayalam University the “Gundert Chair” for Malayalam at Tübingen. In May 2013 Heike Oberlin completed her habilitation (postdoctoral qualification) and was conferred the “venia legendi” for Indology, in December 2016 she was appointed “außerplanmäßige Professorin”. Currently she is Associate Professor as well as Managing Director of the Dept. of Indology. 

Heike Oberlin was awarded the Ernst Waldschmidt Prize in 2008, was honoured as "Scholar in Residence" by the Higher Education Council of the State Government of Kerala in 2018 as part of the "Erudite Program" (flyer of the programme; article in "attempto online") and received the Gisela-Bonn-Preis of the Indian Council of Cultural Relations in 2019 for special achievements in the field of Indo-German relations.

Research interests

• Performing arts of India
• Sanskrit theatre, specially Kūṭiyāṭṭam (see Einführungstext mit Bildern und Videobeispiel and Bibliography)
• Manuscript studies, specially South Indian palm leaf manuscripts
• Malayalam: language, script, literature (see Malayāḷam)
• Kerala studies
• Gender studies
• Digital humanities
• Folk religions of India
• Hinduism
• History of Indology

Further information

• Curriculum Vitae
• Publications
• Presentations & talks
• Lectures & courses
• Field trips
• Conferences & workshops
• Research projects
• Committee work
• Memberships
• Einführung mit Bildern und Videoausschnitt in das südindische Sanskrittheater Kūṭiyāṭṭam [Introduction to the South Indian Sanskrit theatre tradition Kutiyattam with images and a film clip, in German language]
• Malayāḷam / മലയാളം

Focus South India & Gundert Chair for Malayalam

• Focus South India - a cooperation between the Dept. of Indology and the Dept. of Social and Cultural Anthropology
• The Gundert Chair for Malayalam
• The DFG-funded project "Das Hermann-Gundert-Portal: Digitalisierung und Erschließung des Nachlasses von Hermann Gundert (manuscripts and prints) and supplementary works from his environment at the University Library of Tübingen" (2016-2018)