Prof. Dr. Harunaga Isaacson

I was born in Kuma, Japan, in 1965. I studied Philosophy and Indology at the University of Groningen (MA 1990), worked there as a research assistant from 1991 to 1995, and was awarded a PhD in Sanskrit by the University of Leiden in 1995. From 1995 to 2000 I was a post-doctoral research fellow at the Oriental Institute, Oxford University. After holding positions at Hamburg University (2000-2002) and the University of Pennsylvania (2002- 2006), I was appointed Professor of Classical Indology in the Department of Indian and Tibe tan Studies, Asien-Afrika-Institut, Hamburg University, in 2006. I have also held visiting fellowships at Wolfson College and All Souls College, both Oxford, and the International Institute for Buddhist Studies, Tokyo, and received a sabbatical fellowship of the American Philosophical Society. My main research areas are: tantric traditions in pre-13th century South Asia, especially Vajrayāna Buddhism; classical Sanskrit poetry; classical Indian philosophy; Purāṇic literature; and manuscript studies: I currently direct the Nepalese-German Manuscript Cataloguing Project and am board member of the Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures.

www.aai.uni-hamburg.de/indtib/personen/isaacson.html