Dr. Aftab Jassal

Biography

Aftab Jassal is an anthropologist specializing in the study of religion with extensive research experience focusing on the Himalayas, particularly the Uttarakhand region of North India, which borders Tibet and Nepal. His work examines various modes and registers of interaction between person, place, and divinity within South Asia. By employing approaches from anthropological performance studies, Jassal is interested in how Hindu communities construct and engage with multiple social, ontological, and aesthetic realities through narrative and ritual performance. His major research interests include anthropology of religion, ritual performance studies, human-nonhuman relations, illness and healing, environmental anthropology, theories of space and place, narrative storytelling, ethnography, as well as the examinations of caste, Hinduism, Islam, and Buddhism in the context of South Asia.

Research Interests

Experience