Dr. Stephanie Jamison

Biography

Stephanie W. Jamison is a trained historical Indo-European linguist with a PhD from Yale University obtained in 1977. Her research has focused on Indo-Iranian languages, particularly Vedic Sanskrit and Middle Indo-Aryan languages, along with their textual materials. Her academic interests encompass not only language linguistics but also literature, poetics, religion, law, mythology, and gender studies as they relate to languages. Her teaching at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) covers a wide array of subjects, including Sanskrit, Middle Indo-Aryan languages, Old Iranian language literature, and Indo-European and Indo-Iranian linguistics. She also conducts undergraduate courses on Classical Indian civilization. Currently, she is involved in a significant collaborative project with Joel P. Brereton from the University of Texas at Austin, aimed at producing a new English translation of the oldest Sanskrit text, the Rig Veda. Jamison's notable publications include 'The Rig Veda Worlds: Four Lectures' (Collège de France, 2004), 'Sacrificed Wife / Sacrificer’s Wife: Women, Ritual, Hospitality in Ancient India' (Oxford University Press, 1996), and 'Ravenous Hyenas Wounded Sun: Myth and Ritual in Ancient India' (Cornell University Press, 1991).

Research Interests