Centre of Yoga Studies,
Department of Religions and Philosophies
& Department of Politics and International Studies
Dr Monika Hirmer
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Key information
Key information
- Department
- Centre of Yoga Studies, Department of Religions and Philosophies & Department of Politics and International Studies
- Qualifications
- BA (University of Florence), MA (SOAS), MPhil (University of Hyderabad), PhD (SOAS)
- Building
- Russell Square: College Buildings
- Office
- 337
- Email address
- mh121@soas.ac.uk
- Thesis title
- Cosmic households and primordial creativity: Worlding the world with (and as) Devī in a contemporary Indian Śrīvidyā tradition
- Internal Supervisors
- Dr Sian Hawthorne
Biography
Monika Hirmer is a certified Teaching Fellow (FHEA) who has been teaching at SOAS, University of London, in the departments of Religions and Philosophies and Politics and International Studies.
Dr Hirmer’s area of research spans Goddess traditions, tantric traditions, rituals, ontology and concepts of personhood, the ontological turn in anthropology and decolonial studies, with a focus on South Asia.
She obtained her PhD in Religions and Philosophies from SOAS, preceded by an MPhil in Anthropology of Religion from the University of Hyderabad, India, and an MA in South Asian Area Studies from SOAS. She also holds a BA in Political Sciences from the University of Florence, Italy.
Her doctoral thesis is the study of a contemporary tantric Goddess tradition in India: bridging anthropology and philosophy, Dr Hirmer explores the existential coordinates of Śrīvidyā practitioners—such as body, gender, motherhood, humanness and divinity—through a decolonial lens.
In 2020 Dr Hirmer has co-founded (together with Dr Romina Istratii) the open access, multilingual and peer reviewed publishing platform Decolonial Subversions, of which she is Editor-in-Chief.
Research interests
- Hindu religious traditions
- Goddess traditions
- Gender
- Rituals
- Concepts of personhood
- India
