#  Witzel-CV.html 

 



**Michael Witzel**

**Wales Professor of Sanskrit**

**Department of South Asian Studies** (until July 2011: Dept. of **Sanskrit and Indian Studies**), **Harvard University**

1 Bow Street, 3rd fl., Cambridge MA 02138, USA

**phones** 617 - 496 2990 (**direct line**) ; 495 3295, 496 8570, **fax** 617 - 496 8571

email: <witzel@fas.harvard.edu>

**Election to the** [**American Academy of Arts and Sciences**](http://www.amacad.org/news/new2003.htm)**,** **2003**

**Election as Honorary member, German Oriental Society (Deutsche** [**Morgenländische**](http://www.dmg-web.de/?page=0) **Gesellschaft)** **(**[**2009**](http://www.dmg-web.de/?page=17)**)**

## Education

Born: 1943 at Schwiebus, Germany (now: Swiebodzin, Poland)

University of Tübingen (Germany), 1965-1967 (P.Thieme, H.-P. Schmidt): Indology, Indo-European, Japanology

University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, (Germany), 1967-1971 (K.Hoffmann, J.Narten, B.Forssman, G.Klingenschmitt) concentration: Indology, Indo-Iranian philology and linguistics; Indo-European linguistics, Japanology

M.A. 1971, Erlangen; Ph.D. 1972, Erlangen : Dissertation: Das Katha-Aranyaka, textkritische Edition mit Uebersetzung und Kommentar. Erlangen 1972; Advisor (Promotor): K. Hoffmann

Maharsi Balmiki ([Sanskrit](http://www.university-directory.eu/Nepal/Tribhuvan-University-Kathmandu/Tribhuvan-University-Kathmandu-Colleges-and-Schools.html#.Txb6UGNWomk)) Campus, [Tribhuvan University](http://www.tribhuvan-university.edu.np/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=180&Itemid=237), Kathmandu, Nepal, 1972/1973: Mimamsa philosophy (teaching medium Sanskrit, under Nayib Gurujyu Jununath Pandit)

## Teaching positions held

1972 Assistant Professor of Indology, University of [Tübingen,](http://www.indologie.info/) Germany

1978-1980 Associate Professor of Sanskrit ("gewoon lector in het Sanskriet"),[ Instituut Kern,](http://www.kerninstitute.leidenuniv.nl/) [University of Leiden, ](http://www.arts.leidenuniv.nl/)The Netherlands

1981-1986 Professor of Sanskrit language and literature ("hoogleraar in het Sanskriet en zijn letterkunde") [University of Leiden,](http://hum.leiden.edu/lias/organisation/south-asian-tibetan/)The Netherlands

1986-1987 Visiting Professor of [Sanskrit,](http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~sanskrit/) Harvard University

1987- Harvard University, Wales Professor of Sanskrit, Faculty of [Arts and Sciences](http://www.fas.harvard.edu/home/), Harvard University

**1997 Invitation to become Prof. of Indology and head of the** [**Department for Indology**](http://www.fak12.uni-muenchen.de/ind/) **and Iranian Studies, Munich University, Germany; declined, as to remain at Harvard.** ([http://www.indologie.info/ )](http://www.indologie.info/)


## Other Employment/Visiting Positions

1972-1977 Director of the "[Nepal-German Manuscript Preservation Project](http://www.uni-hamburg.de/Wiss/FB/10/IndienS/NGMPP/index.html)", a joint venture of the Department of Archeology, ([*Ministry of Education*](http://www.nepalhomepage.com/yellowpages/yellowpages.php?yid=64153), His Majesty's Government of Nepal) and the German Oriental Society ([Deutsche Morgenlaendische Gesellschaft](http://www.dmg-web.de/)) and the German Research Association (*Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft,* Bonn), at Kathmandu   
continued by[ NGMCP,](http://www.uni-hamburg.de/fachbereiche-einrichtungen/indologie/ngmcp/ngmpp_top_e.html) [online catalogue](http://134.100.72.204:3000/account/login)

1974-1977 Director of the [Nepal Research Centre](http://www.uni-hamburg.de/Wiss/FB/10/IndienS/NRC/index.html) of the German Oriental Society, Kathmandu

May 1989 [Collège de France](http://www.college-de-france.fr/default/EN/all/college/index.htm), Paris

Sept. 1989 - Aug.1990 Research Fellow, [Institute for Research in Humanities](http://www.zinbun.kyoto-u.ac.jp/e-index.html), Kyoto University

January 2001 [Collège de France](http://www.college-de-france.fr/default/EN/all/college/index.htm), Paris

Sept. 2004 - Aug. 2005: Visiting Professor, Institute for the Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa ([ILCAA)](http://www.aa.tufs.ac.jp/index_e.html), Tokyo University of Foreign Studies (TUFS), Tokyo,   
[SARVA](http://www.aa.tufs.ac.jp/index_e.html) Project

Fall/Winter 2008-9 Visiting Professor, Institute for the Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa ([ILCAA)](http://www.aa.tufs.ac.jp/index_e.html), Tokyo University of Foreign Studies (TUFS), Tokyo.

Summer 2009 Visiting Researcher, National Research Institute for Humanities and Nature ([RIHN](http://www.chikyu.ac.jp/index_e.html)), Kyoto.

## Professional services

1979-1981 Chairman, Department of South &amp; Central Asian and Old- and Middle Iranian, University of Leiden

1982-1986 Chairman, Dutch Indological Association

1987-95 Chair,[ Department of Sanskrit](http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~sanskrit/) and Indian Studies, Harvard University

1992-1996 Founding Chair, Committee on South Asian Studies, Harvard University

1999- President, Association for the Study of [Language in Prehistory](http://www.aslip.org/), Boston

2006- President, International Association for [Comparative Mythology](http://www.compmyth.org/), Boston

**Editorial work**

1975- Founding editor (with four colleagues) of: **Studien zur Indologie und Iranistik** ([Journal,](http://indologica.de/drupal/?q=node/1762) and monograph series) @ [Amazon](http://www.amazon.com/Studien-Indologie-Iranistik-Albrecht-Klingenschmitt/dp/B004AXENME/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1326903336&sr=1-1)

1979-1983, Joint Editor; 1983- Editor-in-chief (with J. W. de Jong,; -- since 1990, H.W. Bodewitz, O. von Hinüber, H. Bakke, J.Silk), [**Indo-Iranian Journal**](http://springerlink.metapress.com/content/1572-8536/)

1985- Editor (together with J.C. Heesterman): **Memoirs of the Kern Institute**, Leiden (No.3 sqq.)

1990- Editor,[ **Harvard Oriental Series**](http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~witzel/hos.htm)

1990 Ed. of: **W. Caland, Kleine Schriften** (= [Glasenapp-Stiftung,](http://www2.indologie.uni-halle.de/Register/pdf/Abkuerzungsverzeichnis.pdf) Bd. 27, Wiesbaden 1990. [Link](http://www.harrassowitz-verlag.de/pcgi/a.cgi?ausgabe=index&T=1326903158346%7Bhaupt_harrassowitz=http://www.harrassowitz-verlag.de/category_249.ahtml?T=1326903158346%7D) (also for orders).

1995- Founder and Editor-in-Chief of: **Electronic Jounal for Vedic Studies** ([EJVS](http://ejvs.laurasianacademy.com/)), relocated to: <http://ejvs.laurasianacademy.com/>

1995- **Indian Philology and South Asian Studies**, ed. Albrecht Wezler and Michael Witzel. Berlin/New York (de Gruyter). (Vol. 1: Language, Material Culture and Ethnicity. The Indo-Aryans of Ancient South Asia, ed. G. Erdosy)

1995- Managing Editor, **International Journal of Tantric Studies** ([IJTS](http://www.asiatica.org/)) <http://www.asiatica.org/ijts>

1997 Ed. of: **F.B.J.Kuiper, Selected Writings on Indian Philology and Linguistics,** New Delhi, 1997, pp. 556

1997 Ed. of: **Inside the Texts - Beyond the Texts. Proceedings of the First International Vedic Workshop**, June 1989, Harvard University, Cambridge ([HOS-Opera Minora](http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~witzel/hos.htm))

2011 Ed. (with T. Osada) of: **Cultural Relations between the Indus and the Iranian Plateau during the Third Millennium BCE**  
**Indus Project**, Research Institute for Humanities and Nature June 7-8, 2008. HARVARD ORIENTAL SERIES, [OPERA MINORA](http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~witzel/hos.htm) vol .7, Cambridge 2011

  
For [**PUBLICATIONS**](http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~witzel/mwbib.htm)**.** see: <http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~witzel/mwbib.pdf>