In October 2022, Dr. Mudagamuwe Maithrimurthi retired from his position as Sanskrit Lecturer at the department of Cultural and Religious History of South Asia – a position he held since 2006. Before joining the department, Dr. Mudagamuwe Maithrimurthi held positions as Visiting Numata Professor at the Department for Culture and History of India and Tibet (University of Hamburg), as lecturer at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor), as Academic Assistant and Lecturer at Leipzig University, and as Sessional Lecturer at the Universities of Kiel and Leipzig, among other appointments.

Ute Hüsken, head of the department, says: “With Maithri, we lose our most popular colleague and our most successful teacher. We are very lucky that he agreed to continue with us as Sessional Lecturer for Sinhala and Pali, and is also involved as an advisor in a research project on Women in contemporary Buddhist traditions in Sri Lanka.”

The SAI welcomes Manvi Gautam as the new representative of the SAI and HCTS at the New Delhi branch office in India. She holds an M.A. in Transcultural Studies from the University of Heidelberg and a B.A. in English Literature from Delhi University. She has formerly worked with the Nepal Heritage Documentation Project and the Chair of Visual and Media Anthropology at the HCTS. She has also worked with media houses like India Today and Star TV, and with the funding organisation Women’s Fund Asia. In her new role, she hopes to revitalise engagement with India and South Asia, and to find new opportunities for exchange for researchers as well as students.