Kristina Myrvold

Kristina Myrvold earned her Ph.D. in History of Religions from Lund University and is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Linnaeus University with a focus on Indian religions and cultures. Her area of specialization is Sikh and Punjab Studies, focusing on Sikh beliefs, ritual practices and historiography, as well as Indian migration, integration processes and identity formation in the diaspora. She has conducted extensive fieldwork in India and Sweden, and published numerous journal articles and book chapters on the Sikhs and Punjab. Myrvold is the editor of several anthologies about religious scriptures, Sikh migration and youth, and Indian cultural encounters.

Her current research focuses on intersections of religion and technology in Punjab, print history of religious Sikh texts, and the production and use of miniature books in Sikh and Islamic traditions. Since 2015 she has worked on a project entitled “Religion in the Trenches” which investigates the production, distribution, and use of religious scriptures and artefacts among Indian soldiers from Punjab who fought for the British Army during World War I. The project is based on archival research and is funded by the Swedish Research Council (2015-2019). Myrvold is one of the editors of Brill's Encyclopedia of Sikhism.

As an affiliated researcher at SASNET, Myrvold plans to organize academic events and encourage research that can contribute with new insights into the religious aspects of colonial history, especially in Punjab, and into early encounters in Nordic countries with India and South Asian religions.