Dr. Natalie Lang

Dr Natalie Lang is an anthropologist with research interests in religion, migration, diaspora, and cities. Her doctoral thesis was awarded the Frobenius Research Award. She is the author of Religion and Pride: Hindus in Search of Recognition in La Réunion (Berghahn Books, 2021).

She also co-edits the research blog CoronAsur: Religion and Covid-19, and she has co-edited CoronAsur: Asian Religions in the Covidian Age (Open Access, University of Hawai’i Press, 2023).

Natalie was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Religion and Globalisation Cluster and the Asian Urbanisms Cluster at the Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore, and an Associated Junior Fellow at the Max Weber Centre for Advanced Cultural and Social Studies, University of Erfurt. She is also affiliated to the Centre d’études et de recherches sur l’Inde, l’Asie du Sud et sa diaspora at the Université du Québec à Montréal.

Natalie holds a PhD in Anthropology/Social Sciences from the University of Göttingen, an MA in Migration and Diaspora Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, and a BA in South Asian Studies from the University of Heidelberg.

Academia: https://uni-goettingen.academia.edu/NatalieLang

Publications

Book
Lang, Natalie. 2021. Religion and Pride: Hindus in Search of Recognition in La Réunion. New York: Berghahn Books.

Journal Articles
Lang, Natalie. 2024. "Urban Religion and Gendered Bodies.” City, Culture and Society. 39:100609".

Lang, Natalie. 2024. "Diaspora et corporéité: rituels et identifications hindous à La Réunion." Revue Interdisciplinaire sur l’Asie du Sud 2(1-2): 53-75

Lang, Natalie. 2022. "For a 'beautiful' religion without 'buzz': Hinduism, Facebook, gender, and status in La Reunion", Journal of Contemporary Religion, 37(1): 51-70.

Lang, Natalie. 2022. "Religious Creolization and Differentiation: 'Double Religiosity', Generation, and Recognition of Hindus in La Réunion", Archives de Sciences Sociales des Religions, 197: 35-58.

Lang, Natalie. 2020. "Learning death rituals from scratch: the search for meaning and recognition of Hindus on Réunion", Paideuma, 66:151-69.

Special Issues
Lang, Natalie. 2024. "Urban Religion and Gendered Bodies.” City, Culture and Society.

Lorea, Carola E., Neena Mahadev, Natalie Lang & Ningning Chen. 2022. "Religion and the COVID-19 pandemic: mediating presence and distance", Religion, 52(2): 177-198.

Edited Book
Hertzman, Emily Zoe, Natalie Lang, Carola E. Lorea, and Erica M. Larson. 2023. CoronAsur: Asian Religions in the Covidian Age. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press.

Book Chapter
Lang, Natalie. 2023. “Saint Corona, CoronAsur, and Corona Devi: Embodied Relationships between Religion and Disease.” In Hertzman, Emily Zoe, Natalie Lang, Carola E. Lorea, and Erica M. Larson. CoronAsur: Asian Religions in the Covidian Age. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press.

Encyclopedia Article
Lang, Natalie. 2023 "Réunion". In Jacobsen, Knut A. et al. Brill’s Encyclopedia of Hinduism. Vol VII: 441-445. Leiden and Boston: Brill.

Academic Blogs
Lang, Natalie. 2021. "Aspirational Pride: Tamil Hindus in Search of Recognition in La Réunion", ARIscope, National University of Singapore.

Lang, Natalie. 2020. "Religion and Covid-19 under observation: the Asia-focused research blog CoronAsur", Religious Matters in an Entangled World, Utrecht University.

Lang, Natalie. 2020. "Itching to See the Goddess: Anthropological Questions on Religious Practice during a Pandemic", CoronAsur: Religion and COVID-19, National University of Singapore.

Book Reviews
Lang, Natalie. 2023 "Suspect Others: Spirit Mediums, Self-Knowledge, and Race in Multiethnic Suriname”, Zeitschrift für Ethnologie / Journal of Social and Cultural Anthropology 148(2): 351-353.

Lang, Natalie. 2022. "Religion and senses of place", South Asian Diaspora.