Nurit Stadler is a Professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her primary research focuses on the sociology and anthropology of religion, with an emphasis on religious resurgence, fundamentalism, and the complex relationships between scriptures, cosmology, and politics within diverse religious communities in urban settings. In addition, she explores the anthropology of pilgrimage, sacred places, rituals, tomb worship, and iconography in Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Orthodox Jewish, and Sunni Muslim traditions across the sacred landscapes of the Holy Land.

Stadler has also conducted extensive research on sacred spaces and the representation of iconic figures and materials in Catholic Europe. Her ethnographic studies examine devotional practices and architectural elements, including Marian veneration, the Stations of the Cross, the Eucharistic celebration, and the Assumption and Dormition rituals, as observed in Ireland, Poland, and Italy. She is the recipient of the prestigious Humboldt Research Prize and has held senior research fellowships at Leipzig University, where she participated in the Centre for Advanced Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences’ “Multiple Secularities” project, and at the Freie Universität Berlin, through the Global Faculty Program.

In addition to numerous articles, edited volumes, and collaborative projects, Stadler has authored three books:

• Yeshiva Fundamentalism: Piety, Gender, and Resistance in the Ultra-Orthodox World (New York University Press, 2008), which examines transformations in Ultra-Orthodox communities and the Yeshiva world in relation to modernity and nationalism.
• A Well-Worn Tallis for a New Ceremony (Academic Studies Press, 2012), which explores the intersections of religion and politics in Israel/Palestine.
• Voices of the Ritual (Oxford University Press, 2020), which investigates the resurgence and manifestations of rituals at female saint shrines in the Holy Land.

The politics of sacred places in the middle east  (September 2025)