Ursula Rao is Lecturer in Anthropology in the University of Halle, and is now involved in writing about the problem of fieldwork in dispersed and postmodern settings. She has also worked extensively in the field of Religious Anthropology and written Negotiating the Divine: Temple Religion and Temple Politics in Contemporary Urban India (2003, Manohar), Kommunalismus in Indien. Eine Darstellung der wissenschaftlichen Diskussion über Hindu-Muslim-Konflikte (2003) and co-editor of Im Rausch des Rituals: Gestaltung und Transformation der Wirklichkeit in körperlicher Performanz (2000), She has further edited a volume on the relevance of performance for cultural change: Kulturelle VerWandlungen. Die Gestaltung sozialer Welten in der Performanz (2005)