Sabine Hyland

Sabine Hyland is a Professor of World Religions at the School of Divinity, University of St Andrews, where she serves as Deputy Head of School. Her research focuses on Andean khipus, South American religion, and Indigenous writing systems, with particular attention to Peru and Bolivia. She leads the Centre for the Critical Reimagining of Human Rights and collaborates with the Centre for Amerindian, Latin American and Caribbean Studies.

• PhD in Anthropology, Yale University
• MPhil in Anthropology, Yale University
• AB in Anthropology, Cornell University (magna cum laude)

Hyland’s work bridges anthropology, archaeology, and cultural heritage preservation, examining how Andean khipus functioned as record-keeping systems and their relevance to modern decolonization efforts. Her recent publications analyze knot typologies, isotopic analysis of khipus, and Indigenous responses to pandemics.

She has secured major grants including a British Academy Fellowship and Leverhulme Trust funding for khipu decipherment projects. Hyland’s 15+ peer-reviewed articles and 5 datasets highlight her contributions to Andean epistemology, colonial religious texts, and non-Western information systems. She actively supervises postgraduate research students and organizes academic conferences like ASA14: Anthropology and Enlightenment.