Postdoc – ERC MANTRAMS – Deadline : 31 October 2025

Offer of a postdoctoral fellowship of 12 months (renewable for another 12 months, for a total of 24 months) in Indology in the context of the project MANTRAMS, “Mantras in Religion, Media and Society in Global Southern Asia” (ERC Synergy Grant no. 101118934).

MANTRAMS is a six-year research project dedicated to the producing an unprecedented global history and anthropology of mantras, leveraging the expertise of leading scholars on Southern Asia, where mantras have been used for over 3,000 years. It will examine how mantras have been transmitted through spaces, media, and religious communities, including diasporic networks, new religious movements, yoga, and the internet. Using an interdisciplinary approach that includes Indology, anthropology, sound studies, media studies, art history, and the history of religions, the project will create comprehensive sonic, visual, and digital textual archives. These archives will document the transcultural and multisensory dimensions of mantras, culminating in a wide range of academic deliverables.

The project is led by Principal Investigators Carola E. Lorea (University of Tübingen), Borayin Larios (University of Vienna), and Finnian M. Gerety (University of Oxford), with the participation of Andrea Acri as Lead Researcher hosted by the École Pratique des Hautes Études (EPHE, PSL University), the project’s Partner Organization, and the Groupe de Recherches en Études Indiennes (GREI, EA2120) in Paris. The successful candidate shall be attached to GREI and work under the supervision of Andrea Acri, Associate Professor in Tantric Studies at the EPHE.

Remuneration follows the current remuneration scheme for postdoctoral positions established at the École Pratique des Hautes Études, including contribution for public transport costs and other benefits. Possibility to receive funding for fieldtrips and conference participation.

The candidate will be required to carry out the following tasks:

• Study of a corpus of mantras in early Śaiva (and Yoga) sources.
• Publication (edition and English translation) of a relevant primary source in Sanskrit.
• Collaboration with Andrea Acri on relevant deliverables for TF1, Roots and Branches: Emergence and Circulation of Mantras.
• Drafting of a chapter to be included in an edited volume on mantras.
• Proofreading of Devanāgarī transcriptions of relevant manuscripts on Śaiva mantras in the collection of the IFP (Pondicherry, India) that will be automatically produced via OCR.
• Presentations in panels, conferences, and workshops organised by the project and by third parties.
• Participation in team meetings (in person or via online communication platforms) on the progress of the work.