About MANTRAMS

MANTRAMS, "Mantras in Religion, Media, and Society in Global Southern Asia", brings the first-ever Synergy Grant to the Humanities Division at Oxford, as well as one of the largest single awards given to humanities research globally. The six-year project will be jointly hosted by the University of Oxford, the University of Vienna, and the University of Tübingen, with additional hosting by the École Pratique des Hautes Études, Paris. This funding will support postdoctoral positions, doctoral students, conferences, and an array of high-impact deliverables, including digital archives, a podcast series, and museum exhibition.

Three Task Forces

MANTRAMS is structured in three Task Forces (TFs) and eight Research Components (RCs) that integrate the main themes. One PI will act as coordinator and leader of each Task Force. Although all the TFs involve mixed methodology and an interdisciplinary team, TF1 (Oxford) is predominantly historical-philological, TF2 (Tübingen) is primarily anthropological, and TF3 (Vienna) relies more heavily upon material and visual culture analysis. In addition to the three PIs, Lead research collaborator Acri and Senior advisor and researcher Bühnemann are in charge of specific Research Components in their domains of expertise.

Each research component is designed to address specific aspects of the study of mantras, from their historical roots and cultural diffusion to their material and digital representations. The combined efforts of these task forces aim to provide a comprehensive understanding of the complex role of mantras across various contexts and media.

Team composition

The project's task forces are divided across three teams and locations.

Principal Investigators

Finnian Moore Gerety, University of Oxford
Carola Lorea, University of Tübingen
Borayin Larios, University of Vienna

1 Senior Researcher: Andrea Acri, École Pratique des Hautes Études, Paris
1 Lead Researcher: Gudrun Bühnemann, University of Wisconsin, Madison

Funder acknowledgement

This project is funded by the European Union, supported by a Horizon Synergy Grant from the European Research Council (ERC, MANTRAMS, project number 101118934). Views and opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Council Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.