19.11.2025

Call for Papers - Sonic Efficacy: Mantras, Music and Placemaking in Global Southern Asia (National University Singapore, 03-04 Sept 2026)

DEADLINE: 1 MARCH 2026

This workshop is funded by the ERC Synergy Project MANTRAMS – Mantras in Religion, Media and Society in Global Southern Asia (ID 101118934).

This workshop aims to explore the understudied intersections between sonic efficacy and sound practices, with particular attention to the role of mantras in processes of sonic soteriology and place-making in Southern Asia. Key themes include:

  • Music and music instruments. How do mantric practices share a sonic ideology that is common to genres of sacred sound (e.g., zikr, kirtan, bhajan, nam japa, paritta) ?
  • Health and healing. What is the therapeutic and medical efficacy of mantras? Why are mantra practitioners often situated in the fuzzy borderland between religion and traditional medicine?
  • Place-making. What is that efficacious sounds do to the place where they are played, repeated, or amplified? How do mantras contribute to inter-religious tensions and controversies surrounding competing soundscapes in diverse societies?

We welcome audio papers and other multimodal and multisensory formats of academic knowledge production that unsettle the hegemony of the written word.

For more information and to submit your contribution, click here!

To spread this CfP, feel free to use this Hyperlink: mantrams.eu/news/#ari_workshop.

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09.07.2025

Four Postdoc Positions (m/f/d, E13 TV-L, 100%) at the University of Tübingen

Faculty of Humanities, Institute for the Study of Religions

The University of Tübingen invites applications for four Postdoctoral Researcher positions (m/w/d, E13 TV-L, 100%) within the ERC-funded Synergy Project MANTRAMS, Mantras in Religion, Media, and Society in Global Southern Asia, specifically focusing on the multifaceted roles of mantras across cultures.

Position: Postdoctoral Researcher
Faculty: Faculty of Humanities
Deadline for Application: September 1, 2025
Job Vacancy Starting: December 1, 2025
Contract Duration: 24 months
Employment Type: 100% (TV-L E-13)

For more information, click here!