ERC Synergy Grant for new HMC Fellow

Thottam Krishnan Nambudiri, a Nambudiri Brahmin priest, with Dr. Gerety in Kerala, India

Dr Finn Moore Gerety, who joined Harris Manchester College as a Senior Research Fellow in September 2024, is leading a major new research initiative backed by €9.65 million in funding from the European Research Council (ERC). 

The six-year project – entitled Mantras in Religion, Media, and Society in Global Southern Asia (MANTRAMS) – seeks to develop the first comprehensive global study of mantras. The funding secured by MANTRAMS is one of the largest single awards ever made to humanities research globally – and the first-ever ERC Synergy Grant awarded to the Humanities Division at the University of Oxford. It is all the more significant given the Synergy Grant’s status as one of the world’s most competitive funding schemes. 

A forthcoming book by Dr Gerety, All This is OM: Mantra, Yoga, and the Sacred Syllable in Early India, published by Oxford University Press, is the first academic monograph on the sacred syllable ‘OM’, the foremost mantra of Asian religions and a global icon of yoga and meditation. 

Dr Gerety said: “Mantras are a fascinating lens through which to study the interplay of sound, text, and ritual across cultures and histories. With this unprecedented support from the ERC, we can bring together cutting-edge methodologies and diverse expertise to illuminate the enduring power of mantras in the past and present.” 

Harris Manchester is a natural collegiate home for Dr Gerety given that it houses the Carpenter Library, which comprises more than 4,500 historic volumes covering topics related to the world’s major religions. The legacy of Joseph Estlin Carpenter, a scholar of Sanskrit and comparative religion who served as Principal from 1906 to 1915, the collection is of particular interest to students of Ancient Egypt, Archaeology, Anthropology, Asian and Middle Eastern Studies. The Carpenter Library forms part of the College’s special collections.