Cardiff University (Wales, UK) is offering a fully funded full-time PhD on the theme of Health and Healing in Late Antiquity as part of StoryPharm: Storytelling as Pharmakon in Premodernity and Beyond: Training the New Generation of Researchers in Health Humanities.
This is a 3-year PhD position with a generous research allowance in an international, multi-partner EU project. The project forms part of the StoryPharm Consortium of universities funded by the European Union’s Horizon Network.
The project hosted by Cardiff is entitled, “Mani as a Healer and Physician: Redefining Manichaean Origins in the Third Century CE.”
The project details are provided below. For further details outlining eligibility, the award itself and how to apply, please see:
Please address inquiries to: Prof. Nicholas Baker-Brian ([email protected])
Project Topic: “Mani as a Healer and Physician: Redefining Manichaean Origins in the Third Century CE”
Recruiting Organisation: Cardiff University (CARDIFF UNI)
We are offering a 3-year PhD position with a generous research allowance in an international, multi-partner EU project.
This subproject will examine the close relationships between religion, health, prophecy and imperial authority in Late Antiquity. It will evaluate the links between these areas via a case study of the history and theology of the Manichaean community, with a specific focus on the historiographic and biographical sources for the life of Mani, the putative founder of Manichaeism. The subproject will look to contextualise Mani’s (216–c. 274 CE) persona as a healer associated with the court of Sasanian Persia under the rulership of Shapur I (d. 270 CE). It will investigate late antique Manichaeans’ concerns with health, well-being, and illness in relation to the spread of Manichaeism across West Asia and the Mediterranean, with a specific focus on Manichaean communities in the Roman Empire (esp. Egypt) and Sasanian Persia. The subproject will also evaluate the importance of Mani’s role and identity as healer in the act of securing the patronage of Late Antiquity’s imperial elites. The project aims to locate the emergence of the Manichaean religion in the religious and cultural concerns of third and fourth centuries CE where healing was linked to prophecy, religious knowledge, philosophical inquiry and sectarian competition. It will consider these issues alongside the development of legendary narratives (hagiographies) about Mani in relation to his persona as a healer, teacher and prophet.
