Department of Religions and Philosophies
& Shapoorji Pallonji Institute of Zoroastrian Studies
Dr Mariano Errichiello
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Key information
Key information
- Roles
- Department of Religions and Philosophies Shapoorji Pallonji Lecturer in Zoroastrianism Shapoorji Pallonji Institute of Zoroastrian Studies Co-Chair and Executive Director
- Department
- Department of Religions and Philosophies & Shapoorji Pallonji Institute of Zoroastrian Studies
- Qualifications
- BA (Napoli); MA (SOAS); PhD (SOAS); Fellow HEA
- Subject
- Religion and Philosophies
- Office
- 331
- Email address
- me25@soas.ac.uk
- Telephone number
- +44 (0)20 7898 4270
- Support hours
- By appointment
Biography
I am a scholar of Zoroastrianism with an interest in history, rituals, texts and communities of the modern period.
Prior to start the academic career, I held several leadership roles at PwC in Latin America and the UK. In 2015, I enrolled on a part-time Master’s degree at SOAS, specialising in Zoroastrianism. Having decided on a career shift, in 2018, I started a PhD to research Zoroastrian hermeneutics in modern India, with a focus on esotericism. In 2021, the Centre for Comparative Studies of Civilisations and Spiritualities at Fondazione Giorgio Cini appointed me as a Resident Fellow. In 2022, I was invited as a Research Fellow of the Nordic Institute of Asian Studies at the University of Copenhagen. In the academic year 2022/23, I was a Visiting Fellow of the Centre for Advanced Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences of the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg.
I presented the findings of my research in several international academic conferences and engaged in a number of outreach activities in Asia, Europe and the US, earning two honourable mentions by the Ancient India & Iran Trust of Cambridge, and the Early Career Prize 2023 by the Association for the Study of Persianate Societies and the Journal of Persianate Studies.
Research interests
Interdisciplinarity has characterised my academic trajectory. My work draws upon theories and methods of anthropology, sociology, history and the study of language. The primary aim of my research is to bring textuality into dialogue with religion as lived by people, acknowledging multiple ontologies and adopting innovative approaches.
My doctoral research focused on modern Zoroastrian esotericism. I also did research on Zoroastrian funerary practices and ritual performance among Parsis in India. Future research plans include the study of spatial and temporal ritual boundaries, aesthetics and distributed agency in the Zoroastrian liturgy, the relational role of Zoroastrian priests, Parsi Gujarati hermeneutical literature, and Afro-Persianate identites.
