- Centre de recherche sur les civilisations de l’Asie orientale (CRCAO)
Founded in 2006, the East Asian Civilisations Research Centre (CRCAO) is a Joint Research Unit of the CNRS, under the Supervisory authority of the École pratique des hautes études (EPHE), the Collège de France and Paris Diderot University. Formerly named “Research Centre on Chinese, Japanese and Tibetan Civilisations”, the Research Unit changed its title to “East Asia Civilisations Research Centre” (CRCAO) in order to emphasise its integration of all of Asia within its scope, and to develop a transnational set of issues. CRCAO’s research activities cover all the countries of East Asia, and are structured into three teams according to region:
- Chinese Civilisation Research Team
- Japanese Civilisation Research Team
- Tibet, Bhutan and Tibetan Culture Area Team (TBACT)
The Centre is hosted by the Collège de France, which supports its research activities and hosts many of its events.
Contact : courriel
- Groupe Sociétés, Religions, Laïcités (GSRL)
The GSRL (originally Groupe de Sociologie des religions et de la Laïcité, the current name dating from 2006) was created on January 1, 1995 by Jean Baubérot, with some of the members of the GSR (Groupe de Sociologie des Religions) of the CNRS and the young HSL (Histoire et Sociologie de la Laïcité) team of the EPHE. Since then its membership has grown steadily in number, and in the diversity of its objects of study and geographical areas. It has been successively directed by Jean Baubérot (1995-2001), Jean-Paul Willaime (2002-2008) and Philippe Portier (since 2008).
Today, researchers in the Social Sciences of Religion are confronted by a strong public demand for information and analysis on current religious changes, the characteristics and evolution of this or that religious world, questions and polemics relating to the expression of religious identities in social life, or secularity and the challenges it faces. Whether through participation in scientific events or through involvement in national and international debates, the members of the GSRL always seek to situate their scientific contribution in debates in which the actors themselves are demanding objective analyses of the situations and the diverse interpretations they give rise to.
Contact : courriel
- Centre de recherche sur le monde iranien : Langues, cultures et sociétés de l’Antiquité à nos jours (CeRMI)
UMR 8041 is a Multidisciplinary Joint Research Unit focused on the study of languages, texts, history, cultures and societies of the Iranian world from the 6th century B.C. to the present day.
The research carried out by members of the UMR focuses on the various fields of human and social sciences and concerns a geographical territory ranging from the Near East to Central Asia, wherever Iranian cultures have been present during different historical periods.
The EPHE is a public institution for higher education.
- Groupe de Recherches en Etudes Indiennes (GREI)
The team is supported by the EPHE in collaboration with Paris 3 Sorbonne-Nouvelle.
The GREI‘s work focuses on the languages, literatures, religions and intellectual cultures of ancient and medieval India understood in the broadest sense: Indo-Iranian (and, beyond that, Indo-European) protohistory, Vedic and classical Brahmanism, areas of influence of Indian civilization, notably via Buddhism (Gandhāra, Central Asia, Southeast Asia, Sri Lanka, etc.). The languages and literatures studied include, in addition to Sanskrit, pāli and Middle Indian languages, Tibetan, Tokharien, Javanese, Persian, etc. The research conducted by the members of the GREI covers all the religious components of ancient India: Brahmanism and Hinduism, especially in its various expressions śivaïtes, Buddhism and Jainism. Philosophy plays an important role at the different points of contact between these religions, as well as traditional grammar and aesthetics.
The work of the GREI is characterized first and foremost by its historical-philological approach, with strong paleography and “manuscriptology” components. It also includes the study of the visual, plastic and musical expressions of ancient and medieval India, historiography and, where necessary, comparative studies.
GREI hosts the ERC HisTochText project (History of the Tocharian Texts of the Pelliot Collection; PI Georges-Jean Pinault; see https://www.ephe.fr/actualites/etude-pluridisciplinaire-des-manuscrits-tokhariens-histochtext). It is distinguished by an important network of international collaborations in India, Japan, China, the United States and Europe.
- EPHE Institutional Partners in Asia
EPHE maintains a network of privileged partnerships with prestigious institutions around the world. These agreements aim to facilitate the mobility of students and researchers and to promote joint projects. The list attached here classifies the hundred or so partnerships by geographical region, then by country and finally by city.