THE IMAGINAL COSMOS

Community Arts and Education short course

Tutors: Angela Voss and Geoffrey Cornelius

Date: Thursday 2 February

(8 sessions, 10.30am – 1pm)

Nearly everyone has a ‘sixth sense’ that finds meaning in life events apart from rational explanations, and yet this intuitive experience has no place in our institutions of learning or science. This has not always been the case, and in this 10 week course you will investigate the history and practices of this sixth sense.

Our exploration ranges from psychic communication and spiritualism to symbolic interpretation in popular forms of divination such as astrology, I Ching and Tarot. What is the role of imagination, and in what way is this knowledge ‘real’? Does it suggest an intelligent Cosmos?

Starting with the Western tradition coming down to us through Plato, we follow the Renaissance rebirth of ancient wisdom through to contemporary New Age spirituality. Adopting the metaphor of the two brain hemispheres and their different orientations towards reality, we look at the bridge between rational and non-rational knowledge, allowing intuitive and creative insights to inform our experience.

Cost: £85 (excluding lunch)

This event is open to the public.

Venue: Canterbury Christ Church University Campus,

Time: 10:30

Contact: April Doyle (email)

Telephone: 01227 86345

A medieval deer park was an enclosed area containing deer.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval_deer_park

Hortulus: The Online Graduate Journal of Medieval Studies Special Call For Papers for Issue on Medieval Space and Place

SUBMISSION DEADLINE FOR VOLUME 7, Issue 1: 1 March 2012

Hortulus: The Online Graduate Journal of Medieval Studies is a refereed journal devoted to the literature, history, and culture of the medieval world. Published electronically twice a year, its mission is to present a forum in which graduate students from around the globe may share their ideas. Article submissions on the selected theme are welcome in any discipline and period of Medieval Studies. We are also interested in book reviews on recent works of interest to a broad audience of Medieval Studies scholars. Recently, place and space theories have manifested themselves in Medieval Studies in a number of ways, from analysis of specific spaces and places, such as gardens, forests, cities, and the court, to spatially theorized topics such as travel narratives, nationalism, and the open- or closedness of specific medieval cultural areas. Over an array of subjects, the spatial turn challenges scholars to re-think how humans create the world around them, through both physical and mental processes. Articles should explore the meaning of space/place in the past by situating it in its precise historical context.

 Possible article topics include, but are not limited to:

Medieval representations of spatial order

The sense of place in the construction of social identities

Mapping and spatial imagination

Topographies of meaningful places

Beyond the binary of center/periphery

Spatial policies of separation: ethnicity, religion, or gender

Travel and the sense of place

Creating landscape

The idea of place in medieval religious culture

Pilgrimage

Workplaces

Intimate space, public place

Liminality and proximity as social categories

The 2011 issue of Hortulus: The Online Graduate Journal of Medieval Studies will be published in May of 2012.

All graduate students are welcome to submit their articles and book reviews, or to send their queries, via email to:

submit@hortulus.net by March 1, 2012.

For further information please visit our website at www.hortulus.net

Hortulus: The Online Graduate Journal of Medieval Studies, www.hortulus.net

Esotericism and the Academy

Rejected Knowledge in Western Culture

Wouter J. Hanegraaff, University of Amsterdam

Hardback

ISBN:9780521196215

Cambridge University Press

Publication date:January 2012

478pages

4 tables

Dimensions: 228 x 152 mm

Weight: 0.88kg

Academics tend to look on ‘esoteric’, ‘occult’ or ‘magical’ beliefs with contempt, but are usually ignorant about the religious and philosophical traditions to which these terms refer, or their relevance to intellectual history. Wouter Hanegraaff tells the neglected story of how intellectuals since the Renaissance have tried to come to terms with a cluster of ‘pagan’ ideas from late antiquity that challenged the foundations of biblical religion and Greek rationality. Expelled from the academy on the basis of Protestant and Enlightenment polemics, these traditions have come to be perceived as the Other by which academics define their identity to the present day. Hanegraaff grounds his discussion in a meticulous study of primary and secondary sources, taking the reader on an exciting intellectual voyage from the fifteenth century to the present day and asking what implications the forgotten history of exclusion has for established textbook narratives of religion, philosophy and science.

Table of Contents

Introduction: hic sunt dracones

1. The history of truth: recovering ancient wisdom

2. The history of error: exorcizing Paganism

3. The error of history: imagining the Occult

4. The truth of history: entering the Academy

Conclusions: restoring memory.

Features

• The argument is presented as a historical narrative, taking the reader on an intellectual voyage from the early Renaissance to the present day

• Discusses currents of thought which have played an important role in intellectual history, but have never before been sufficiently identified

• Demonstrates patterns of intellectual prejudice that have distorted views of the history of religion, philosophy and science

see:

http://www.cambridge.org/se/knowledge/isbn/item6577534/?site_locale=sv_SE

Wouter Jacobus Hanegraaff (born 1961) is full professor of History of Hermetic Philosophy and related currents at the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. He is also President of the European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism (ESSWE).  

(Above info thanks to Wikipedia Hanegraaff page)

Filed under: BOOKS, Wouter J. Hanegraaff: Esotericism and the Academy Rejected Knowledge in Western Culture Tagged: esoteric, Esotericism and the Academy Rejected Knowledge in Western Culture, intellectual history, magical beliefs, occult, Philosophy, Religion, science, Wouter J. Hanegraaff ]]> http://ccwe.wordpress.com/2012/01/23/wouter-j-hanegraaff-esotericism-and-the-academy-rejected-knowledge-in-western-culture/feed/ 0 ccwe Esotericism WJH dak http://ccwe.wordpress.com/2012/01/23/nature-the-popular-imagination-international-society-for-the-study-of-religion-nature-and-culture/ http://ccwe.wordpress.com/2012/01/23/nature-the-popular-imagination-international-society-for-the-study-of-religion-nature-and-culture/#comments Mon, 23 Jan 2012 10:38:30 +0000 SOPHIA WELLBELOVED http://ccwe.wordpress.com/?p=2350 ]]>

 Pepperdine University, Malibu, California

Nature & the Popular Imagination’

The Fifth International Conference of the

International Society for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture

8-11 August 2012, Pepperdine University, Malibu, California (USA)

pleased to announce its next conference in Malibu, California at Pepperdine University in August 2012. The conference theme will be “Nature and the Popular Imagination.”

Malibu is located on the Pacific Ocean, just minutes from Hollywood, that archetypal place of imagination and dreams, the backyard and playground for practitioners of the cinematic arts. For generations, the interconnections between religion and nature have been expressed, promoted, and contested through the incubator of popular culture, and sometimes even in films produced in Malibu itself or the Santa Monica Mountains above it. As a global, symbolic center, both reflecting and inventing nature/religion representations, Malibu and its environs provide an ideal venue for critical reflection on the religion/nature nexus in the popular imagination.

The ISSRNC cordially invites creative proposals including but not limited to papers, panels, film screenings, and forums with “cultural creatives” from this region and beyond, to illuminate the conference theme.

Specific proposals, for example, might explore:

• Apocalypticism (Abrahamic, Mayan, Scientific, etc.).

• Documentary film: nature faking and realism

• Theatrical film and nature spiritualities

• Nature in cartoons and animated films

• Malibu (and/or California) as sacred, imperiled, and desecrated places.

• The spiritualities of celebrities, including as animal and/or environmental activists

As always, while we encourage proposals focused on the conference’s theme, we welcome proposals from all areas (regional and historical) and from all disciplinary perspectives that explore the complex relationships between religious beliefs and practices (however defined and understood), cultural traditions and productions, and the earth’s diverse ecological systems. We encourage proposals that emphasize dialogue and discussion, promote collaborative research, and are unusual in terms of format and structure. Individual paper and session proposals, as are typical with most scholarly associations, are also welcome.

Presenters will be encouraged to submit their work for possible publication in the peer reviewed Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture, which is the official journal of the ISSRNC, and has been published quarterly since 2007.

Given the ISSRNC’s commitment to internationality financial assistance will be available for a number of scholars from outside of North America. We anticipate being able to provide travel grants to at least ten international scholars.

Submitting Proposals

Proposals for individual paper presentations, sessions, panels, and posters should be submitted directly to Sarah Pike at spike@csuchico.edu. It is not necessary to be an ISSRNC member to submit a proposal. Individual paper proposals should include, in a single, attached word or rich text document, the name and email of the presenter(s), title, a 250-300 word abstract, and a brief, 150 word biography (including highest degree earned and current institutional affiliation, if any). Proposals for entire sessions must include a title and abstract for the session as a whole as well as for each individual paper. Proposers should also provide information about ideal and acceptable lengths for proposed sessions, and whether any technology, such as data projectors, are desired.

Most paper presentations will be scheduled at 15-20 minutes and a premium will be placed on discussion in all sessions. Proposals will be evaluated anonymously by the Scientific Committee, but conference directors will be aware of proposers’ identities in order to select for diversity in terms of geographical area and career stage. Student proposals are welcome.

Requests for assistance with invitations to assist with visa processes must be included with proposals.

Requests for financial aid from scholars outside of North America must also be included with proposals, and provide a clear statement as to whether such aid is essential for attendance, the needed amount, and an explanation of supplemental travel resources that will be available to the proposer. Decisions on travel grants will be made by the ISSRNC Board of Directors based on recommendations from the conference directors and scientific committee.

The deadline for proposals is 1 April 2012.

for full details see:

<http://www.religionandnature.com/society/>

THE INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR THE STUDY OF RELIGION, NATURE AND CULTURE (ISSRNC)

Call For Papers/ Presentations/ Performance: 

Hosting 6: “Absence – Haunted Landscapes”

Hosting 7: “Presence – Manifesting Ghosts”

GHost invites proposals for papers, presentations, or performances of 30 minutes exploring the desire and attempt to materialise what is absent via the medium of haunted landscapes or through the manifestation of a ghost. We would like to hear from researchers within all fields – anthropology, art history, cultural studies, film studies, history, science, law, literary studies, parapsychology, psychology, philosophy etc. as well as practising artists.

The Hostings will take place in the Court Room, University of London, Senate House between 6.30 – 9.00pm on the 29th February and 14th March.

Please send a (working) title and an abstract of approximately 300 words, also include which Hosting you are submitting to and, if applicable, one or two pictures.  

Send these to Sarah Sparkes at: ghost.hostings@gmail.com 

More about GHost:

www.host-a-ghost.blogspot.com

www.ghost.hostings.co.uk

Deadline for submissions of proposals: 13th January 2012

Hostings 6: Absence – Haunted Landscapes

The Key Of Solomon, a medieval grimoire instructs magicians to seek out “places that lie concealed, distant and removed from the haunts of men. Wherefore desolate and uninhabited regions are most appropriate, such as the borders of lakes, forests, dark and obscure places, old and deserted houses, whither rarely and scarce ever men do come, mountains, caves, caverns, grottos, gardens, orchards…”

Could it be that this instruction suggests a common topography of the haunted landscape that such venues operate as amplifiers for achieving rapport with the dead? Perhaps it is the absence of life and the nature of our own loneliness that in fact haunts the landscape? Are places of tragedy imbued with spirits of their victims or is this just a romantic engagement, an imaginative association with a past event? Is it possible to use a particular landscapes to facilitate the experience of paranormal phenomena – in this respect can landscape serve like the séance room for the natural channelling of the spirit of place, or the dead souls of its past? Moreover, have artists and writers intuitively apprehended these landscapes to manifest a haunted aesthetic?

GHost invites submissions exploring these or other ideas associated with the Haunted Landscape.

Hostings 7: Presence – Manifesting Ghosts

“Ghost Seance has the potential to summon spirits at any given location and time although 3:00 a.m. usually produces the best results.” (Taken from a website advertising a séance app. for smart phones)

Writers, psychical investigators, mediums, parapsychologists, illusionists, artists all have manifested ghosts in their own way. The writers mind conjures up ghostly apparitions, pinning down their fleeting forms with words. In the darkened séance room both psychical investigator and audience witness phenomena produced by the medium. Whether witnessed by believer or sceptic, the spirit announces itself, with a common ghostly language: wraps, moving furniture, unexplained scents, temperature changes, phosphorescent lights etc. In more recent times visual and auditory ephemera has been described and captured by paranormal investigators with the help of technological devices. This new language of the ghostly reappears in the haunted aesthetics of films such as Nigel Kneale’s The Stone Tape and in the work of contemporary artists such as Susan Hiller. When attempting to document ghosts, is it us or the ghosts who are controlling the means by which we describe and measure their presence?

GHost invites submissions exploring ghost-makers; their means, methods and their reasons for manifesting ghosts.

About GHost

GHost is a visual arts and creative research project which explores the various roles ghosts play in contemporary culture by bringing artists, writers, curators, researchers and others together. In homage to Duchamp’s wordplay “A guest + a host = a ghost”, we take on and explore the various roles of ghosts, guests and hosts in our activities. The project has been running since 2008 and we have organised exhibitions, performance nights and so-called Hostings, seminar-style workshops which serve as a forum for exchange between thinkers and makers, audience and practitioners. As a research project, GHost blurs the boundaries between the diverse research groups and audiences that exist for the paranormal and hosts events in which these groups can explore their various beliefs. As a visual arts project, GHost explores the illusionary power of art and artists to create what could be seen as a ‘haunted aesthetic’. Visual art exhibitions have been hosted by a John Soane church in East London, at the London Art Fair and the Folkestone Triennial Fringe while the Hostings have been held at Senate House, University of London.

GHost has been organising Hostings in association with the IGRS, School of Advanced Study, University of London since 2009.

www.host-a-ghost.blogspot.com

www.ghost.hostings.co.uk

MONSTROPHY: THE ACADEMIC STUDY OF MONSTERS: PRETERNATURE call for papers

“Preternature is a rigorously peer-reviewed interdisciplinary forum for original research that touches on the appearance of magic, prophecy, demonology, monstrophy, the occult, and related topics that stand in the liminal space between the natural world and the preternatural.

Preternature publishes scholarly articles, notes, and reviews covering all time periods and geographies, from a variety of academic approaches. As an English language publication, the Western tradition is inevitably an important focus, but the journal strongly encourages submissions covering cultural traditions worldwide.”

— Praeter paginam

Call for papers for Preternature, vol. 2, issue 2

Monstrophy: The Academic Study of Monster

Monsters have been widely catalogued in their historical and ethnographic contexts, and have been commonly included in cultural products such as epic, folktale, fiction, and film, but have only begun to be studied seriously as semiological markers indicating the seams of internal cultural tension. Interpreters commonly note the “monstrous” as occupying space at the borders of a society’s conceptual categories, such as those relating to sexual and behavioral transgression, or to inherent prejudice and internal conflict (for instance, in race, gender, politics, and religion). Monsters are rarely fully distinct from the “human,” but are often comprised of hybrid features of the human and non-human. This issue of Preternature invites contributions that explore how the category of “monster” is used to define and articulate what a certain group of people articulates to itself to be properly human.

Contributions are welcome from any discipline, time period, or geographic provenance, so long as the discussion highlights the cultural, literary, religious, or historical significance of the topic.

Contributions should be roughly 8,000 – 12,000 words (with the possibility of longer submissions in exceptional cases), including all documentation and critical apparatus. If accepted for publication, manuscripts will be required to adhere to the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition (style 1, employing footnotes).

Preternature also welcomes original editions or translations of texts related to the topic that have not otherwise been made available in recent editions or in English.

Submissions are made online at: 

<www.preternature.org>

 Final Papers are due February 15, 2012

Queries about submissions, queries concerning books to be reviewed, or requests to review individual titles may be made to the Editor:

Kirsten C. Uszkalo: kirsten@uszkalo.com

Inquiries about book reviews should be sent to the Book Review Editor:

Richard Raiswell: rraiswell@upei.ca

For more on the journal, please consult <www.preternature.org>

THE HISTORY AND ICONOGRAPHY OF THE OCCULT:

A WORLD IN WORDS AND PICTURES

‘Europe and the Spirit World or the Fascination with the Occult, 1750-1950’ is a cross-disciplinary exhibition exploring the influence of the occult on artists, thinkers, writers and scholars throughout Europe, at decisive moments in the history of the modern world. The exhibition is organized into three sections:

• The creative arts: painting, drawing, sculpture, print-making and photography, the literature of the irrational and unexplained.

• The esoteric tradition revisited, with an extensive chronological survey encompassing the movement’s foundational texts and print iconography.

• The relationship between occult phenomena and the scientific world, through key scholarly figures and thinkers, and an examination of their experiments and scientific instruments.

With some 500 works of art, 150 scientific artefacts, 150 books and 100 documents from a host of European countries, Europe and the Spirit World will be presented in a dedicated 2500-m² space at the the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Strasbourg.

This exhibition has been awarded ‘national importance’ status by the French Ministry of Culture and Communication / Heritage department / French museums service, and has received State financial support in the form of an exceptional grant from the Ministry.

Full details:

www.musees.strasbourg.eu 

The esoteric tradition has been a feature of Western civilisation since the earliest times – a tradition that has come down to us in the form of esoteric writings, and the engraved illustrations that so often accompany them.

The exhibition presents significant works from the collections of Strasbourg’s national and university library (the BNU), and the prints and drawings collection of Strasbourg’s city museums, exploring the full range of topics featured in the Spirit realms exhibition: spiritism, esoterism, occultism, magic, witchcraft, divination…

The BNU’s encyclopaedic holdings include a section on occultism and other beliefs, encompassing major, foundational texts of the modern and contemporary periods.

The collections of papyri, manuscripts, incunabula, rare and fine books, and Alsatic texts, together with texts devoted to religious science and literature, offer a revealing – but by no means exhaustive – survey of a rich corpus.

Historic texts complement the displays of visual artworks, presenting major works in their original, first editions, and highlighting the work of the publishers, printers, engravers and illustrators who established the esoteric tradition and kept it alive, down to the present day. The section aims to focus on works by the movement’s leading authors, at key moments in its long history throughout Europe, and beyond.

Complementing the scientific displays included in the main exhibition, the section also presents key scientific works exploring spectral apparitions and other supernatural phenomena, together with an overview of the contact between scientific, mystical and esoteric thought down the centuries.

Some of the main authors represented:

Pythagoras, Plato, Virgil, Dante, Master Eckhart, Marsile Ficin, Cornelius Agrippa, Paracelsus, Lavater, Milton, Swedenborg, Cagliostro, Goethe, Balzac, Novalis, Kardec, Schuré, Conan Doyle, Huysmans, Ivan Goll, André Breton, Fulcanelli. The featured works are all from the collection of the Bibliothèque nationale universitaire de Strasbourg.

Featured artists include:

Baldung Grien, Brentel, Cranach, Dürer, Schongauer, Mantegna, Jacques Callot, Piranesi, Girodet-Trioson.

more info and images at:

http://www.musees.strasbourg.eu/sites_expos/europe-des-esprits/en/

Filed under: EXHIBITIONS, THE HISTORY AND ICONOGRAPHY OF THE OCCULT 1750-1950 exhibition Strasbourg: Tagged: André Breton, Baldung Grien, Balzac, Brentel, Cagliostro, Conan Doyle, Cornelius Agrippa, Cranach, creative arts: painting, drawing, Durer, Ficin, Fulcanelli, Girodet-Trioson, Goethe, Huysmans, Ivan Goll, Jacques Callot, Kardec, Lavater, Mantegna, Milton, MUSEUM OF MODER AND CONTEMPORARY ART STRASBOURG, Novalis, OCCULT 1750 -1950, Paracelsus, Piranesi, print-making and photography, Schongauer, Schuré, scientific artefacts, sculpture, Swedenborg, the literature of the irrational and unexplained ]]> http://ccwe.wordpress.com/2011/11/23/the-history-and-iconography-of-the-occult-1750-1950-exhibition-strasbourg/feed/ 0 ccwe Europe and the Spirit wWorld Europe title http://ccwe.wordpress.com/2011/11/14/transformations-of-the-sacred-in-europe-and-beyond-conference/ http://ccwe.wordpress.com/2011/11/14/transformations-of-the-sacred-in-europe-and-beyond-conference/#comments Mon, 14 Nov 2011 15:34:12 +0000 SOPHIA WELLBELOVED http://ccwe.wordpress.com/?p=2258 ]]>

ESA Research Network 34 – Sociology of Religion

Call for papers – Mid-term Conference

University of Potsdam, Germany

3-5 September 2012

The thesis of secularization, once sheer uncontested in the social sciences, is increasingly under fire. Secularization is nowadays often deconstructed as an ideology or mere wish dream that is intimately connected to the rationalist ambitions of modern Enlightenment. Such alleged blurring of morality and science, of what ‘is’ and what ‘ought’, informing sociological analysis obviously obscures clear sight on recent developments in the Western world. 

Countless empirical and theoretical studies convincingly demonstrate that religion is alive and well in Europe and beyond. Particularly after the attacks of 9/11 in 2001, religious identities have become salient in a situation of cultural polarization and religious pluralization. Moreover, we are witnessing a trend towards ‘believing without belonging’ (Davie, 1994) and – particularly in those European countries that are most secular – a shift from organized religion to ‘spiritualities of life’ (e.g., Heelas and Woodhead, 2005), paganism and ‘popular religion’ (Knoblauch, 2009). And although the thesis of secularization has always been highly problematic from a non-European or global perspective, the rapid globalization of Islam and the Evangelical upsurge – especially in Africa, Latin America and East Asia – fly in the face of the long-held expectation that religion is doomed to be a marginal or socially insignificant phenomenon.

Evidently, then, the focus of sociological analysis has shifted over the last decades from religious decline to religious change. More than that: it is theorized that we are living in a “post-secular society” (Habermas, 2005) where religion is re-vitalized, de-privatized and increasingly influences politics, voting behavior, matters of the state and ethical debates in the public domain (e.g., Casanova, 1994). Motivated by such observations, the mid-term conference calls for papers addressing changes in the field of religion and, more in particular, transformations of the sacred in Europe and beyond. Particularly we welcome studies covering the following topics:

&#61623 Studies on how and why conceptions of the sacred, religious beliefs, doctrines, rituals and organizations of long-standing religious traditions – such as Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism or Hinduism – transform under the influence of processes of globalization, individualization, mediatization as well as changing gender relations.

&#61623 Studies dealing with trends of believing without belonging, i.e. non-institutionalized beliefs, personal ‘bricolage’ and privatized conceptions of the sacred outside the Churches, Chapels and Mosques. Encouraged are also studies addressing new, more informal ways of ‘belonging’, religious communication and collective effervescence, i.e. in loose social networks, discussion groups or virtual communities on the internet.

&#61623 Studies covering popular religion and post-traditional spirituality, i.e., New Age, esotericism, paganism, occultism, discussing for instance an epistemological turn from belief to experience and emotion; a shifting emphasis from transcendence to immanence; from seriousness to playfulness; or a transition from dualism to monism.

&#61623 Studies dealing with implicit religion, i.e. addressing a re-location of the sacred to seemingly secular domains in society such as self-identity, sports, modern science and technology. This avenue of research may also include the place and meaning of the sacred (i.e., religious narratives, symbols and images) in popular media texts – in novels, films, series on television or computer games.

These topics are rough guidelines; papers dealing with religious change and the transformation of the sacred in Europe and beyond other than these outlined above are also very welcome. Furthermore we invite PhD and post-doc candidates to contribute to a poster session, including work in progress; the best poster will get a – small, but nice – prize.

Dates & Deadlines in 2012

March 15 Submission of abstracts and online registration starts

April 20 Submission of abstracts ends

May 10 Acceptance of abstracts

June 30 Early-bird registration ends

September 3 – 5 Conference

For further information, please visit: http://www.esareligion.org

Contact: esa-religion@uni-potsdam.de

Oxford Law and Religion Conference

New Frontiers of Protection of Freedom of Religion or Belief Under International Law –

30 Years after the 1981 Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief

24 November 2011

Balliol College, Oxford

LR 23

10am– 5:30pm

Speakers Include:

Heiner Bielefeldt

(UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of or Belief)

Malcolm Evans

(University of Bristol)

Christopher McCrudden

(University of Oxford and Queen’s University Belfast)

Nazila Ghanea (University of Oxford)

Michael Wiener

(Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights)

Ronan McCrea (University College London)

Registration:

£25

Students and unwaged:

Free

Registration enquiries: peter.petkoff@balliol.ox.ac.uk

The Conference is organised by the Oxford Society for Law and Religion, Focus on Freedom of Religion or Belief, School of Law University of Bristol, Law and Religion Research Group Brunel Law School, Religion, Law and International elations Programme Regent’s Park College, Oxford, Centre for the Study of Religion and Public Life, Kellogg College, Oxford

 www.amsterdamhermetica.nl

The University is seeking 2 Ph. D. candidates in the field of History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents

The intention is that one of the two candidates will do research on a relevant topic within the historical period from the Renaissance to the 18th century, and the other within the period from the 18th century to the present. Candidates are invited to submit a research proposal that contains at least the following:

Title of the research project.

Brief description of the research question (a few lines).

A longer description of the research project, including attention to methodology and the nature/availability of the relevant source material (3 to 4 pages, line spacing 1 ½).

Explanation of academic relevance and importance of the research.

Bibliography.

A planning, subdivided in periods of six months.

Summary of additional material costs.

The research proposal must be accompanied by a cover letter and a C.V.

A list of possible research topics is available on request from w.j.hanegraaff@uva.nl. This list is intended to give an impression of the kind of research that could be considered, and an indication of some clear research gaps.

Requirements

A Master degree in a discipline of the humanities, preferably with a historical focus;

Sufficient demonstrable familiarity with the research area on which the GHF Center focuses, and the relevant subdomain;

Good command of at least English and other languages relevant to the research project.

Further information

For further information please contact Prof. Dr. W.J. Hanegraaff, telephone +31 20 525 3570 or +31 20 423 6218; e-mail w.j.hanegraaff@uva.nl.

History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents

The Center of History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents

(GHF, www.amsterdamhermetica.nl ) was founded in 1999 and plays a leading international role in the field. The Center is part of the Department of Art, Religion, and Cultural Sciences (KRC) and work within the context of the Program Team Religious Studies.

The staff members of GHF provide a series of four modules (Hermetica I, II, III, IV) in the Bachelor Religious Studies, and a specialization program in “Western Esotericism” in the context of the One-Year Master and the Two-Year Research Master Religious Studies.

GHF consists of three permanent staff members (one professor and two assistant professors) and two PhD students. The Center focuses on historical research into a complex of movements in the border area between religion, philosophy, and science, today often summarized under the umbrella term “Western esotericism”.

These include movements such as hermetism and gnostic religion in late antiquity; traditional sciences like astrology, alchemy, and magia naturalis; the revival of platonism and related currents during the Renaissance in the context of prisca theologia, philosophia perennis, and philosophia occulta; early modern currents such as paracelsianism, Christian theosophy, rosicrucianism, freemasonry, and illuminism; nineteenth-century movements such as spiritualism, occultism, and traditionalism; and related currents including the contemporary New Age. For a representative sample of the discipline, see the Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism (ed. WJ Hanegraaff et al.), Brill: Leiden / Boston 2005.