Past Events
Om-gnosis Episode 8: Interview with Vinayagam Swamigal
In this eighth episode of Om-gnosis, we interview Vinayagam Swamigal, Managing Trustee of the Sri Sabapathy Lingeshwar Jiva Samadhi Temple in Villivakkam, Tamil Nadu. This temple is located on the site of a meditation hall ( maṭālayam ) established by Sri...
Video: Hackett Lecture: “Toward a Counter-history of Global Christianity”
Spanish imperialism in the Americas gave birth to competing visions of a global church. This talk returns to the difficult origins of Mexican Catholicism, arguably the oldest extant expression of Christianity in the Americas, to reflect on the global...
Video: Hindu View of Life: Beneath the Texts: Tantric Views of Person, Community, and the Sacred
The early medieval period in north India witnessed significant new developments in religion regarding theology, practice, and social impact. A new revelation of texts calling themselves Tantras emerged, generating new communities of practice and being...
Video: List Lecture: What is Midrash? with Ishay Rosen-Zvi
The nature of Midrash has perplexed scholars since the very inception of Jewish Studies as an academic discipline. This systematic analysis of midrashic terminology presented by Ishay Rosen-Zvi, offers a perspective that stands in sharp contrast to the...
Om-gnosis Episode 7: Interview with Julian Strube
In this seventh episode of Om-gnosis, we sit down with Prof. Julian Strube to discuss global esotericism, South Asia, the concept of occultism, and its intersections with political movements. After learning about Prof. Strube's background and his interest...
Video: Postapocalyptic Futures: Visionary Landscapes in Northern Peru
In this conversation with Gnosologies host Giovanna Parmigiani, Ana Mariella Bacigalupo, Professor of Anthropology at the University at Buffalo, shared how sentient mountains and lakes (Apus), channeled by Northern Peruvian shamans, addressed the greatest...
Audio/Video: Pop Apocalypse Episode 12: Black Metal and Orthodox Christianity
A Talk with Haela Ravenna Hunt-Hendrix of Liturgy.
Om-gnosis Episode 6: Interview with Saymon Zakaria, Ph.D.
In this sixth episode of Om-gnosis, Saymon Zakaria, PhD of Bangla Academy, Dhaka, introduces us to the religious and folk worlds of Bangladesh and their connection to Occult South Asia. The episode begins with a survey of Saymon Zakaria's background and...
Om-gnosis Episode 5: “Om” History and Practice from Vedic Period to Present Day ~ The Whole World is “Om”
A Talk With Finnian M. Moore Gerety
Video: The Other Side of the Gateway: Space Rocks as a Pantheist Limit-Case
With Professor MJ Rubenstein, Dean of the Social Sciences and Professor of Religion and Science and Technology Studies at Wesleyan University
Video: Embodied Ethnographies of Healing: Senses, Images, and Trance
With Anthropologist Emily Pierini
Video: The Spider Dance Tradition, Time, and Healing in Southern Italy
A book talk with Giovanna Parmigiani, on her new book The Spider Dance: Tradition, Time, and Healing in Southern Italy
Video: Pop Apocalypse: Episode Eight: Dreams, Creativity, and Precognition, a talk with Eric Wargo
Pop Apocalypse, hosted by Matthew J. Dillon, postdoctoral fellow at the Center for the Study of World Religions at Harvard Divinity School, explores the mystical and the mythic, the paranormal and the psychedelic in popular culture. For episode 8, we...
New Podcast Launches: Om-gnosis Explores the Mysteries of Occult South Asia
The Center is excited to announce the launch of its groundbreaking new podcast, Om-gnosis, dedicated to the study of Occult South Asia. This innovative series aims to uncover the rich tapestry of hidden knowledge and practices rooted in South Asian...
Video: ReSpell: Religion, Spirituality, and Well-being
In this Gnoseologies event, Giovanna Parmigiani, CSWR Research Associate, spoke with Eugenia Roussou, PhD, sociocultural anthropologist, about her ethnographic research on contemporary religiosity and well-being in Southern Europe; the anthropological...
Video: Adrie Kusserow's The Trauma Mantras, Reading with HDS poets
On September 19, 2024, the CSWR hosted Adrie Kusserow who read from her recently released work, The Trauma Mantras. Other readers at the event included local poets Yena Sharma Purmasir and Zia Polis. The Trauma Mantras is a memoir written by medical...
Video: Book Talk: Psychedelics: A Visual Odyssey, with Erika Dyck, PhD, University of Saskatchewan
Psychedelics are pushing into the mainstream—whether through FDA decisions, court cases on religious freedom, visual and material culture, or commodified retreat centers and mushroom-infused chocolate bars—prompting a deeper understanding of the role of...
Video: Poetry Reading featuring Jackie Wang and Stephanie Burt, joined by Nat Raha and Ethan Seeley
On September 9, 2024, the CSWR hosted our first poetry event of the academic year. The reading featured four poets: Jackie Wang, Stephanie Burt, Nat Raha, and Ethan Seeley. Jackie Wang is the author of the poetry collection The Sunflower Cast a Spell to...
Video: The Quest for the Plant Script, a Talk by Author Sumana Roy
Why have our writers, artists, thinkers, and scholars been compelled to turn their attention towards the ‘plant script’ in the last one hundred years? Beginning from Jagadish Chandra Bose’s “torulipi”—the handwriting of plants or the plant script through...
Video: Researching Alternative Rationalities
In this Gnoseologies event, Professor Giovanna Parmigiani speaks with Bernd Christian Otto (PD Dr. habil.) about alternative rationalities, esoteric practices, global comparison, practitioner-scholarship, and other ways of studying esotericism today. The...
