Center for the Study of World Religions hosted our first Gnoseologies series webinar of the academic year on October 18, 2023.  Dr. Giovanna Parmigiani engaged in conversation with Dr. Angela Puca.  In this discussion, Dr. Puca describes how she pioneers an innovative approach to academia by utilizing popular social media platforms, aiming to bridge the gap between esoteric academic scholarship and the wider community.... Read more about Video: ​​​​​​​Gnoseologies: Angela’s Symposium: YouTube, Esotericism, and the Academia

Wednesday, April 26, 2023 - As part of the T&T Gnoseologies Series, CSWR Research Associate Giovanna Parmigiani engages in a fascinating conversation with Black Feminist ethnographer and African diaspora studies scholar, Assitant Professor N. Fadeke Castor.  

... Read more about Video: Multiple Subjectivities and the Ethnographic Study of Lived Religion

Center for the Study of World Religions Research Associate Dr. Giovanna Parmigiani led a conversation with Dr. Natalie Dyer on April 5, 2023, titled "Reiki, Energy Medicine, and Post-Materialism." Dr. Dyer is a research scientist with Connor Whole Health at University Hospitals, the President of the Center for Reiki Research, and a practicing Reiki master. In this discussion they talked about the role of Reiki and energy healing in improving health and well-being, the possibility of a non-materialist scientific paradigm, and Dr. Dyer’s latest research on universal love.

On March 8, 2023, Research Associate Dr. Giovanna Parmigiani sat down with Dr. Grace Nono to discuss Dr. Nono’s work as an ethnographer and performer, shamanism in the Philippines, and some of the possible connections between sound and healing. This event was part of the Gnoseologies Series and focused on ways of knowing that are often labeled as “non-rational.” Traditionally referred to as gnosis in Western philosophical and religious traditions, and often understood in contraposition to science (episteme), these ways of knowing are becoming more and more influential in contemporary societies, popular culture, and academic research.

On February 22, 2023, Dr. Amy Hale and Dr. Christa Shusko present their book Essays on Women in Western Esotericism: Beyond Seeresses and Sea Priestesses, edited by Amy Hale. They discuss some of the latest and pressing topics in the study of (Western) Esotericism and talk about some of the opportunities and challenges of inhabiting this field of study as women and scholars.... Read more about Video: Essays on Women in Western Esotericism: Beyond Seeresses and Sea Priestesses

On November 2, 2022, Dr. Giovanna Parmigiani discussed affect theater with her guests Prof. Cristiana Giordano (UC Davis) and Prof. Greg Pierotti (University of Arizona), and how it can transform academic research. This discussion touched on the role of affects, emotions, and collaborative practices in academic and non-academic processes of meaning-making.

On October 19, 2022, religious studies scholar and Black and biracial educator Marcelitte Failla (Emory University) discussed the practice of Tarot reading, Black witches, divination, resilience, and the meanings, limitations, and possibilities of being a “scholar practitioner.” Failla is a Black and biracial educator and scholar of African-heritage religions. Through a Black feminist lens, her work explores how religions such as Yoruba Ifá, Haitian Vodou, and North American Hoodoo are used for collective healing and social justice.

In this illustrated talk and conversation, we will explore how our understanding of artists’ esoteric practice is shaping the conversation between art, artists and the audience. We will primarily be looking at the contributions of women artists, both historical and current, ranging from the Theosophically inspired Hilma af Klint and Surrealist occultist Ithell Colquhoun to a number of contemporary artists for whom esoteric practice is foundational to their art.... Read more about Video: Ways of Knowing through the Changing Landscapes of Esoteric Art

What is the paranormal? How can we make sense of out-of-the ordinary experiences? How can we study the paranormal—anthropologically? Please join Dr.Giovanna Parmigiani in a conversation with Dr. Jack Hunter about the anthropology of the paranormal.... Read more about Video: Paranthropology: The Anthropology of the Paranormal

Dr. Elizabeth Pérez discusses practices of embodied knowledge production and transmission in such Afro-Diasporic religions as Cuban Lucumí, Haitian Vodou, and Brazilian Candomblé. In conversation with CSWR Research Associate Dr. Giovanna Parmigiani, she connects the insights from her first book on sacred food preparation with current scholarship on gut feelings, knowing, and beings in Black Atlantic traditions.... Read more about Video: Gut and Other Knowledges in Religions of the African Diaspora

In this event, Diana Espírito Santo will examine the ambiguous, dark spaces of paradox from the point of view of two distinct ethnographic sites: Brazil and Cuba, with Umbanda and creole espiritismo respectively. In exploring the various vignettes—of a self that must forget itself in order to retain its mode of conscious trance in Brazil, of the impossibility of knowing one’s spirits in a multiplying metamorphic cosmos in Cuba, both signaling the general breakdown of reality and its knowability—she will think through an interstitial, in-between, impossible logic, and will call out the gaps in scholarly approach premised on the notion that knowledge is there to be grasped, with the right techniques.

Esoteric spiritualities tend to encourage a personal search for spiritual truths, unburdened by concerns for dogma and authority. Such seekership has been cast as a particularly individualistic, liberal, and democratic way of doing religion, well-adapted to pluralistic modern societies. The apparent surge in of conspiracy theories playing on authoritarian populist narratives in some spiritual milieus troubles the picture. In this conversation with Egil Asprem we explore the relationship between the spiritual quest for esoteric knowledge and conspiracy theories.
... Read more about Video: The Truth Shall Set Whom Free? A Conversation on Esoteric Knowledge, Alternative Spirituality, and Conspiracy Theories

Please join Giovanna Parmigiani (HDS) for a panel discussion on the phenomenon of cultural appropriation in modern Paganism and the New Age movement. Sabina Magliocco (University of British Columbia), along with HDS students, will explore this theme and its ethical dimensions with reference to contemporary examples.... Read more about Video: Cultural Appropriation in Neopagan and New Age Religions: A Conversation with Sabina Magliocco

Does Black Magic Matter? A brief discussion of the African American traditions known as Hoodoo, Conjure and Rootworking, and practices of divination, spiritual protection and healing. We will discuss the origins of magic in the specific context of slavery in America and consider the meaning of black magic in the present day. Like their enslaved forebears, today’s practitioners cultivate ancestral spirituality in support of individuals and communities, and to heal diverse afflictions of the body politic, intergenerational trauma, racial and sexual violence, and economic impoverishment.... Read more about Video: Black Magic Matters: Hoodoo as Ancestral Religion

Welcome to the first event of Gnoseologies: Transcendence and Transformation Today in which we will discuss “magic” with Dr. Susan Greenwood. This series focuses on ways of knowing that are often labeled as “non-rational.” Traditionally referred to as gnosis in Western philosophical and religious traditions, and often understood in contraposition to science (episteme), these ways of knowing are becoming more and more influential in contemporary societies, popular culture, and academic research. What is the place of spirit...