The University of Groningen, Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies, invites applications for a Postdoc Position (1 fte, 3 years) with the chair of Religious Studies. The postdoc position is part of the larger research framework that addresses "The Transformation of the Religious Field since 1800".
Preference will be given to candidates whose research focuses on the relationship between modernization and religion. Projects may investigate discursive changes in the status of religion in Western societies, interactions between religious systems and other systems (such as the natural sciences, philosophy, politics, law, art, etc.), or related dynamics of modernization.
The candidate will need to hold a PhD in the Academic Study of Religion or in a related discipline. She/he will have demonstrated high-standing academic skills in her/his PhD dissertation and in subsequent publications, and she/he will have an international network of scholarly contacts.
The candidate will be expected to contribute to the research activities in the Department of Religious Studies of the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies, as well as to applications for research grants on national and international levels. She/he may also be asked to contribute to teaching in the BA and MA program.
For a detailed description of this opening, please see http://www.academictransfer.com/employer/RUG/vacancy/1954/lang/en/.
Friday, November 20, 2009
Conference: Astrologies
The Sophia Centre for the Study of Cosmology in Culture at the Department of Archaeology, History and Anthropology of the University of Wales, Lampeter, has announced a conference on the theme of Astrologies. The event will take place on 24-25 July 2010 at the Bath Royal Scientific and Literary Institute, UK. The full announcement is available here.
Conference CCWE
The Cambridge Centre for the study of Western Esotericism in Cambridge, UK, has announced its 4th annual conference to take place on 2 October 2010. A call for papers on the theme of Magic: signs sounds emanations - western esotericism and the arts is available at: www.ccwe.wordpress.com.
Friday, October 30, 2009
The Literary and Linguistic Context of the Zohar
Conference on
Late Aramaic: The Literary and Linguistic Context of the Zohar
Monday, November 9th to Wednesday November 11, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1
This conference is part of a a project combining two areas of expertise which have never been put together before: Jewish mysticism and Kabbalah on the one hand, and Semitic languages, in particular Aramaic, on the other hand. The project sets out to examine the Aramaic language in which the bulk of the Zohar—Judaism"s most important Kabbalistic work—was originally written, either—as tradition has it—in 2nd century Palestine, or—as has been held by most scholars under the impact of pioneering work by the late Gershom Scholem—in late 13th century Spain. Scholem had argued that the Aramaic of the Zohar was an "artificial idom" made up from an indiscriminate mixture of Aramaic dialects found in earlier sources, such as the two Talmuds and the Aramaic translations of the Bible. This late medieval Aramaic concoction was produced, according to Scholem, by one man—the 13th century Castillian kabbalist, Moses de Leon, who authored the Zohar anonymously, and who wished to invest his work with the air and authority of antiquity by adopting the vernacular language of the 2nd century Palestinian Sages.
See the full program.
Late Aramaic: The Literary and Linguistic Context of the Zohar
Monday, November 9th to Wednesday November 11, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1
This conference is part of a a project combining two areas of expertise which have never been put together before: Jewish mysticism and Kabbalah on the one hand, and Semitic languages, in particular Aramaic, on the other hand. The project sets out to examine the Aramaic language in which the bulk of the Zohar—Judaism"s most important Kabbalistic work—was originally written, either—as tradition has it—in 2nd century Palestine, or—as has been held by most scholars under the impact of pioneering work by the late Gershom Scholem—in late 13th century Spain. Scholem had argued that the Aramaic of the Zohar was an "artificial idom" made up from an indiscriminate mixture of Aramaic dialects found in earlier sources, such as the two Talmuds and the Aramaic translations of the Bible. This late medieval Aramaic concoction was produced, according to Scholem, by one man—the 13th century Castillian kabbalist, Moses de Leon, who authored the Zohar anonymously, and who wished to invest his work with the air and authority of antiquity by adopting the vernacular language of the 2nd century Palestinian Sages.
See the full program.
Saturday, October 3, 2009
How dangerous is the Ir-rational?
Symposium:
"How dangerous is the Ir-rational?"
ICI Berlin Institute for Cultural Inquiry
http://www.ici-berlin.org/
Friday, 30 October 2009, 2 – 9 pm
Doomed to a constant oscillation between the realms of the Unknown and the illusion of meaning, we advance regressing. Echoing various other scholars, the American philosopher William James marked “the recesses of feeling the darker, blinder strata of character” as the only places in the world in which “we catch real fact in the making.” Yet, instead of curiously exploring what cannot be known, we push it further away, enveloped with fear and anxiousness. The “darker strata” regularly produce angst, aversion, or awe. In this one day symposium, acclaimed scholars and artists will shed “light” on what has been relegated to the sphere of unreason: magic, the irrational, spectrality, the daemonic. Who is afraid of the irrational? What is “magic philosophy” and who needs it? How much reason is reasonable? The symposium ends with a keynote by the distinguished anthropologist Michael Taussig who will share with the audience his own private fear of the ir-rational.
Program
"How dangerous is the Ir-rational?"
ICI Berlin Institute for Cultural Inquiry
http://www.ici-berlin.org/
Friday, 30 October 2009, 2 – 9 pm
Doomed to a constant oscillation between the realms of the Unknown and the illusion of meaning, we advance regressing. Echoing various other scholars, the American philosopher William James marked “the recesses of feeling the darker, blinder strata of character” as the only places in the world in which “we catch real fact in the making.” Yet, instead of curiously exploring what cannot be known, we push it further away, enveloped with fear and anxiousness. The “darker strata” regularly produce angst, aversion, or awe. In this one day symposium, acclaimed scholars and artists will shed “light” on what has been relegated to the sphere of unreason: magic, the irrational, spectrality, the daemonic. Who is afraid of the irrational? What is “magic philosophy” and who needs it? How much reason is reasonable? The symposium ends with a keynote by the distinguished anthropologist Michael Taussig who will share with the audience his own private fear of the ir-rational.
Program
- 14.00 Welcome, Christoph Holzhey (Director ICI Berlin)
- 14.10 "Reasonable Ghosts: The Dream of Reason and Magic Philosophy in the 1790s," Sladja Blazan (Humboldt Universität zu Berlin)
- 14.50 "Non timebis a daemonio meridiano: Greek Irrational and the Construction of Modernity," Fabio Camilletti (ICI Berlin)
- 15.30 Coffee Break
- 16.00 Artist Presentation: "Visual Languages and Observable Planets," Jesse Bransford (New York University)
- 16.40 "Beyond Cognition? Emily Dickinson, Poetry, and the Brain," Sabine Sielke (Universität Bonn)
- 17.20 "Facing up to Magic: Fascination and Illusion in Bergman’s ANSIKTET (The Magician/The Face, 1958)," Brigitte Weingart (Universität Bonn)
- 18.00 Coffee Break
- 18.30 Keynote: "My Fear of the Rational," Michael Taussig (Columbia University)
- 19.30 Reception
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Esotericism, Magic, and Radicalism
Paper proposals are invited for the 4th North American international conference on esotericism, to be held June 17-20, 2010 at Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, USA. The conference is jointly sponsored by the Association for the Study of Esotericism, the Societas Magica, and JSR: Journal for the Study of Radicalism. The call for papers can be found on the ASE website.
Monday, August 24, 2009
Studying Interpretations of Esotericism and Mysticism
Call for Papers
"Studying Interpretations of Esotericism and Mysticism"
Association for the Study of Mysticism and Esotericism
Ассоциация исследователей эзотеризма и мистицизма
3 - 5 December 2009, Vladimir, Russian Federation
Because of intense public interest in ‘new religiosity’, esoteric and occult currents as well as in consequence of changes in the Religious and Cultural Studies paradigms, new approaches towards the research of Esotericism and Mysticism have appeared and have been intensively discussed over the last two decades. Academic institutes and societies studying these topics and developing new categories, terms and classifications are on the rise. Western European scholars of religion particularly focus on the issues of appropriateness of phenomenological and hermeneutic methods, as well as on the application of various types of discourse analysis. At the same time, the humanities studying esotericism, mysticism and their implications in ‘new religiosity’ in the post-soviet world are just beginning to break ground upon this subject. Conference organizers hope that this scholarly forum will significantly contribute to the cause of development of this promising area of research. The study of the interpretations of esotericism and mysticism prevalent within the esoteric and mystic environment itself, in their public perception and within academic circles may lay ground for further development of the study of mysticism and esotericism in Russia and other post-communist countries.
See the Call for Papers
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