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Esotericism in everyday life: FAU invites you to an exciting lecture series!
Experience the CAS-E lecture series at FAU from April 29, 2025. Discover esoteric practices and their influence on daily life.
Esotericism in everyday life: FAU invites you to an exciting lecture series!
The Faculty of Cultural and Social Sciences at the Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg (FAU) invites you to the new CAS-E Lecture Series, which begins on April 29, 2025. The lecture series has the topic “Esoteric practices and their influence on daily life” and is part of the graduate school “Alternative Rationalities and Esoteric Practices from a Global Perspective”, which is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG).
The aim of the colloquium is to examine the resilience of esoteric practices from a transcultural perspective. The events take place both in the Big Seminar Room, Building D1, Hartmannstraße 14, FAU and via Zoom. A Zoom link will be provided to participate in the online sessions.
Program overview
The lectures are scheduled for every Tuesday until July 22, 2025. The first speakers in the series are:
| Date | Speaker | Theme |
|---|---|---|
| April 29, 2025 | Prof. Dr. Steven Engler (CAS-E Fellow) | “View of Healing among Brazilian Spiritualists and Medical Professionals” |
| May 6, 2025 | Sr. Associate Prof. Dr. Fredrik Gregorius (Linköping University) | “Dreams of an Enchanted Africa: Esoteric Images of African Diaspora Religions in the 19th and 20th Century” |
| May 13, 2025 | Assoc. Prof. M. Shobhana Xavier (CAS-E Fellow) | “Saintly Shrines and Ruptures of Temporalities: Sufi Pasts and Futures in Post-War Sri Lanka” |
| May 20, 2025 | Prof. Deborah Kapchan (New York University) | “Face to Face with the Spirits: Paradox and the Anthropology of the Esoteric” |
| May 27, 2025 | Dr. Marta Hanson (DFG-funded CAS-E Associated Researcher) | “Knowing Hands: Thinking With the Mind in Hand in Chinese Medicine and Divination” |
| June 3, 2025 | Prof. Stephan Palmié (CAS-E Fellow) | “Wittgenstein among the Santeros” |
| June 10, 2025 | Assoc. Prof. Davide Torri (Sapienza University of Rome) | “Nepalese Ghost Stories from Sacred Texts to Social Media” |
| June 17, 2025 | Dr. Eszter Spät (CAS-E Fellow) | “Divination through the ‘Written Word’ in Yezidi Oral Tradition: ‘Bookish’ Techniques of Prognostication as Sources of Esoteric Knowledge” |
| June 24, 2025 | Asst. Prof. Sergio González Varela (CAS-E Fellow) | “Facing the Limits of the Extra-Cultural: Discovering ‘What You Cannot Learn’ Through Pain, Body Transformation, and Performance in Afro-Brazilian Capoeira” |
| July 1, 2025 | Prof. Dr. Birgit Meyer (Utrecht University) | “Translating ‘Spirit’” |
| July 8, 2025 | Dr. Lili DiPuppo (CAS-E Fellow) | “Sufi Practices and Knowledge through Surrender: Developing a New Knowledge Approach in and for Uncertain Times” |
| July 15, 2025 | Dr. Oleg Yarosh (DFG-funded CAS-E Associated Researcher) | “Spiritual Practices of Sufis in the West” |
| July 22, 2025 | Dr. Jessica Albrecht (FAU, CAS-E Associated Researcher) | “Buddhist Psychology as Esoteric Activism” |
In addition to the lectures, you will be offered the opportunity to register for the CAS-E newsletter. This provides information about future events and news in the field of esoteric practices and their historical and current relevance.
For further information, those interested can contact Dr. Monika Hirmer under monika.hirmer@fau.de or Dr. Raquel Romberg under raquel.romberg@fau.de contact.
Additionally, information will be published about the conference, which aims to promote current research into esoteric practices, as well as a Call for Papers, which points to the importance of academic discourse on this topic.
The DFG-funded research group on esoteric practices, as the FAU reports, illuminates the context and diversity of esoteric approaches in a globalized world and thus promotes an interdisciplinary exchange between scientists and practitioners in this extensive research field.