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Mysticism Unit and Western Esotericism Unit
Call for Proposals
Mystic, Magic, Queer, and Weird
What is queer about mysticism? What is mystical about queerness? Engaging this question requires acknowledging the complexity of both these categories. Queer theory is a capacious category that is becoming ever more so. For example, how does mysticism exceed and defy the categories articulated by its early scholars such as James, Stace, Zaehner, and Katz? Do these early definitions accommodate its many forms? And how does queerness help us to understand mysticism as practiced in the past and present? Does it refer to action, affect, social taxonomy, or on the most basic level, can it be used to understand and describe modes of experience? Does it include the “weird,” as that which refuses rigid categorization and reductive explanation? In short, how do these two types of theoretical models inform each other? And what can they tell us about how mysticism happens?
Sponsors
Chairs
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Egil Asprem, Stockholm University1/1/2022 - 12/31/2027
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Jason N. Blum, Davidson College1/1/2022 - 12/31/2027
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Margarita Simon Guillory, Boston University1/1/2022 - 12/31/2027
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Christa Shusko, Linnaeus University1/1/2022 - 12/31/2027
Steering Committee Members
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Henrik Bogdan, University of Gothenburg1/1/2022 - 12/31/2027
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Joy R. Bostic, Case Western Reserve University1/1/2022 - 12/31/2027
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Nicholas Boylston, Harvard University1/1/2022 - 12/31/2027
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Brigid Burke, Montclair State University1/1/2022 - 12/31/2027
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Manon Hedenborg White, Södertörn University1/1/2022 - 12/31/2027
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C. Libby, Pennsylvania State University1/1/2022 - 12/31/2027
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David Odorisio, Pacifica Graduate Institute1/1/2022 - 12/31/2027
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Marco Pasi, University of Amsterdam1/1/2022 - 12/31/2027
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Liana Saif, University of Amsterdam1/1/2022 - 12/31/2027
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Marla Segol, State University of New York, Buffalo1/1/2022 - 12/31/2027