RENSEP NEWS – RENSEP will be at ESSWE9
This upcoming June, RENSEP will be travelling to Mälmo University, Sweden, for the 9th Biennial Conference of the European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism (ESSWE).
During this annual event, which will take place from the 26th of June to the 28th of June, RENSEP will be officially announcing its presence within the academic and scholarly field of esotericism.
As this edition of the ESSWE conference bears the topic Western Esotericism and Practice it has special significance for RENSEPs mission. We are therefore very pleased to be granted the opportunity to present our cause at this event, where 200 scholars and student from around the world will meet to explore the many dimensions of practice within the world of the esoteric.
The study of esoteric practices is a relatively unexplored field of study, and hence more interest is emerging around the subject. This academic trend is also reflected in the theme of this ESSWE conference. As explained on the ESSWE9 website, “less is known about what esotericists did or do” in contrast to the existing “knowledge and analytical tools for understanding what esotericists have believed or thought about the world and themselves.” Generally, the academic study of esotericism in the west emerged as a field of study in the previous century and could therefore be considered as a relatively new field of study. This makes it a very intriguing realm of academia, since there is still so much left to explore! As stated above, research on esoteric practice historically and now has remained relatively limited in comparison to the research done on theoretical ways of understanding and analysing esoteric theory, making the present conference a very welcomed event for the field.
The above-described gap in research is one of the reasons why RENSEP was founded: to promote and advance the interdisciplinary and comparative study of esoteric practices from a global perspective. Furthermore, just like RENSEP’s objective, the aspect of interdisciplinarity holds special importance within the theme of the conference, encouraging cross-disciplinary engagement from scholars of, e.g., religion, history, anthropology, art history, archaeology, folklore, sociology, ethnology, gender and sexuality studies, literature studies, and classical studies.
The ESSWE9 conference hopes to provide participants with an opportunity to learn and advance our understanding of how esotericism has been embodied, enacted, and materialised throughout the ages. It will aim to do so through a collection of lively presentations, discussions, and conversations that will take place among and between scholars from all different perspectives, regions, and levels of academy.
