Spellbound

Is it possible to approach accounts of divine or supernatural encounter on their own terms without sharing the beliefs of those who have claimed such experiences? This workshop will discuss approaches to supernatural, spiritual, or mystical phenomena — whether in art, anthropology, history, theology, or psychology — that attempt to avoid viewing them through a secular lens. What language, methodologies, or forms of representation might enable such experiences to be communicated?

This afternoon event will be a preliminary discussion before Amy Hollywood’s keynote lecture in the evening, and its themes are inspired by her essay ‘Gender, Agency, and the Divine in Religious Historiography’.

The workshop also continues the discussion series Spellbound, first started in autumn 2017 by Nadine Hartmann, Clio Nicastro and Hannah Proctor at ‘diffrakt, center for the philosophical periphery’. Through a combination of film screenings, readings, and presentations, Spellbound has explored experiences of collective mental contagion, probing the boundaries between the psychic and the physiological, the natural and the supernatural, the social and the spiritual.

Organized by Nadine Hartmann, Clio Nicastro, and Hannah Proctor
In English