Art of the Sacred — International Conference
Budapest, May 2026
An international, multidisciplinary conference exploring religious and spiritual artistic activity across the ages, to be held in Budapest, Hungary. The event brings together scholars from diverse fields to examine the intersections of art, religion, and spirituality.
EPHE Seminar: New Age and/or Tradition. Holistic Healing Practices in Postcolonial Contexts
Tuesdays, 14:00–18:00 (bi-monthly, generally 1st and 3rd Tuesday of the month)
MSH, 54 bd Raspail, Paris, room 15 (unless otherwise indicated)
Coordinated by Agnès Kedzierska Manzon (EPHE-PSL, directrice d’études), this seminar explores the proliferation of holistic and ritual healing practices — from New Age spiritualities and alternative medicine to African religious universes — in postcolonial and globally integrated contexts. Topics include diagnostic devices (divination, astrology), diverse healing techniques (reiki, chakra balancing, phytotherapy, breathwork, yoga, aromatherapy), and their digital transformations and global circulations.
Programme 2025–2026
- 14.10.2025 — Inaugural lecture: What is care in a postcolonial context?
- 07.11.2025 — Guest lecture: Michael Taussig (Columbia University), “Writers Have Fetishes Too. A Study in Apotropaic Magic.” (Sorbonne, salle Delamare, 10h–12h)
- 25.11.2025 — Webinar Healing Matters: Piotr Cichocki (University of Warsaw) (online, 16h–18h)
- 09.12.2025 — Guest lecture: Naoki Kashio (Keio University, Japan), “Mahikari therapeutic practices in Côte d’Ivoire” + AKM: “Healing through Spirit or Esotericism in (South) Africa”
- 16.12.2025 — Webinar Healing Matters: Emilie Pierini (Université de Rome la Sapienza) (online, 16h–18h)
- 06.01.2026 — Guest lecture: Michael Houseman (EPHE, IMAf), “Divination in Africa as a model for understanding Euro-American holistic care” + virtual intervention: Megan Lange (physician and founder of a holistic products brand in South Africa)
- 20.01.2026 — Guest lecture: Carla Bertin (Université de Lausanne), “Crisis, illness and religious plurality: ethnography of a therapeutic itinerary in southern Benin” + AKM: therapeutic consultation as mediation device in South Africa
- 27.01.2026 — Webinar Healing Matters: Géraldine Mossière (Université de Montréal) (online, 16h–18h)
- 03.02.2026 — Guest lecture: Maneli Farahmand (Université de Fribourg), “Cacao, spirituality and ecstatic dance” + AKM: “Naturopathy in South Africa, past and present”
- 24.02.2026 — Webinar Healing Matters: Paul Stoller (West Chester University, USA) (online, 16h–18h)
- 17–18.03.2026 — Workshop: “Mapping Contemporary Spiritual Networks and Hubs” (co-organised with Géraldine Mossière, Université de Montréal)
- 24.03.2026 — Webinar Healing Matters: Michael Strmiska (SUNY Orange, USA), “The Resurgence of Esoteric Racism in Modern Alternative Spirituality and Wellness Movements” (online, 16h–18h)
- 31.03.2026 — Guest lecture: Marco Pasi (EPHE, LEM), “Esotericism and Sexuality: the case of sexual magic” + AKM: “Holism: from South African origins to contemporary applications”
- 14.04.2026 — Guest lecture: Jean-Pierre Brach (EPHE LEM), “G. I. Gurdjieff and the ‘4th Way’ of esotericism” + AKM: “The chakras of the earth: the case of Table Mountain”
- 28.04.2026 — Webinar Healing Matters: Natalia Zawiejska (Jagiellonian University, Kraków) (online, 16h–18h)
- 05.05.2026 — Guest lecture: Piotr Cichocki (University of Warsaw), “Sound in the Socio-Spiritual Worlds of the Postcolony”
- 19.05.2026 — Benjamin Soares (University of Florida), “In search of well-being: Muslim esotericism in Africa” + AKM: presentation of the collective project “Mapping Contemporary Spiritual Networks and Hubs”
- 26.05.2026 — Webinar Healing Matters: Lee Scharnick-Udemans (University of the Western Cape, South Africa), “Sacred Ways of Knowing: Autism as Spiritual Expertise” (online, 16h–18h)
- 02.06.2026 — Concluding session and validations
Webinar Series: Healing Matters. The Anthropology of Hybrid and “Traditional” Ritual Mediations
Monthly, Tuesdays 16:00–18:00 CET (online)
Organised by Agnès Kedzierska Manzon (EPHE-PSL/IMAf), Piotr Cichocki (University of Warsaw), and Viola Teisenhoffer (Université de Liège), this monthly webinar series examines contemporary healing practices in which new forms of ritualization and ritual expertise intersect with technologized mediations and references to imagined or creatively reinterpreted traditions. Topics range from New Age and alternative spiritualities, Pentecostalism, and neo-shamanism to embodied forms of knowledge and postcolonial center-periphery dynamics.
Programme 2025–2026
- 25.11.2025 — Piotr Cichocki (University of Warsaw, Poland)
- 16.12.2025 — Emilie Pierini (Università La Sapienza, Rome, Italy)
- 27.01.2026 — Géraldine Mossière (Université de Montréal, Canada) — “Decoupling Shamanism from Indigenous Traditions? The Case of a Neo-Shamanic Ritual Centered on Energetic Fields Between Humans and Non-Humans”
- 24.02.2026 — Paul Stoller (West Chester University, USA)
- 24.03.2026 — Michael Strmiska (SUNY Orange, USA) — “The Resurgence of Esoteric Racism in Modern Alternative Spirituality and Wellness Movements”
- 28.04.2026 — Natalia Zawiejska (Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland)
- 26.05.2026 — Lee Scharnick-Udemans (University of the Western Cape, South Africa) — “Sacred Ways of Knowing: Autism as Spiritual Expertise”
- 16.06.2026 — Viola Teisenhoffer & Agnès Kedzierska Manzon — Concluding session
INOPS 