European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism


The European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism is Europe's only scholarly society for the study of Western esotericism. Founded in 2002, the society promotes academic study of the various manifestations of Western esotericism from late antiquity to the present, and works to secure the future development of the field.

Publications

The peer-reviewed journal Aries, and the associated Aries book series are published by Brill under the auspices of the ESSWE. Aries was published in a first series by La Table d'Emeraude from 1985 to 1999, before a second series began to be published by Brill in 2001. The Aries book series was launched in 2006. The society also publishes a periodic Newsletter.

International conferences

The ESSWE holds an international conference in a different European country every two years, and holds a workshop for graduate students in years in which there is no conference. Past conferences have been in Tübingen, Strasbourg and Messina, Szeged, Gothenburg, Riga, Erfurt, and Amsterdam.
1st: July 2007, University of Tübingen, "Constructing Tradition: Means and Myths of Transmission in Western Esotericism."
2nd: July 2009, University of Strasbourg, "Capitals of European Esotericism and Transcultural Dialogue."
3rd: July 2011, University of Szeged, "Lux in Tenebris: The Visual and the Symbolic in Western Esotericism"
4th: June 2013, University of Gothenburg, "Western Esotericism and Health."
5th: April 2015, University of Latvia, "Western Esotericism and the East."
6th: June 2017, University of Erfurt, "Western Esotericism and Deviance."
7th: July 2019, University of Amsterdam, "Western Esotericism and Consciousness: Visions, Voices, Altered States."

Other activities

The ESSWE provides various resources on its website, awards prizes and travel bursaries to recognize and encourage younger scholars. It has three regional networks, the Scandinavian Network for the Academic Study of Western Esotericism, the Israeli Network for the Study of Western Esotericsm, and the Irish Network for the Study of Esotericism and Paganism and two thematic research networks, the Contemporary Esotericism Research Network and the ESSWE Network for the Study of Esotericism in Antiquity.

Relationships

The ESSWE is an affiliated society of the Project AWE, International Association for the History of Religions, and a related scholarly organization of the American Academy of Religion.
In 2014, a related Central and Eastern European Network for the Academic Study of Western Esotericism was founded at the Central European University, Budapest.

Current officers

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