ENSIE Call for Papers for ESSWE10: Deadline approaching

December 15 is the deadline for proposals for the ENSIE panels for ESSWE in Vilnius June 26 to June 28 and for the the ENSIE workshop on June 25. For further information, see ensie.site/conferences.html.

ENSIE Call for Papers for ESSWE10

Vilnius, Lithuania — 25-28 June 2025

ENSIE is again organising panels for the biannual conference of ESSWE, which in 2025 will be at Vilnius University in Lithuania, Thursday June 26 to Saturday June 28. The theme of the ESSWE conference is "Esotericism and Rationality." Proposals are therefore invited for papers dealing with any aspect of Islam, esotericism, and rationality. ​As ESSWE is also inviting reflections on the past research that the study of esotericism has undertaken and its evolution, proposals are also invited for papers that reflect on the past research that the study of Islam and esotericism has undertaken and on its evolution and the diverse methodological paths it has explored over the years. ENSIE will then assemble proposals for papers into proposals for ENSIE sessions, and forward these to ESSWE. Each session will have three to four papers. 

ENSIE will also be holding an additional ENSIE workshop with round tables purely for ENSIE members in conjunction with the ESSWE conference, on Wednesday June 25, also at Vilnius University. This will follow the overall aims of ENSIE, not just the ESSWE theme.

Proposals for ESSWE panels and/or the ENSIE workshop should be submitted by 15 December 2024 to esswe10@ensie.site. It is possible to participate in both events, but only one paper may be submitted for each one. Please include name, title, and institutional affiliation, and then 3-5 keywords and, for paper proposals, a title and an abstract of no more than 300 words. 

For further information, see https://www.esswe.org/current-conference.

 

Entangled Late Soviet Sufism

The paper by Oleg Yarosh, “Entangled Sufism in the Late-Soviet esoteric milieu,” presented at the ENSIE meeting in Copenhagen on 25 June 2023, is now available as "Entangled Late Soviet Sufism" on the Research Blog of the German-Russian Research Project on New Age in Late Soviet and Post-Soviet Russia, at https://newageru.hypotheses.org/9971. 

The abstract reads:

The complex esoteric milieu in Soviet society, although centered around influential figures and groups in major cities of the European part of the USSR, was not homogenous. Less noticeable peripheral areas in the eastern parts of the Soviet Union also contributed to the esoteric milieu, often introducing unique teachings and practices. The dynamic interplay between these central and peripheral regions informed a multifaceted esoteric underground that developed despite the still oppressive late Soviet political climate. My focus lies on the Sufi current within this milieu, which evolved from the reciprocal entanglement process between center-periphery dynamics, encompassing Western esoteric currents, parascience, and popular Sufism in the Muslim-majority regions of the USSR.

ENSIE 2024 deadline approaching

15 February 2024 is the deadline for proposals for the 2024 Meeting of the European Network for the Study of Islam and Esotericism (ENSIE), 2-3 July 2024, University of Exeter, England.

The theme for the meeting is “Dreams and Visions in Islam”. Although we especially invite papers that engage with the meeting theme, proposals that do not relate to the meeting theme are also welcome. See http://ensie.site/conferences.html for more details.