European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism
The European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism (ESSWE) is Europe's only scholarly society for the study of Western esotericism. Founded in 2005, 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 (both Brill),are published under the auspices of the ESSWE. 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 (2007), Strasbourg (2009), Szeged (2011), and Gothenburg (2013). The 2015 conference is scheduled to take place in Riga.
Other activities
The ESSWE provides various resource on its website, awards prizes and travel bursaries to recognize and encourage younger scholars. It has two regional networks, the Scandinavian Network for the Academic Study of Western Esotericism (SNASWE) and the Israeli Network for the Study of Western Esotericsm (INASWE), and two thematic research networks, the Contemporary Esotericism Research Network (ContERN) and the ESSWE Network for the Study of Esotericism in Antiquity (NSEA).
Relationships
The ESSWE is an affiliated society of the International Association for the History of Religions (IAHR) and a related scholarly organization of the American Academy of Religion (AAR).
Current officers
- President: Andreas Kilcher (Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich, Switzerland)
- Vice President: Boaz Huss (Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Israel)
- Secretary: Mark Sedgwick (University of Aarhus, Denmark)
- Treasurer and Membership Secretary: Egil Asprem (University of California, Santa Barbara)
- Webmaster: Peter J. Forshaw (University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
- Henrik Bogdan (University of Gothenburg, Sweden)
- Jean-Pierre Brach (Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Sorbonne, Paris, France)
- Wouter J. Hanegraaff (University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
- Birgit Menzel (Universität Mainz, Germany)
- Sophie Page (University College, London)
- Marco Pasi (University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
- Gyorgy E. Szonyi (University of Szeged, Hungary)
- Helmut Zander (Ruhr-Universität, Bochum, Germany)
Notable past officers
- Antoine Faivre (University of the Sorbonne, France)
- Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke (University of Exeter, UK)
Further reading
- Gregory D. Alles. Religious studies: a global view. USA & Canada: Routledge, 2008.
- Kripal J.J., Hanegraff W.J. Introduction: things we don't talk about // Kripal J. J., Hanegraaff W.J. (eds.) Hidden intercourse. Eros and sexuality in the history of Western Esotericism. Leiden & Brill, 2008.