HEAL Network for the Ethnography of Healing

09/17/2026

The EU Funded Project RHEAL - Religion and Healing: Collaborative and Participatory Methodologies under the Marie Curie Staff Exchanges programme is the outcome of a collaboration between HEAL Network members. Follow the page to stay updated on seminars on healing collaborations around the world. On 21-22 September the project seminars will be hosted by Sapienza University of Rome, coordinator of an international consortium of 13 institutions. The event will address case studies from Tanzania, Italy, and Indonesia, and include a writing workshop led by Paul Stoller.

🌍 RHEAL Seminars at Sapienza University of Rome
21–24 September 2026

We are pleased to announce the RHEAL Seminars, marking the beginning of the project’s activities at Sapienza University of Rome:

"Pathways to healing collaborations between religion and biomedicine: case studies in Tanzania, Indonesia and Italy"

the programme brings together researchers and practitioners from Tanzania, Indonesia, Italy, Brazil and the UK to explore different forms of collaboration between religious and traditional healing practices, biomedical care and mental health.

📅 21–22 September
Roundtables on healing collaborations Tanzania, Indonesia and Italy.
The sessions are free and open to the public, with both in-person and online participation available.

👉 Registration for the 21–22 September seminars:
https://forms.gle/hdXpdkJuw9Fv3zwq5

Please share this announcement with colleagues, students and anyone who may be interested in joining us.

📅 23–24 September
Sensory ethnographic writing workshop with Paul Stoller (University of Pennsylvania)
Weaving the worlds: storytelling for healing
The workshop is reserved for RHEAL project members and PhD students in the Anthropology curriculum. Places are limited and participation is in person.

Funded by the European Union and organized under the Marie Skłodowska–Curie Staff Exchanges project “RHEAL–Religion and Healing: Collaborative and Participatory Methodologies” (grant agreement No 101236435)

08/23/2026

08/14/2026

RHEAL project partner in Brazil, Terreiro Sustentável, in collaboration with team members at Universidade do Estado de Rio de Janeiro and Sapienza University of Rome, are organizing a workshop on traditional knowledge and mental health in Afro-Brazilian religions.

On August 15 at 11:30 AM, the Centro Integrado ITS hosts the 1st Ori Rere Meeting – POTMA Health Workshops Circuit, a space for gathering, care, knowledge exchange, and the valorisation of the health practices of Afro-brazilian religious groups (Povos Tradicionais de Matriz Africana).

Throughout the day, we will have the Alimento de Axé Exhibition, a Solidarity Lunch, Artistic Ciganas Dances, a presentation of the Ori Rere Campaign, a Conversation Circle on POTMA Health, and, closing our programme, a procession to Yemanjá leading to the Terreiro de Obatalá – Ilê Omi Orun.

🗓️ August 15, 2026
⏰ Starting at 11:30 AM
📍 Centro Integrado ITS – Rua Elisa, 48 – Sepetiba, Rio de Janeiro/RJ

📲 Registrations are open! Check the QR Code on the card and come build with us this space of health, ancestry, territory, and collective care. Registration link: https://forms.gle/i8kWjpyRaxwkqxY59
Online streaming available on the ITS YouTube channel .sustentavel

This initiative is organized under the Marie Skłodowska–Curie Staff Exchanges project "RHEAL–Religion and Healing: Collaborative and Participatory Methodologies" (grant
agreement No 101236435). Funded by the European Union.

08/14/2026

Don’t miss our Project RHEAL events in Rio de Janeiro! Join us from August 24 to 26, 2026, for a cycle of three interdisciplinary seminars at the Faculdade de Formação de Professores (UERJ), São Gonçalo. The first seminar explores the intersections between mental and environmental health through the lens of the ecology of knowledge, examining how traditional healing practices - particularly the Afro-religious ones - are intrinsically linked to land and territory, and their contributions to understanding psychic suffering and collective well-being in the context of contemporary environmental crises. The second seminar addresses the challenges and potential of interdisciplinary research at the interface between mental health, religions, and spirituality, focusing on the complexity of “anomalous” or spiritual experiences and the conceptual and clinical challenges they pose for diagnosis and care. The third seminar further deepens these dialogues, fostering collaboration between anthropology, psychology, arts and spiritual traditions to develop culturally sensitive and integrative approaches to mental health. Together, these seminars reaffirm RHEAL's commitment to participatory methodologies, epistemic diversity, and the co-construction of knowledge across different therapeutic frameworks.

Register here for online attendance: https://forms.gle/hQrKnLi1KYr8kpT46

Funded by the European Union under the Marie Skłodowska–Curie Staff Exchanges "RHEAL–Religion and Healing: Collaborative and Participatory Methodologies" https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101236435.

07/13/2026

HEAL Network Workshop 2027, University of Montreal, Canada. Deadline to submit proposals extended until July 24th

07/01/2026

CFP HEAL Network Workshop 2027 University of Montreal, Canada

05/11/2026

We are thrilled to announce that the book ‘Other Worlds, Other Bodies: Embodied Epistemologies and Ethnographies of Healing’, edited by Emily Pierini, Alberto Groisman and Diana Espírito Santo, is now available in paperback.
This volume brings together HEAL Network members exploring healing, embodiment, and transformative ways of knowing, with contributions by Giovanna Capponi, Géraldine Mossière, Bettina Schmidt, Andrea De Antoni, Paula Bronson, Eugenia Roussou, Anastasios Panagiotopoulos, Tamara Dee Turner, Emily Pierini, Gustavo Ruiz Chiesa, Helmar Kurz, Fiona Bowie, and an epilogue by Roger Canals.
A 25% discount is available with code PIER6907, valid until 30 June 2026
https://www.berghahnbooks.com/title/PieriniOther

03/31/2026

Day 2 of the symposium “Healing with more-than-humans: environment, historicities and sacred materialities” sponsored by the Yale Institute of Sacred Music. The morning panel brought together the insightful contributions by Giovanna Capponi, Yael Dansac, Ana Mariela Bacigalupo, and Saida Daukeyeva, who collectively explored the entanglements between more-than-humans and environmental action. The afternoon continued with the workshop on “Sacred beadwork: adorning the orishas as energies of nature” led by Martin Tsang, providing participants with a practical engagement with sacred materialities. This year’s symposium culminated in a workshop on pizzica, the traditional Southern Italian spider dance, led by Giovanna Parmigiani and dancer and practitioner Debora Campa, exploring healing through rhythmic attunement and ecological resonances with the land.

03/27/2026

HEAL Network members gathered for an inspiring Day 1 of the symposium “Healing with more-than-humans: environment, historicities, and sacred materialities,” sponsored by the Yale Institute of Sacred Music.
We began with an opening around an oak tree for the workshop “Somatic Pathways to the More-Than-Human,” led by Eline Kieft. The day continued with a rich and thought-provoking panel, “Cosmologies, Materiality, Historicities and the Environment,” featuring contributions by Giovanna Parmigiani, Emily Pierini, Fadeke Castor, and Géraldine Mossière.
In the afternoon, Paul Stoller guided us through a storytelling workshop on ethnographic writing “Stories for Healing in the Environmental Crisis,”
We are grateful to Yale University for hosting us, and we look forward to continuing these conversations on Day 2

03/18/2026

We are pleased to announce a two-day hybrid symposium 'Healing with More-than-Humans: Environment, Historicities, and Sacred Materialities', to be held at Yale University on March 26-27, bringing together anthropologists and practitioners—including religious practitioners, healers, dancers, and artists.
The event combines academic panels (also available as webinars) with workshops on dance, storytelling, sacred art, and performance. This symposium explores the connections between sacred histories, historicities—i.e., the ways in which time and temporality are understood, experienced, and lived—and well-being by means of an engagement with more-than-humans through expressive and material cultures.
Convened by Emily Pierini, Giovanna Capponi and Giovanna Parmigiani.
Sponsored by the Yale Institute of Sacred Music’s Religion, Ecology, and Expressive Culture Initiative.
Open to the public.
Programme and free Webinar Registration here: https://www.healnetwork.eu/events1-yale2026-healing-with-more-than-humans
Yale Event website: https://ism.yale.edu/events/2026-03-26-healing-with-more-than-humans-environment-historicities-and-sacred-materialities