HEAL Network for the Ethnography of Healing

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.

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

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

Check out the programme for our conference 'Spiritualities and Healing in Global and Transhistorical Perspectives' in Venice, Italy, 10-12 June, organized jointly by the Centre for Comparative Studies of Civilisations and Spiritualities (Cini Foundation), the Center for the Study of World Religions (Harvard Divinity School) the Center for the Study of Lived Religion (Ca’ Foscari University) and the HEAL Network.
https://www.healnetwork.eu/events1/spiritualities-and-healing-2025

Call for Papers: Conference 'Spiritualities and Healing in Global and Transhistorical Perspectives', Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venice, 10-12 June 2025.
Co-organized by the Centre for Comparative Studies of Civilisations and Spiritualities (Cini Foundation), the Center for the Study of World Religions (Harvard Divinity School) the Center for the Study of Lived Religion (Ca’ Foscari University), and the HEAL Network for the Ethnography of Healing.
Deadline: 28 February.
https://www.healnetwork.eu/events1/spiritualities-and-healing-2025

https://www.cini.it/en/news/call-for-papers-conference-spiritualities-and-healing-in-global-and-transhistorical-perspectives

Giuseppe Arcimboldo, Summer, 1563, oil on panel. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Tanya Luhrmann’s lecture on 'The Intersection between Psychology and Anthropology in Voices-Hearers Research' organized by the EASA CSP network and the HEAL Network for the Ethnography of Healing

CSP Online Lectures — Tanya M. Luhrmann (22 January 2025) Here is the recording of our first CSP Online Lectures. To inaugurate this new online event, we were honored to welcome Tanya M. Luhrmann, Professor at Stanf...

The HEAL Network is thrilled to partner with the EASA Contemporary Spiritual Practices Network for this event and invites you to join the inauguration of the CSP Online Lecture Series with Tanya M. Luhrmann.
The lecture will be held on January 22, 2025, 6-7 PM (CET).
Save the date and sign up here to join us: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfYA-8hWxR19wxzF2FMbt9G2GKq5s5KRk6S-uElCSdGfVBlTA/viewform

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

We are very pleased to invite you all to the inauguration of the CSP Online Lectures, an initiative led by Yael Dansac and Emily Pierini, in collaboration with the HEAL Network.

For this first online conference, we will be honored to welcome Tanya M. Lurhmann, Professor at Stanford University, for a presentation entitled "The Intersection between Psychology and Anthropology in Voices-Hearers Research". The conference will be held on Wednesday, January 22, 2025, from 6 to 7 PM (CET Central European Time).

The event is free, but registration is mandatory and open until January 20, 2025:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfYA-8hWxR19wxzF2FMbt9G2GKq5s5KRk6S-uElCSdGfVBlTA/viewform

We are looking forward to seeing many of you on January 22, 2025!

We are thrilled to announce our Workshop on Healing Ecologies and Medical Diversity co-organized by Emily Pierini, Paul Stoller and Conerly Casey in collaboration between the HEAL Network and the Cas-e (FAU) at Sapienza University of Rome on 12-15 June. Programme and registration to attend online: https://www.healnetwork.eu/events1/workshop-2024-healing-ecologies

Book launch "Other Worlds, Other Bodies: Embodied Epistemologies and Ethnographies of Healing" at Sapienza University of Rome

Book launch - Other Worlds, Other Bodies: Embodied Epistemologies and Ethnographies of Healing OTHER WORLDS, OTHER BODIES: EMBODIED EPISTEMOLOGIES AND ETHNOGRAPHIES OF HEALING Edited by Emily Pierini, Alberto Groisman, and Diana Espírito Santo Publishe...

Join us for the Conference 'Sapienza in Trance: Healing, Cooperation, and Imagination' to be held at Sapienza University of Rome on 12-15 September, in person and online.
Free and public attendance by registration: https://www.healnetwork.eu/events1/sapienza-in-trance-2023-conference

Keynote: Thomas Csordas, University of California San Diego.
Check out the full programme for workshops, research panels, and book launch.

This event is part of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Global Fellowship project 'THETRANCE-Transnational Healing: Therapeutic Trajectories in Spiritual Trance' that has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 89539