[Commlist] CFP: 21st Century Magic and Spirituality in Media and Culture

Final CFP: 21st Century Magic and Spirituality in Media and Culture

Friday, 30th June 2023, Goldsmiths, University of London

Confirmed keynote speaker: Professor Jason Ãnanda Josephson Storm 
(Williams College, US)



Final Call for Papers

The 21st century has seen an exponential rise of what can be loosely
defined as spiritual media and culture – virtual worlds are replete with
reports of mystical experiences, and astrology apps, tarot readings on
TikTok, or wicca influencers on YouTube can attract millions of
subscribers, followers, and views. What used to be marginal, esoteric
“structures of feeling” (Williams, 1977) belonging outside of the
socially prescribed, institutional frameworks are now visibly in the
mainstream, offering different models of identities, entrepreneurships,
and engaged in meaning making practices that are often lodged between
the sacred and the trivial. How can we, in media and cultural studies,
critically engage with these practices that are no longer liminal and
covert, but are proliferating in the mainstream media and culture? Does
this abundance of digital spiritual spaces and acceleration of ‘new’
cultural experiences simply reproduce the “illegitimate knowledge”
(Katz, 2014), thus making it more observable? And if spiritual cultures
are a response to ontological insecurities, what kinds of meanings and
values do they produce and disseminate?

The aim of this symposium is to provide a platform for inter- and cross-
disciplinary dialogue about old/new spiritual cultures, occulture and
magic practices in the 21st century. Its purpose is to engage with
epistemic tensions situated within the discursive ‘return’ to
mythologies of pre-modern enchantments, and to examine emerging
political, environmental, economic, and cultural dynamics that define
spiritual practices in 21st century.

We invite papers dealing with any aspects addressed above. Possible 
themes might include:

* Spirituality or magic and/as decolonial/feminist praxis
* Spirituality and emotional labour
* Spirituality and politics of identity
* Commodification of spirituality
* Re-enchantment in the media
  * Capitalist and anti-capitalist magic
* Cultural value and legitimacy of spiritual practices
* Conspirituality and disinformation
* Spirituality and environmentalism
* Creative industries and spirituality


Please submit a 250-word abstract and 50-word biography toVanaGoblot–
(v.goblot /at/ gold.ac.uk) by April 26, 2023. Successful submissions will be 
announced on May 15, 2023.

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