The DFG Center for Advanced Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences "Alternative Rationalities and Esoteric Practices in a Global Perspective“, in collaboration with the University of Göttingen, is delighted to announce the Book Launch and Workshop “Esotericism in East Asia and Global Esoteric Practices” to be held on November 18-20, 2026.

Overall Aims

This book launch cum workshop presents Esotericism in East Asia: Cultural Interpretation and Politics (eds. Chienhui Chuang, Sangyun Han & Julian Strube, Bloomsbury 2026) and takes it as the starting point for a methodological conversation with CAS-E. Bringing the volume’s historically and regionally grounded case studies into dialogue with CAS-E’s praxeological focus on marking and boundary-making, the workshop invites the contributors to view their own material through the CAS-E framework, and asks how East Asian materials can help to rethink the conceptual and historiographical premises of research on esotericism.

Format

The workshop is conceived as an exchange between the contributors to the volume and the members of CAS-E. Instead of presenting conventional papers, contributors are asked to offer seven-minute long inputs that take one concrete aspect of their chapter and reconsider it in relation to the CAS-E Analytical Double Helix Framework (ADHF). Each session combines these inputs with a discussion of the source material that the contributors bring. The CAS-E Research Stream coordinators introduce the framework; CAS-E Fellows chair the sessions and offer responses with particular attention to Chinese and wider East Asian materials. A concluding discussion brings the presented perspectives together.

The Book

Chuang Chienhui, Han Sangyun and Strube Julian. Esotericism in East Asia. London: Bloomsbury Publishing (UK). 2026. Further information on the book and a download is available here: https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/esotericism-in-east-asia-9781350557512/

In case you would like to attend, please register until November 15, 2026, via an E-Mail to rolf.scheuermann@fau.de. In-person is limited and will be determined on the basis of the time of your registration. Online participation is possible.