Mark Sedgwick - Esoteric transfers and constructions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam

is Adjunct Professor of Islamic Law at the University of Roma La Sapienza and associate member of the CETOBAC in Paris (CNRSEHESSCollge de France). His research focuses on the history and anthropology of Balkan Islam. His recent publications include Post-Socialist Sufi Revival in Albania: Public Marginality or Spiritual Privatisation? in the Journal of Muslims in Europe (2019); Celebrating Sultan Nevruz: Between theological debate and multi-framed practice in contemporary Albania, Studia Islamica (2020); Aquile e dervisci. Lautorit sufi nellAlbania post-socialista (2019).

is a part-time Lecturer in the Department of Religion at Bishops University (Sherbrooke, QC) and the interim programming coordinator at Dawson College Peace Center (Montreal, QC). She is revising her doctoral thesis, The Demonic Book Club: Demonology, Social Discourses, and the Creation of Identity in German Demonic Ritual Magic Between 13501580, into a book as well as conducting research on the intersection of Late Medieval and Early Modern demonic ritual magic and exorcism.

is a Postdoctoral Associate in the Emmy Noether Research Group Patterns of Knowledge Circulation: The Transmission and Reception of Jewish Esoteric Knowledge in Early Modern East-Central Europe in the Institute of Jewish Studies at Free University in Berlin. Her first monograph, Kabbalah in Print: The Study and Popularization of Jewish Mysticism in Early Modernity (2020), examines the literary structure and cultural impact of kabbalistic reference tools and their role in disseminating Jewish mystical concepts and ideas in the period between 1550 and 1650.

is Aron Bernstein Chair in Jewish History at the Goldstein-Goren Department of Jewish Thought at the Ben-Gurion University. He is the vice-president of the European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism and a co-director of MEIDA Center (Israeli Information Center on New Religious Movements). His research interests are history of Kabbalah, Western Esotericism, New Age Culture, and New Religious Movements. His recent publications include Boaz Huss, Zohar: Reception and Impact (2016); Julie Chajes and Boaz Huss (eds), Theosophical Appropriation: Esotericism, Kabbalah and the Transformation of Traditions (2016); and Boaz Huss, Mystifying Kabbalah: Academic Scholarship, National Theology, and New Age Spirituality