Gnoseologies: Esoteric identities: Helena P. Blavatsky as a woman philosopher? With Tim Rudbøg
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What criteria decide philosophical legitimacy? What is the role of women philosophers in them? In this conversation, Tim Rudbøg will consider the figure of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky and, through intertextual analysis, show that Blavatsky actively engaged with philosophical discourse, developing perspectives on being, consciousness, space, and time in conversation with thinkers such as Kant, Fichte, Hegel, and Spencer. While Blavatsky regarded her own work as philosophical, her conception of authentic philosophy diverged from that of many contemporaries. Rudbøg contends that esoteric identities are now easily pinned down, but that Blavatsky merits recognition as a philosopher in her own right, while simultaneously exceeding that category.
TIM RUDBØG, PhD, is Associate Professor in the Study of Religions at the University of Copenhagen, where he also serves as Head of Education for the Study of Religions and directs the Copenhagen Centre for…
Programming Series: Gnoseologies. Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, CSWR Events Coordinator
ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu.
Wednesday, December 10, 2025, 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM.
Zoom.
For more info visit cswr.hds.harvard.edu. Gnoseologies: Arts and Crafts Divine: How Spiritual Expertise Is Made—Practice, Pedagogy, and Ethnographic Study
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In this Gnoseologies conversation, Olivia Cejvan and Giovanna Parmigiani explore spiritual expertise as something made rather than claimed, crafted through repetition, imitation, correction, and the slow education of attention inside initiatory settings. Drawing on Cejvan’s ethnographic research on learning ritual magic and her ongoing work on Swedish Wicca, they will reflect on how knowledge moves through bodies, objects, atmospheres, stories and secrecy: how wor(l)ds are learned as technique, tools become teachers, and “doing it right” is felt before it can be fully explained.
OLIVIA CEJVAN is an anthropologist of religion whose research explores esotericism and new religious movements, particularly how magic is taught, learned, and embodied within initiatory communities. Currently a project researcher at Malmö University, Department of Society, Culture and Identity, she examines how religion is taught and learned within Swedish Wicca.…
Programming Series: Gnoseologies. Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, CSWR Events Coordinator
ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu.
Wednesday, December 17, 2025, 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM.
Zoom.
For more info visit cswr.hds.harvard.edu. Greeley Lecture: Reconciling the Loss of Indigenous Eden
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Blair Stonechild, PhD, First Nations University of Canada, will discuss his research on the concept of Indigenous Eden, its loss, and how the process of Truth and Reconciliation can bring together disparate perspectives and offer solutions for the future. Stonechild’s talk is based on five decades of research with Indigenous Elders at First Nations University of Canada, which has resulted in a trilogy on Indigenous Spirituality: The Knowledge Seeker (2016), Loss of Indigenous Eden (2020), and Challenge to Civilization (2024), published by the University of Regina Press.
BLAIR STONECHILD is a member of the Muscowpetung Saulteaux First Nation and is a survivor of the Qu’Appelle Indian Residential School. He holds a bachelor’s degree from McGill, and master’s and doctorate degrees from the University of Regina. In 1976, Blair joined the First Nations University of Canada as its first faculty member and was the…
Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, CSWR Events Coordinator
ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu.
Tuesday, February 10, 2026, 5:30 PM – 7:00 PM.
Center for the Study of World Religions, Common Room, 42 Francis Ave. Cambridge, MA.
For more info visit cswr.hds.harvard.edu.