Reading Group: Psychedelics & Aesthetics
Registration is required.
How do psychedelic experiences influence the perception of art and beauty? What role does aesthetics play in psychedelic experiences, and how does it impact ethical considerations?
This biweekly reading and learning group led by CSWR Student Research Assistant Tristan Angieri, MDiv ‘26, will explore these questions and more, focusing on the relationship between psychedelics, aesthetics, and ethics. Participants will examine psychedelic practices in various contexts, including clinical, underground, indigenous, and other cultural settings. Topics will include the aesthetics of psychedelic experiences, the role of the ludic and creativity in psychedelic experiences, and the influence of religion, spirituality, and culture on taste-making in psychedelics.
Each session will focus on one or more specific psychedelic substances and companion works of art/media or practices, using diverse readings for analysis. Participants will engage in text-based discussions and optional experient…
Programming Series: Psychedelics and the Future of Religion. Spirituality and Psychedelics. Psychedelics and Ethics. Transcendence and Transformation. Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, CSWR Events Coordinator
ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu.
Wednesday, April 30, 2025, 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM.
Conference Room, Center for the Study of World Religions, 42 Francis Ave. Cambridge, MA.
Launching Peripheries Volume 7: A Reading and Celebration
Registration is required.
Please register to attend in person.
Please register to attend on Zoom.
Join us in celebrating the launch of the seventh edition of Peripheries: A Journal of Word, Image, and Sound, published at the Center for the Study of World Religions at Harvard Divinity School.
Inspired by the idea that poetry, like a room, is a curated space to contain and contemplate memories on the threshold of forgetting, this year’s edition builds a series of folios like an enfilade—six adjacent rooms—each with its own atmosphere, architecture, and archive. The collection passes through spaces both sacred and imperiled, sheltered and displaced. The journal opens its doors to diverse voices and forms, including experimental non-fiction poetry, visual scores, archived songs and photographs, paintings, and translations from Arabic, Chinese, Polish, and Yiddish. Emerging artists make their debut alongside some of the best American writers.
To launch the journal, we are honored to present readings…
Programming Series: Poetry. Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, CSWR Events Coordinator
ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu.
Thursday, May 1, 2025, 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM.
110 Thompson Room, Barker Center
12 Quincy St. Cambridge, MA.
For more info visit cswr.hds.harvard.edu. Walking Tour of Harvard’s Psychedelic History
Registration is required.
While research on psychedelics is ever present in our contemporary moment, there is a long tradition of interest in psychoactive drugs at Harvard University—from the ethnobotanical studies of the 1940s, to “mind-control” experiments of the 1950s, to the “heyday” of psychedelic research and activism of the 1960s. This walking tour traipses through the history of psychedelics at Harvard—stitching together figures as far back as Ralph Waldo Emerson, to little-known heroes of ‘60s drug culture, to contemporary felons, fugitives, and academics. This tour will be guided by CSWR Psychedelics and Spiritualty Program Leads, JEFFREY BREAU and PAUL GILLIS-SMITH. The tour is also accessible via Spotify, linked here.
The tour will cover about 2 miles. Comfortable walking shoes are recommended. The tour will convene in front of the CSWR, at 42 Francis Avenue, Cambridge, MA, at 5:00pm, and conclude in Harvard Square at the Kennedy School, at 79 John F Kennedy Street, Cambridge, MA.…
Programming Series: Psychedelics and the Future of Religion. Transcendence and Transformation. Psychedelics and Ethics. Spirituality and Psychedelics. Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, CSWR Events Coordinator
(617)495-4476.
Wednesday, May 7, 2025, 5:00 PM – 7:00 PM.
Center for the Study of World Religions
42 Francis Ave.
Cambridge, MA.
Sacred Plant Medicines and Indigenous Communities: A Symposium with the CSWR's Psychedelics and Spirituality Postdoctoral Fellows
This event is free and open to the public.
Registration is required.
Light dinner will be provided for those attending in person.
Please register to attend in person.
Please register to attend on Zoom.
Indigenous communities worldwide have held knowledge of sacred plants for thousands of years. Far from monolithic, these communities have diverse theologies, ritual practices, and community approaches. Moreover, Indigenous communities are evolving with globalization and representing critical perspectives in the contemporary understanding of the plants, fungi, and substances often referred to as psychedelic.
For the past year, the CSWR has been fortunate to have two postdoctoral fellows, Osiris González Romero and Andrea Sánchez-Castañeda, working at the forefront of psychedelics and Indigenous knowledge. In this capstone event, Osiris will share findings from his research on Indigenous Medicine and psilocybin mushroom rituals in Mesoamerica, and Andrea will share her research on sacred plant medicines of…
Programming Series: Psychedelics and the Future of Religion. Spirituality and Psychedelics. Transcendence and Transformation. Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, CSWR Events Coordinator
ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu.
Monday, May 12, 2025, 5:30 PM – 7:00 PM.
Common Room, CSWR, 42 Francis Ave. Cambridge, MA.
For more info visit cswr.hds.harvard.edu. Thinking with Plants and Fungi Conference: An Interdisciplinary Exploration into the Mind of Nature
Registration is required.
Please visit the conference website for registration information.
The Center for the Study of World Religions (CSWR) at Harvard Divinity School (HDS) is excited to announce “Thinking with Plants and Fungi: An Interdisciplinary Exploration into the Mind of Nature,” a three-day conference held at Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
This conference convenes scholars from across the sciences, humanities, and social sciences with artists, culture keepers, activists, and practitioners to explore how plants and fungi help us rethink the nature of mind and matter and humans’ relationship to the more-than-human world. How might plants and fungi invite us to reimagine cooperation, flourishing, and co-existence amidst ongoing ecological and social crises?
The conference will consist of keynote presentations and panel discussions. Confirmed speakers include Merlin Sheldrake, Giuliana Furci, Emanuele Coccia, Banu Subramanian, Jessica J. Lee, Zoë Schlanger, Monica Gagliano,…
Programming Series: Thinking with Plants and Fungi. Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, CSWR Events Coordinator
ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu.
Thursday, May 15, 2025, 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM.
James Room, Swartz Hall, 45 Francis Ave. & Zoom.
For more info visit cswr.hds.harvard.edu. Thinking with Plants and Fungi Conference: An Interdisciplinary Exploration into the Mind of Nature
Registration is required.
Please visit the conference website for registration information.
The Center for the Study of World Religions (CSWR) at Harvard Divinity School (HDS) is excited to announce “Thinking with Plants and Fungi: An Interdisciplinary Exploration into the Mind of Nature,” a three-day conference held at Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
This conference convenes scholars from across the sciences, humanities, and social sciences with artists, culture keepers, activists, and practitioners to explore how plants and fungi help us rethink the nature of mind and matter and humans’ relationship to the more-than-human world. How might plants and fungi invite us to reimagine cooperation, flourishing, and co-existence amidst ongoing ecological and social crises?
The conference will consist of keynote presentations and panel discussions. Confirmed speakers include Merlin Sheldrake, Giuliana Furci, Emanuele Coccia, Banu Subramanian, Jessica J. Lee, Zoë Schlanger, Monica Gagliano,…
Programming Series: Thinking with Plants and Fungi. Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, CSWR Events Coordinator
ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu.
Friday, May 16, 2025, 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM.
James Room, Swartz Hall, 45 Francis Ave. & Zoom.
For more info visit cswr.hds.harvard.edu. Thinking with Plants and Fungi Conference: An Interdisciplinary Exploration into the Mind of Nature
Registration is required.
Please visit the conference website for registration information.
The Center for the Study of World Religions (CSWR) at Harvard Divinity School (HDS) is excited to announce “Thinking with Plants and Fungi: An Interdisciplinary Exploration into the Mind of Nature,” a three-day conference held at Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
This conference convenes scholars from across the sciences, humanities, and social sciences with artists, culture keepers, activists, and practitioners to explore how plants and fungi help us rethink the nature of mind and matter and humans’ relationship to the more-than-human world. How might plants and fungi invite us to reimagine cooperation, flourishing, and co-existence amidst ongoing ecological and social crises?
The conference will consist of keynote presentations and panel discussions. Confirmed speakers include Merlin Sheldrake, Giuliana Furci, Emanuele Coccia, Banu Subramanian, Jessica J. Lee, Zoë Schlanger, Monica Gagliano,…
Programming Series: Thinking with Plants and Fungi. Contact: Laurie D. Sedgwick, CSWR Events Coordinator
ldsedgwick@hds.harvard.edu.
Saturday, May 17, 2025, 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM.
James Room, Swartz Hall, 45 Francis Ave. & Zoom.
For more info visit cswr.hds.harvard.edu.