New approaches to the study of esotericism

The academic study of esotericism is currently undergoing a phase of expan-
sion and diversification. This is true whether we look at the topics, geographi-
cal regions, and subject languages of new research projects in the field, at the
disciplines involved in its study, or the demographic composition of its schol-
ars. The past decade has seen monographs, anthologies, and journal special
issues on topics such as African-American esotericism (Finley, Guillory and
Page, eds., 2014), esotericism in South America (Bubello, 2010), esotericism in
South Asia (Djurdjevic, 2014), esotericism in Scandinavia (Bogdan and Ham-
mer, eds., 2016), global esotericism (Bogdan and Djurdjevic, 2014), contempo-
rary esotericism (Asprem and Granholm, eds., 2013), esotericism in antiquity
(Burns, ed., 2015), Islamic esotericism (Saif, 2019), cognitive approaches to es-
otericism (Asprem and Davidsen, 2017), ethnographic approaches to esoteri-
cism (Crockford and Asprem, 2018), feminist and queer analyses of esotericism
(Hedenborg White, 2019), and so on. We see new forays into literary studies, art
history, colonial and global history, history and sociology of science, the study
of popular culture, and many other domains. The study of esotericism always
had interdisciplinary aspirations, but recent years have accelerated this trend.
With it comes an increased need for generalists in the field to read broadly
across an expanding number of disciplines.The academic study of esotericism is currently undergoing a phase of expan-
sion and diversification. This is true whether we look at the topics, geographi-
cal regions, and subject languages of new research projects in the field, at the
disciplines involved in its study, or the demographic composition of its schol-
ars. The past decade has seen monographs, anthologies, and journal special
issues on topics such as African-American esotericism (Finley, Guillory and
Page, eds., 2014), esotericism in South America (Bubello, 2010), esotericism in
South Asia (Djurdjevic, 2014), esotericism in Scandinavia (Bogdan and Ham-
mer, eds., 2016), global esotericism (Bogdan and Djurdjevic, 2014), contempo-
rary esotericism (Asprem and Granholm, eds., 2013), esotericism in antiquity
(Burns, ed., 2015), Islamic esotericism (Saif, 2019), cognitive approaches to es-
otericism (Asprem and Davidsen, 2017), ethnographic approaches to esoteri-
cism (Crockford and Asprem, 2018), feminist and queer analyses of esotericism
(Hedenborg White, 2019), and so on. We see new forays into literary studies, art
history, colonial and global history, history and sociology of science, the study
of popular culture, and many other domains. The study of esotericism always
had interdisciplinary aspirations, but recent years have accelerated this trend.
With it comes an increased need for generalists in the field to read broadly
across an expanding number of disciplines.