About ISARS Conference 2026

The International Society for Academic Research on Shamanism (ISARS) invites proposals for its 2026 conference, to be held at Sogang University in Seoul under the theme Shamanism and Power: Dialogues Across Knowledge, Art, and Society. This conference welcomes researchers across disciplines together with artists, curators, and practitioners, fostering a dialogue that integrates creative, cultural, and community-based perspectives on shamanism. In shamanic traditions, power is understood as both an invisible force and a powerful agent—at once a source of vitality and a form of spiritual energy. By entering into a relationship with power, shamans provide guidance for their communities as well as themselves. At the same time, power categorizes and regulates shamanism within political and national contexts, producing it as a social reality. Shamanism has unfolded in diverse ways across the world, reflecting the distinctive experiences of different regions shaped by varying historical and cultural dynamics. In several Asian countries, traditional forms of shamanism have been reshaped through the historical experiences of colonialism and modernization, as shamans incorporated and reinterpreted these experiences into their practice. The theme “Shamanism and Power” aims to address not only classical understandings of shamanism in the categories of spirituality and religion, but also the ways in which neo-shamanism and urban shamanism are being reconstructed across diverse cultural domains of the contemporary world. Concepts of shamanism rooted in small scale societies are no longer sufficient for grasping the multiple forms of “shamanisms” observable today. Some scholars even question the utility of “shamanism” as a general category. From this perspective, power may be seen both as the spiritual and material force pursued by shamans, and as the mediating condition that enables specific forms of shamanism to take shape within broader political, economic, social, cultural, and religious contexts. Shamanism, then, can be understood as the outcome of interactions among diverse actants: the activities of shamans in pursuit of power, the overarching structures that frame shamanism, and the public evaluations of shamanic practice. Against this backdrop, the conference invites participants to reflect on questions such as: – How does power function as a mediating condition that enables or constrains the realization of shamanism in contemporary contexts? – In what ways do shamans reinterpret the historical experiences of colonialism and modernization through their pursuit of power? – What new forms of “shamanism” emerge when power is understood not only as spiritual force but also as socio political condition? – What role does public discourse play in legitimizing or delegitimizing particular forms of shamanism as authentic or powerful?