International Society for Academic Research on Shamanism

ISARS 2026 SEOUL

Shamanism and Power
Dialogues Across Knowledge, Art, and Society
June 24–27, 2026 · Sogang University, Seoul
25

Thursday, June 25

Day Two

Timetable

Time
Sessions
09:00–10:00
Registration and Welcoming
10:00–11:30
South Asian Shamanism and the Power of the Word – Part I5 peopleChanges in Shamanism and Modern Society4 peopleKorean Shamanism in Cinema, Media & Popular Culture4 peopleTheory, Definition & Comparative Study4 peopleSouth Asia & Iu-Mien Shamanism4 people
11:30–12:30
Keynote 2 — Dr. Laurel Kendall (J302)
12:30–14:00
ISARS General Assembly (For Members)
12:30–14:30
Lunch (Provided) & Korean Dance Performance
14:30–16:00
South Asian Shamanism and the Power of the Word – Part II6 peopleAppropriation and Transmission of Sacredness: Shamanism as a Contemporary Folklore4 peoplePost-Soviet Siberian Shamanism4 peopleTaiwan Indigenous Communities4 peopleChina & East Asian Shamanism4 people
16:00–16:30
Coffee Break
16:30–18:00
Interferences: Shamanic Traditions and Christianity in Interaction5 peopleEntangled Power: Money, Heritage, Technology, and Metaphysics in Korean Shamanism4 peopleArt Derived from Shamanism5 peopleThe Shaman's Experience and Musical Creativity/Sacredness in Korean Shamanism5 peopleContemporary Shamanism & Healing4 people
18:30–21:00
Conference Banquet & Korean Nongak Performance

Sessions & Presentations

09:00–10:00
Registration and Welcoming
Session 210:00–11:30J Building
South Asian Shamanism and the Power of the Word – Part I
J305
Panel
Dr. Lidia Guzy
The Power of Shamanic Mantras of Nag Bacca (the Children of the Snake) – in Western Odisha, India
Stefano Beggiora
Miji Migung and the Power of the Word among the Apatanis
Dr. Annapurna Devi Pandey
Sacred Mountains, Living Agents: Kondh Shamanic Logics and Environmental Justice in Odisha
Subhadra Mitra Channa
Shifting Between Alternate Realities: Shamanic Healing on the Himalayan Borders
Uwe Skoda
Boil (Boli Yatra) rituals in Western Odisha, India
Changes in Shamanism and Modern Society
J306
Panel
Yang Jongsung
Shamanism Activities and Formality in the Age of AI
Mok Jin-ho
Modern Reception and Significance of Shamanic Music
O Mun-Seon
Spatial Agglomeration and Significance of Shamanic Shrines in Seoul
Ban Hye-seong
Continuity and transformation in Gut Tradition: The Case of Hwanghaedo Hajikgut
Korean Shamanism in Cinema, Media & Popular Culture
J302
Individual Session
Soyun Lee
The Spirit-Possessed Shaman in Popular Content: Focusing on Destiny War 49
Junhee Kim
Ward off Misfortune or Just Be Cute: Apotropaic Goods in Contemporary Korean Culture
Park Seonghye
Ecological Thought in Narrative Shamanic Chants of Hamgyong-do
Joonseong Lee
Technologies of the (dark) Shaman Self: Nam June Paik, Coded Spirits, and Korean Shamanism in the 2020s
Theory, Definition & Comparative Study
J303
Individual Session
Sandip Kumar Mishra
Shamanism in India: Origins, Spread and Contemporary Space in India’s Religious Discourse
Carla Corradi Musi
Finno-Ugric Shamanism and Power
Giovanni Bazzana
Revisiting Jesus as a Shaman
Nari Bilige (Naran Bilik)
Shamanism and Thirdness: Negotiating Middle Ground
South Asia & Iu-Mien Shamanism
J304
Individual Session
Anupama Sinha
Conferred Shamanic Identity: Involuntary Calling and Social Recognition among Lower-Caste Jhankris in the Darjeeling Hills
Rumi Roy
Power, Healing and Tradition: Shamanic Knowledge, Art and Social Life in Contemporary Mayong, Assam
Jeffery L. Macdonald
Disempowerment and Empowerment of Iu-Mien Shamanic and Spiritual Practices
Barbara Wilhelmi
The Power of Prophets - Differentiations of the spiritual power of prophets in ancient Israel, using the example of their initiation, their work, and the changing aspects of spiritual power
11:30–12:30
Keynote 2 — Dr. Laurel Kendall (J302)
12:30–14:00
ISARS General Assembly (For Members)
12:30–14:30
Lunch (Provided) & Korean Dance Performance
Session 314:30–16:00J Building
South Asian Shamanism and the Power of the Word – Part II
J305
Panel
Ranju Hasini Sahoo
The Baiga Medicineman : In search of shamanism
Itishree Padhi & Rashmi Pramanik
From Rites of Passage to Spiritual Tranquility - Shamanic rituals in indigenous wisdom
Margaret Lyngdoh
Magic From the Indigenous Contexts of Northeast India
Khondoker Mokaddem Hossain
Evolving of Hegemonic Norms and Power Conflict in Changing Political Environment and Its Impacts on Shamanism across diverse Cultural Domains and Practices in Bangladesh: An Overview
Dr. Monika Hirner
Tantric Soundscapes: (Un)Worlding the World through Sound
Abhirup
Wilderness Deified: A Study on Ritualised Kinship Between Karbi People and Their Ecology – Invisibility Among the Karbi Indigenous Community from Northeast India
Appropriation and Transmission of Sacredness: Shamanism as a Contemporary Folklore
J306
Panel
Kim Hyung-Kun
Appropriation and Transmission of Sacredness: Shamanism as a Contemporary Folklore Source and Its Critical Interpretation
Huh Yong-ho
Appropriation and Transmission of Sacredness: Shamanism as a Contemporary Folklore Source and Its Critical Interpretation
Lee Hyun-jung
Appropriation and Transmission of Sacredness: Shamanism as a Contemporary Folklore Source and Its Critical Interpretation
Lim Kyung-ji
Appropriation and Transmission of Sacredness: Shamanism as a Contemporary Folklore Source and Its Critical Interpretation
Post-Soviet Siberian Shamanism
J302
Individual Session
Semyon Petrukhin
Constructing the Shaman in Post-Soviet New Age: Between Indigenous Traditions and Western Esotericism
Marjorie Mandelstam Balzer
“Speaking Truth to Power: Shaman Alexander’s Spiritual and Political Legacies in Siberia”
Khalikova Chinchi Eres-oolovna
From crisis to vocation: personality transformation in the process of acquiring the shamanic gift (by personal example)
Lena Sidorova
New interaction with «old» spirits in the shamans’ practices: case of Yakutia, Siberia.
Taiwan Indigenous Communities
J303
Individual Session
Dea Rifia Bella
Whales, Ancestors, and Art: Negotiating Moral and Cosmological Continuity in Lamalera
Taruh Payu
Illness, Taboo, and Blessing: The Northern Pangcah Sikawasay and the Accumulation and Exchange of Spiritual Power
Pi-chen Liu
Would a shaman help with Covid-19 pandemic? Mivahvah (eliminating epidemic ritual) of the Pangcah/Ami people in Taiwan
Yi-tze
Ancestral Pathways and Boundary Scripts: Healing Power and Affective Infrastructure in Nanshi Amis Rituals
China & East Asian Shamanism
J304
Individual Session
Zhuo Ni
The Changes of Chinese Oroqen Shaman Culture in the Context of Social Transformation
Li Yang
In the shadow of mountains and cities: the revival of Shamanism in Northeast China
Yidan Zhang & Ting Guo
Conceptualizing “Shamanism” in Contemporary China
Runze Cao
Gendered Exclusion in Contemporary Manchu Shamanism: Tradition, Modernization, and the Politics of Sacred Authority
16:00–16:30
Coffee Break
Session 416:30–18:00J Building
Interferences: Shamanic Traditions and Christianity in Interaction
J303
Panel
Ullrich R. Kleinhempel
South African sangomas as mediators between contradictive realities. The power of hope and forgiveness.
Elsa A. Rossi
Spiritism in Clinical Contexts: Correlations between “Shamanic” Mediumism and Kardecist Practice in Brazil
Agnieszka Podolecka
South African sangomas as mediators between contradictive realities. The power of hope and forgiveness.
Humberto Schubert Coelho
Science of ‘Life after Death’ – in view of transcultural accounts of trance and mediumship
Felicia Dujon
“Shamanic” Practices in Afro-Caribbean Churches in Barbados: Phenomena, Ritual Enactments, and Conceptualisations
Entangled Power: Money, Heritage, Technology, and Metaphysics in Korean Shamanism
J304
Panel
Hak Lak Choi
The Power of Spirits and the Power of Money
Seong Hee Oh
Becoming a Shaman in the Northern Ritual Tradition: The Power of Spirits and the Power of Heritage
In Kyoung Rhye
The Politics of the Sacred: Power, Materiality, and Religiosity in Korea’s Digital Divination
Su Kyung Kim
The Metaphysics of Hospitality: Joseon Shamanism via Amazonian Animism
Art Derived from Shamanism
J305
Panel
Yun Donghwan
Korean Shamanism: The Wellspring of K-Culture
Lim Soojung
The Theatrical Turn of Shamanic Art: Reconfiguration and Aesthetics of the Performing Arts
Park Jeonggyeong
Musical Uses of the Gut and Their Cultural Meaning
Jeong Eunju
From Ritual to Stage: Performing Arts Derived from the Namhaean Byeolsin-gut
Shin Heera
The Gangneung Danoje Gut as Performing-Arts Content
The Shaman's Experience and Musical Creativity/Sacredness in Korean Shamanism
J306
Panel
Yong-Shik Lee
The religious sacredness and the musical creativity in Hwanghae Shamanism
Mi-young Kim
Musical creativity and its religious meaning in the Eastern shamanism
Jungmin Seo
The musical creativity and its realization in Jeolla Provincial Shamanis
Su Jung Ku
The making-music of the shaman song and its religious meaning in Hamgyeong-do Provincial shamanism
Ji-hye Seo
The paternal transmissional structure and musical succession of the shaman music in Seoul
Contemporary Shamanism & Healing
J302
Individual Session
Sool ParkZOOM
Korean Shamanism as Philosophy?
Chun In Pyong
The Deongdeokgung Rhythm in Shamanic Ritual Music and the Rhythm of Chihwapyeong in the Annals of King Sejong
Hanna Ellen Guttorm
Be(com)ing Spiritual: Reviving the Ancient Wisdom of Circularity and Creation of One
Xing Haiyan
Spirits of Healing: Xibo Shamanic Therapeutics and the Cultural Ecology of Ritual Persistence in Contemporary China
18:30–21:00
Conference Banquet & Korean Nongak Performance