The International Society for Academic Research on Shamanism (ISARS) and the Sarawak Museum Department invite you to attend the 3rd international conference of ISARS, which will be held at the new Sarawak Museum (about to re-open in a new building as the Borneo Cultures Museum) In Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo, from August 25-28, 2022.

Theme of the conference:

Shamanism and Crisis: Seeking Human Identity

The 21st century has begun in the midst of an epoch marked by radical anthropogenic changes and often described, perhaps somewhat problematically, as the Anthropocene. Interconnected changes include the transformation of ecosystems across the planet to orient them towards human needs, the pollution of landscapes, oceans and the planet’s atmosphere, climatic changes and mass extinction events. Entering these uncertain times has been accompanied by a widespread existential crisis relating to human identity – one that involves a sense of confusion about the position humans should have within the environment in which they live, and both guilt and fear about the human power to radically alter it. We define crisis widely, to include, for example, overwhelming and rapid change; personal and group crises; economic and political crisis; violence; and environmental crises at multiple scales from the local to global. We are particularly interested in exploring ways in which shamans are being turned to in addressing the existential crisis in the relationship between humans and non-human others, rooted in the sense that humans need to rethink their relations with other entities and ecosystems, in a holistic and interconnected fashion that addresses the nature of being, identity and consciousness. We are interested in ways in which shamans are helping individuals and groups to shape their identities and to seek a new kind of human identity that is more connected to other beings and to a wider whole. In this, we want to move beyond questions of ontological difference between classically animist societies and ‘modern’ societies and look at all kinds of shamanistic practices, broadly interpreted and including neo-shamans, within a wide range of societies. We invite panels and speakers to discuss this from a variety of angles. We encourage those submitting panel proposals and papers to be innovative in approaching these ideas – even heretical, in relation to academic orthodoxies! Themes that might be covered include: How are shamans engaging with spirits of petroleum (Cepek, 2016; Kopenawa & Albert, 2013), palmoil and previously unknown disease-causing spirits? How do doubt and uncertainty inform these encounters (Bubandt, 2015; Cepek, 2016)? How are ‘traditional’ societies mixing and matching animistic beliefs, and shamanistic practices, with organized religion and modern science? In what ways are ‘Western’ and urban societies moving away from organised religion and science towards animistic ontologies and ways of relating to reality, including those that draw on elements of both science and religion? What new definitions of spirits and attitudes to spirits are developing? What can science learn from animistic and shamanic thinking? Is scientific animism a possibility? How do shamanistic approaches to the nature of consciousness feed into their work and to the crafting of a new sense of the place of humans in the world?

*For a more detailed version of the main theme of the conference, please click here or the Sarawak Museum website (https://museum.sarawak.gov.my/). For details on the conference venue click here.

The official language of the conference will be English.

Visa and Letter of Invitation

Please inform us if you need a formal letter of invitation for visa or for other purposes, such as travel grant applications. Please send your request to: Dora Jok (doraj@sarawak.gov.my) and Dr. Zakirah binti Mohamad Taufek (zakirah@sarawak.gov.my).

Conference Registration and ISARS Membership

The conference fee is 130 euros (600 Malaysian Ringgit). The conference fee includes: access to all sessions, conference pack, coffee and tea breaks, lunches, welcome cocktail, one banquet, excursion and free entrance to the exhibition galleries in the new Borneo Cultures Museum.

The fee for accompanying family members of regular delegates is 300 Malaysian Ringgit and includes: access to all sessions, one banquet, excursion. In case accompanying family members want to attend all social activities (e.g. coffee-breaks and lunches), the fee to be paid is the same as that of delegates (600 Malaysian Ringgit)

Please visit the registration page to register for the conference.

Please note that both delegates presenting a paper during the conference and attendees (not presenting papers) are additionally required to pay their 2022 annual ISARS membership fee online (through ISARS website: http://www.isars.org/membership/). The membership fee includes a printed copy of the journal SHAMAN.

Accompanying family members of regular delegates may participate in the conference without becoming members of ISARS.

Your promptness in filling out the registration form, paying the registration fee and the ISARS membership fee will greatly help the conference organizers.

Covid Regulations

The organizers will continue to monitor the situation and will keep you updated on any possible changes.

Since May 1^st, Malaysia removed many of the rules in place. In particular:

Pre-departure PCR and on-arrival rapid tests are no longer required for fully vaccinated travellers entering Malaysia from 1 May 2022. Wearing masks is mandatory indoors, optional outdoors although still encouraged in crowded places. Physical distancing is no longer required. Mysejahtera apps check-in is no longer required. Covid19 insurance is no longer required for all travellers. In any case, we suggest that you buy health insurance that covers covid before the trip.

Conference Program and Book of Abstracts

The Conference Program can be found here.

The Book of Abstracts can be downloaded here (pdf).

MEMBERS OF THE ISARS ORGANIZING AND SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE (in alphabetical order):

Naran Bilik, ISARS Vice-President, Fudan University

Diana Espirito Santo, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile

Monica Janowski, Centre of South East Asian Studies, SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies), University of London

Diana Riboli, ISARS President, Panteion University

Eugenia Roussou, ISARS Treasurer, CRIA/ISCTE-IUL

Ivan Tacey, ISARS Member of the Governing Board, University of Plymouth

Davide Torri, ISARS Secretary, University of Rome “La Sapienza”

SARAWAK MUSEUM ORGANIZING COMMITTEE

General Chairs

Tazudin Mohtar, Director of Sarawak Museum Department
Dayang Morzanah binti Awang Haddy, Deputy Director of Sarawak Museum Department

Programme Chairs

Dora Jok, Head of Collections Section, Sarawak Museum Department
Dr. Zakirah binti Mohamad Taufek, Curator Research Section, Sarawak Museum Department