Excavated Manuals from Early China: A New Study of Divination and Medical Practice
Qiu Jun Oscar Zheng. “To Do as Said and Written: Excavated Manuals and the Performance of Medicine and Spirit Power in Early China.” PhD Diss., University of Pennsylvania, 2026. This new dissertation examines excavated medical, incantatory, and divinatory manuals from early China as archaeological artifacts. Rather than studying received texts that have been rewritten over […]
New Issue Alert: IJDP Vol. 7, No. 1 Now Online
We are pleased to announce the publication of Volume 7, Issue 1 of the International Journal of Divination and Prognostication (IJDP), now available on Brill’s platform. This issue offers new research that bridges European and Asian traditions, with articles exploring geomantic elements in Dante’s Commedia and literary representations of astrology and divination in the Mongol […]
1rst Knowing Hands Book Talk: Alison Bashford, Decoding the Hand
We are pleased to announce that the Knowing Hands project led by Marta Hanson and Stéphanie Homola has started its own Book Talks series featuring recent and forthcoming publications that explore the cultural, historical, and scientific dimensions of the human hand. This series will examine the evolving interpretations of the hand across disciplines, from early […]
Call for Papers: “Philosophy of Divination in the Yijing” – Special IJDP Issue
We are pleased to announce an upcoming special issue of the International Journal of Divination and Prognostication (IJDP), guest-edited by Tze-ki Hon, dedicated to The Philosophy of Divination in the Yijing. This special issue aims to bring together innovative research and perspectives on the Yijing that move beyond its predominant treatment as a historical and philological […]
ISCSD Book Talk: Global Yijing with John Lai
We are pleased to announce an upcoming Book Talk featuring the recent publication Global Yijing: Intercultural Encounters with World Religions and Thoughts, edited by John Lai of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. The event will take place on February 19, 2026, at 13:00 CET. This volume, published as part of the Chinese Culture Series […]
International ISCSD Conference: “Predictive Practices & Interpretations”
Updated 5/22/2026 CALL FOR PAPERS The International Society for the Critical Study of Divination (ISCSD) will hold its International Conference at Friedrich Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany, 5-8 November 2026. The central theme for the International Conference of ISCSD will be “Predictive Practices and Interpretations.”The conference will explore this subject by focusing on the aspects of […]
MOSAIC Introductory Meeting 3 February 2026
Petra G. Schmidl from FAU, together with a group of researchers from Belgium, Italy and the US, recently received a highly prestigious Synergy Grant from the European Research Council (ERC): MOSAIC: Mapping Occult Sciences across Islamicate Cultures is dedicated to the study of historical sources on occult sciences in Islamicate cultures. The MOSAIC team Erlangen […]
New IJDP Issue Published: Volume 6, Issue 2
We are delighted to announce the publication of Volume 6, Issue 2 of the International Journal of Divination and Prognostication. Contents of Volume 6, Issue 2 Che-chia Chang — “The Rise and Spread of the ‘Red Goat Calamity’ Prophecy.” Kristof d’Hulster — “The Art of Picking the Best Seat: From Seating Positions at a Muslim […]
Gleanings of the “Knowing Hands” Workshop 12–14 September 2025
The recent academic workshop “Knowing Hands: Chinese Hand-Memory Techniques in Situ, Comparison, & Contact”, held 12–14 September 2025 at the Centre for Advanced Studies in the Humanities in Erlangen, met with great interest within the Knowing Hands academic network and beyond. As the inaugural event of the next phase of the Knowing Hands project, this […]
“Knowing Hands” Workshop 12–14 September 2025: Exploring Chinese Hand-Memory Techniques and Their Global Connections
An academic workshop titled “Knowing Hands: Chinese Hand-Memory Techniques in Situ, Comparison, & Contact” will take place from September 12–14, 2025, at the Centre for Advanced Studies in the Humanities (CAS-E) in Erlangen. Organized by ISCSD Vice President Marta Hanson and ISCSD Secretary Stéphanie Homola, this event will bring together leading scholars to investigate the […]
