ReSpell is delighted to announce the organisation of the final symposium, Mapping Transreligious Worlds: Elasticity, Affect and the Art of Collaborative Ethnography, which will take place in Lisbon, Portugal from 1 to 3 July 2026.
This in-person event will celebrate the three-year endeavour of the ReSpell project and its results.
The symposium invites scholars, practitioners, and collaborators to reflect on the theoretical, methodological, and experiential insights of the ReSpell project. The symposium will explore how transreligiosity and elasticity (Panagiotopoulos and Roussou, 2022; Roussou and Panagiotopoulos, 2023; Roussou, Panagiotopoulos, and Rivadossi, 2023; Pierini, 2024; Roussou, 2025; Martins, 2025) illuminate religious, spiritual, and well-being practices while rethinking the concepts and methods through which anthropology studies these worlds.
Focusing on creative methodological practices and collaboration, the symposium will feature several paper presentations on themes such as transreligiosity, sacred sites, relationalities, healing, well-being, and affect in different contexts. There will also be a keynote address by Clara Saraiva (ICS-UL), an artistic workshop with Giulia Cavallo (ISCSP-UL and CRIA – ISCTE), an experiential workshop with key interlocutors from the project, a collective open discussion about methodological practices, a roundtable reflecting on work developed within ReSpell, film screenings (some of which were produced in the context of the project), and the ReSpell exhibition, 'Echoes that Heal: Religion, Spirituality, Well-being', which was exhibited at the Museu de Arte Popular last December and will be presented again during the symposium.
PROGRAMME
Day 1 - 1 July 2026
9h30 - 10h - Registration
10h-10h30 - Welcome
10h30 - 11h30 - Session 1
11h30 - 11h45 - Coffee Break
11h45 - 12h45 - Session 2
12h45 - 13h15 - Tour Exhibition
13h15 14h30 - networking/free time
14h30 - 15h30 - Keynote Lecture
15h30- 15h45 - Coffee Break
15h45 - 17h30 - screening of films
Day 2 - 2 July 2026
9h45-11h30 - Roundtable ReSpell
11h30- 11h50 - Coffee Break
11h50-12h50 - Session 3
12h50 - 14h00 - Networking and Free time
14h00 - 15h30 - Workshop
15h30 - 15h40 - Coffee Break
15h40 - 17h15 - Screening of Films
17h15 - 17h30 - ReSpell outputs and Closing
20h00 .- conference dinner
Day 3 - 3 july 2026
9h45 - 11h30 - Walking tour
11h30 - 13h - Artistic Workshop
Join us for three days of celebration, thought-provoking discussions, and collaboration!
The project ReSpell – Religion, Spirituality, and Well-Being: A Comparative Approach to Transreligiosity and Crisis in Southern Europe is financed by the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (2022.01229.PTDC) and hosted by the Centro em Rede de Investigação em Antropologia (CRIA).
