Lecture: Shamanism in Europe

Join us for a free public event as we welcome Dr. Cirila Toplak, Professor of Political Science at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. Dr. Toplak is a leading researcher on Europeanization and on Slovenian ethnogenesis. She has served as Counsellor on European Affairs to the President of the Republic of Slovenia and Director of the Institute of Ethnic Studies, Ljubljana. Most recently, her interests include the history of direct democracy, alternative concepts of socio-political organization and political practices of indigenous populations. For this special event, she will discuss the results of her engagement with the ethnographic research of Pavel Medvešček Klančar on a remote traditional community of nature worshippers from northwest Slovenia and its leaders-dehnars, who demonstrate shamanic features with hints of ancient Druidism. Combining a comparativist approach to contemporary indigenous cultures, archeological and linguistic findings, historical archives and field work by radical participation, Dr. Toplak demonstrates that the remnants of this community may be miraculous survivors of long gone European shamanism.