Academic Director
Dr. J. Christian Greer is a scholar of esotericism specializing in the global history of psychedelic spirituality. He received his PhD (cum laude) in Western esotericism from the History of Hermetic Philosophy department at the University of Amsterdam (UvA). He also holds Masters’ degrees from UvA and Harvard Divinity School. His latest book, Kumano Kodo: Pilgrimage to Powerspots (OSGH Press) analyzes pilgrimage folklore that animates the rainforest landscapes of Japan's Kii peninsula, and his forthcoming book, Angelheaded Hipsters: Psychedelic Militancy in Nineteen Eighties North America (Oxford University Press), explores the expansion of psychedelic culture in the late Cold War era. After holding teaching and research positions at Harvard University and Yale University, he is now a lecturer at Stanford University.
Assistant Academic Director
Brennan Kettelle is a PhD researcher at the Centre for History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents (HHP), University of Amsterdam. Brennan holds a B.A. (Saint Michael’s College, 2012) in Psychology and Gender studies, an MA (cum laude) in Gender and Cultural studies (Simmons College, 2016) and a research MA (cum laude) in Western esotericism (University of Amsterdam, 2021). She is currenting writing her doctoral dissertation - Her Dark Breath: Queer Currents within Nineteenth-Century Discourses on Lilith - which focuses on historical associations between the religiomythic demoness and queer sexualities within art, literature, and sociopolitical movements. Brennan also teaches an 8-week online course on Lilith - focusing on Lilith’s origins and cultural receptions within Western esotericism - for the Brooklyn-based organization Morbid Anatomy. Utilizing monster theory and queer theory in her research, Brennan is more broadly interested in investigating themes of the ‘monstrous-queer’ within esoteric literature, orders, and figures, as well as esoteric themes within queer subcultures, politics, and histories