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Workshop: Ecstatic Embodiment in Appalachian Pentecostalism

eric mullis image
Friday, October 18, 2019
3:30 pm - 5:00 pm
Eric Mullis, Ph.D. (Philosophy), MFA (Dance)
MFA in Dance: Embodied Interdisciplinary Praxis Graduate Movement Research Guest Series 2019-20: On a Darkness that Cannot be Dispelled: Moving into the Anthropocene

"In this presentation I share historical and ethnographic research on divine gifts that are experienced by Pentecostals during communal rituals which feature driving music, auto-affective techniques, and dissociative states. Such gifts include glossolalia or "speaking in tongues", faith healing, snake-handling, and ecstatic movement. I discuss the beliefs that frame the believer's understanding of such experiences-pneumatology, soteriology, and eschatology-and consider the cultural significance of the tradition in the American South. This presentation will be accompanied by exercises in auto-affective uses of voice and gesture that were developed while researching an interdisciplinary performance work that engages aspects of the tradition."

Eric Mullis is an assistant professor of philosophy at Queens University of Charlotte and has published essays on dance in Dance Research Journal, Performance Philosophy, Dance Research, Dance Chronicle, and the Journal of Performing Arts and Digital Media. His book, "Pragmatist Philosophy and Dance: Interdisciplinary Dance Research in the American South" will be included in Palgrave-MacMillan's Performance Philosophy series.

Free and open to students and the community. Engagement Opportunity for students enrolled in Dance Program courses.

Contact: Michael Kliën