Psychedelic Intersections 2026: Bridging Humanities, Religion, & Law
Date and Time
Psychedelics in Society and Culture
The Harvard Study of Psychedelics in Society and Culture is excited to announce that the fourth annual Psychedelic Intersections conference will be held at Harvard Divinity School on April 10-11, 2026. Building on the Center for the Study of World Religions’ (CSWR’s) popular conference series, the 2026 conference is a collaborative initiative of the CSWR at Harvard Divinity School, the Mahindra Center at Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School.
“Psychedelic Intersections: Bridging Humanities, Religion, & Law” brings together interdisciplinary scholars, practitioners, and policymakers to discuss the intersection of psychedelics and culture. The conference will feature research on psychedelics’ intersections with religion, humanities, and the law.
Keynote Speakers
Benjamin Breen is Associate Professor of History at the University of California, Santa Cruz specializing in the history of science, medicine, globalization, and the impacts of technological change. His most recent book, Tripping on Utopia: Margaret Mead, the Cold War, and the Troubled Birth of Psychedelic Science (Grand Central, 2024), is a revisionist history of the first era of psychedelic science. It was named one of the best books of the year by The New Yorker and The Chronicle of Higher Education and won the PROSE award from the Association of American Publishers for best book in the history of science, technology and medicine. Breen spoke about the book with Terry Gross on NPR’s Fresh Air and with physicist Sean Carroll on his Mindscape podcast.
Ramzi Fawaz is an award-winning queer cultural critic, educator, podcaster, and public speaker. He is a Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and host of the podcast Nerd from the Future. Fawaz is the author of two books including The New Mutants: Superheroes and the Radical Imagination of American Comics (2016), and Queer Forms (2022), both published by NYU Press. With Darieck Scott he co-edited the award-winning special issue of American Literature, "Queer about Comics" (2018) and with Deborah E. Whaley and Shelley Streeby he co-edited Keywords for Comics Studies, which was selected as a Choice Outstanding Academic Title for 2022.
Tiona Zuzul is Associate Professor of Business Administration in the Strategy Unit at Harvard Business School. She teaches the MBA elective "Making Difficult Decisions," a PhD seminar in Strategy Research Development, and contributes to various executive education programs. Professor Zuzul studies how leaders’ cognition and communication shape the decisions and behaviors that drive organizational outcomes. She was named a Poets & Quants 40 Best Under 40 Business School Professors and a Radar Thinker by Thinkers50, the global ranking of management experts.