Stranger Things

November 12-14, 2026

Co-organized with Professor Elly R. Truitt, the Janice and Julian Bers Professor of the History of Science at the University of Pennsylvania, this year’s topic interrogates the multi-angled intersections of magic, science, religion, and ritual in the pre- and early modern world, especially as manifested in manuscript books, documents, and other inscribed surfaces variously expressed in words, images, diagrams, and annotations. 

The program will begin Thursday evening, November 12, 5:00 pm, with a reception at the Rare Book Department of the Free Library of Philadelphia (view on map), followed by the keynote address by Travis Zadeh, Professor of Religious Studies at Yale University.  The symposium will continue November 13-14 at the Kislak Center with an option to join virtually. The full program is available here.

This event is organized by the Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies in partnership with the Free Library of Philadelphia and is generously supported by the Jewish Studies Program at Penn.