About
Amy Hale has a PhD in Folklore and Mythology from UCLA and her research and writing ranges from contemporary Cornwall to modern Pagan and occult subcultures in United States and the United Kingdom. She has written about topics as diverse as modern Druidry, Cornish ethnonationalism, Pagan religious tourism, color theory, the occult, and extremist politics in modern Paganism. In 2009 she received a research grant from the Paul Mellon Foundation for her ongoing research into the British Surrealist and esotericist Ithell Colquhoun.
A lively public speaker, Hale has been an invited speaker at a varied array of academic and popular events, including the Conference on Contemporary Pagan Studies at the Claremont School of Theology, the Occult Humanities Conference at NYU and I:MAGE at the Warburg Institute in London. She continues to be active in academic service as the Co-Chair of the Contemporary Pagan Studies Section for the American Academy of Religion (AAR), a member of the Association for the Study of Esotericism (ASE) and a member of the European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism (ESSWE). She sits on the editorial boards of the Black Mirror Research Network (Arts University Bournemouth) and Correspondences Journal (Western Esoteric Studies) and is a past editor of The Journal of the Academic Study of Magic. Education
PhD UCLA (1998) Folklore and Mythology
Dissertation: ‘Gathering the Fragments: Performing Contemporary Celtic Identities in Cornwall’
Publications
Ithell Colquhoun: Taro as Colour. Co edited with Robert Ansell. Taunton: Fulgur LTD 2018.
Journal of the Academic Study of Magic 5. Co edited with Susan Johnston Graf. Oxford: Mandrake Press, 2009.
New Directions in Celtic Studies. Co edited with Philip Payton. Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 2000.
Inside Merlin’s Cave: A Cornish Arthurian Reader. Co edited with Alan M. Kent and Tim Saunders. London: Francis Boutle Press, 2000.
Recent Select Articles and Chapters
“Considering the Esoteric Aesthetic: Practice, Context and Reception’ in Black Mirror Zero, Territory. Judith Noble, Dominic Shepherd and Robert Ansell eds. Somerset, Fulgur Ltd. 2014.
‘Navigating Praxis: Pagan Studies vs. Esoteric Studies” in The Pomegranate: Journal of International Pagan Studies 15 [ 1-2 ] 2013.
‘John Michell, Radical Traditionalism and the Emerging Politics of the Pagan New Right” in The Pomegranate: Journal of International Pagan Studies. 13 (1), 2012, pp. 77-97.
“Introduction”. The Decad of Intelligence of Ithell Colquhoun. Taunton: Fulgur Ltd. 2017.
“Swords of Meteoric Iron: Archangel Michael and the Politics of Celtic Spirituality” in The Harp and the Constitution: Myths of Celtic and Gothic Origin 1700-2000, edited by J. Parker. Leiden: Brill Publishing, 2016.
“Marketing “Rad Trad”: The Growing Co-Influence Between Paganism and the New Right” in Bringing Race to the Table: Exploring Racism in the Pagan Community. Taylor Ellwood, Crystal Blanton and Brandy Williams editors. London: Immanion Press, 2015
“Colours are Forces, The Signatures of the Forces”: An Exploration of Colour as Entity’ in I:MAGE Exhibition Catalogue. Robert Ansell and Livia Filotico, eds. Somerset: Fulgur Ltd. 2014
“The Art and Magic of Ithell Colquhoun” in Handbook of Modern Western Magic. Edited by N. Drury. Ars Concrescent Press, 2012.
“White Men Can’t Dance: Evaluating Race, Class and Rationality in Ethnographies of the Esoteric” in Ten Years After Triumph of the Moon edited by D. Green and D. Evans. Bristol: Hidden Publishing, 2009. Projects
Currently writing a biography of Surrealist and occultist Ithell Colquhoun. Due to be published with Strange Attractor Press, Fall 2019.
Organizing committee for Esoteric Women’s Conference, University of California, Davis, April 4-7 2019. Memberships
American Academy of Religion
Association for the Study of Esotericism
European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism
