The Management, Spirituality & Religion (MSR) Research Committee warmly invites you to submit a presentation proposal for the 2026 MSR Research Colloquium, "The Mystical and Research", to be held virtually on June 11–12, 2026. The colloquium will take place as a 24–36 hour global, around-the-clock gathering beginning at 10:00 a.m. ET. on June 11.
This colloquium creates space for scholars engaging with the mystical, not only as an object of study, but as a lived and transformative dimension of inquiry. Mystical experience often resists conventional research approaches, inviting us to reconsider assumptions about evidence, knowledge, and representation. In response, we open a space for exploring ways of knowing that integrate intellectual rigor with contemplative, embodied, and experiential depth.
Sessions are envisioned as spaces that may engage three interwoven modes of inquiry - thinking, doing, and being - inviting presenters to share not only their research, but also practices, reflections, and questions that support collective exploration. We welcome a range of session formats, including single- and multi-presenter sessions, panels, dialogues, as well as approaches that engage embodied, artistic, or creative forms of inquiry where meaningful.
Proposals are invited across three thematic areas: mystical experience and spiritual awakening, researching the mystical, and spiritual transformation in academic life. We particularly welcome work that engages the creative tension between scholarly credibility and openness to what the mystical may ask of the researcher.
📅 Proposal deadline: April 25, 2026
🔗 Full Call and submission details:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SSZnL6Of5LkmxwNqtXeVbkQWHxFgeqTq/view
We look forward to gathering with you in shared inquiry at the threshold of knowing.
MSR Research Committee
(Tianyuan Yu, Naida Culshaw, Stacey Guenther, Konstantin Weicht, and Gaëtan Mourmant)
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Tianyuan Yu, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Mount Saint Vincent University
Halifax NS Canada
Representative-at-Large (Research)
Management, Spirituality & Religion Division, Academy of Management
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