Professor Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke.

It is with great sadness and regret that we must inform our colleagues of the death of Professor Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke after a brief illness.

Nicholas was the director of the Exeter Centre for the Study of Esotericism at the University of Exeter, where together with his wife Clare he had built a world-class distance learning institute for postgraduate research in our field. He will also be well known to you all as the author of a number of insightful works on the history of Western esotericism, most notably his books concerning the relation of esotericism to fascist and far-right ideologies. Through his work Nicholas expressed his great love for the history, culture and peoples of both England and Germany, and in the course of a distinguished academic career he brought his considerable intellect to bear upon their respective esoteric traditions. With his passing we have lost a wise and much-loved teacher, an incisive scholarly mind and a jovial and kind-hearted friend.

Hereward Tilton (University of Exeter) / Wouter Hanegraaff (President of ESSWE)
September, 2012.


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University of Groningen, The Netherlands
New Master "Concealed Knowledge: Gnosticism, Esotericism and Mysticism"Academic year 2012

Registration for the four new Master programs in the study of religion at the University of Groningen is now open. The deadline for application for EU students is 15 May 2012. I would be grateful if you could forward this information to students who might be interested in the program, either in its one-year version or in its two-years version (Research Master).

Of particular interest is the new Master "Concealed Knowledge: Gnosticism, Esotericism and Mysticism." For information see http://www.rug.nl/ggw/onderwijs/maopleidingen/mastergem/index

Last week, the University of Groningen signed a contract with Rice University, Houston (Texas, USA) for collaboration with regard to student and faculty exchange. The Department of Religious Studies at Rice University also runs a Graduate Program "Gnosticism, Esotericism and Mysticism" that lends itself for collaboration with the Groningen program.

Students who enroll in the Master "Concealed Knowledge" can also choose additional classes from the other three newly designed Master programs at the University of Groningen:

- Religion, Conflict and Globalisation
- Origins of Abrahamic Religions: Texts and Contexts
- Religion and the Public Domain

For information about these Master programs, see the overview at http://www.rug.nl/ggw/onderwijs/maopleidingen/index

If you have any question pertaining to the Master programs at the University of Groningen, please contact
Kocku von Stuckrad
Head of the Department of Comparative and Historical Study of Religion
University of Groningen, The Netherlands
www.vonstuckrad.com