Upcoming Events

2024 Social Workers Confronting Racial Injustice Conference 
A 2-day Conference presented by the Sandra Rosenbaum School of Social Work

• Psychedelic Liberation
  Speaker: Charlotte Duerr James
  January 6, 2024
• Imagining Border, Prison, and Police Abolition for Health Justice
  Speaker: Ronica Mukerjee
  February 2, 2024

Global Health Institute Tuesday Webinar:
Psilocybin & Improving Mental Health
January 30, 2024  |  9:00 – 10:00 AM

Featured speakers include:

Alberto Vargas
Associate Director
Latin American, Carribean and Iberian Studies Program

Charles Raison, MD
Director, Clinical & Translational Research – Usona Institute
Professor, Human Ecology, SMPH at UW-Madison

Exploring the Intersection of Psychedelics & Mortality

November 5, 2023 @ 5:00 PM

Join us for a lively exploration of the intersection of mortality and psychedelics. Megan Miller will offer a short presentation to introduce some context related to Indigenous culture and practice, to share recent research with psilocybin-assisted therapy for people with cancer, and to highlight studies of DMT and near death experiences.  This will be followed by a lightly facilitated group conversation discussing mortality, death, grief, and the ways these intertwine with psychedelic experiences.  More about this event »

2023 Psychedelic Symposium

Pre-Symposium Workshop: “Psychedelic Collections & Codices”
Nov. 1, 2023

Presentations & Panels:

• Special Collections Viewing with Laura Martin
• Session I: “Documents & Interpretation”
  • Osiris Gonzales, PhD (University of Saskatchewan)
  • Melissa Frost, PhD (University of Virginia)
  • Diana Negrin da Silva, PhD (University of California, Berkley and Wixarika Research Center)
• Session II: “Collection Appraisal & Development”
  • Stephanie Schmitz, MLS (Purdue University)
  • Hannah Rose Swan, MSc, PGDip (School of Pharmacy, University of Wisconsin-Madison)
  • Amanda Rose Pratt, PhD (Kennesaw State University)

Symposium Presentations
Nov. 2-3, 2023

• Keynote session on “Decolonial Psychedelics” that engages critically with the social and cultural issues that have marginalized key voices in the renewed interest in psychedelics
• Keynote session on “Addressing the Psychedelic Experience” that examines the relevance (or irrelevance) of the psychedelic experience in scientific research and therapeutic applications of psychedelics
• Information and roundtables highlighting distinct models of care being applied to the use of psychedelics in therapeutic contexts
• Cutting-edge research and scholarly updates in the form of lectures and poster presentations on recently published or ongoing work in the area of psychedelic studies
• Social and networking opportunities that supplement the main academic program of the symposium, including catered meals, poster reception, other activities

Speakers:

• David Olson, PhD (UC Davis)
• Eduardo Schenberg, PhD (Instituto Phaneros)
• Stephanie Schmitz, MLS (Purdue University)
• Darron Smith, PhD, PA-C (University of Washington)
• Christopher Timmerman, PhD (Imperial College, London)

Webbed Attachments: Psychedelic Lessons from the Multiverse

Ramzi Fawaz, Romnes Professor of English, UW-Madison
October 30, 2023 @ 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm

This Focus on the Humanities talk explored how the fundamental qualities of the psychedelic experience—including heightened affective intensity, the dissolution of the ego, and a sense of cosmic interconnectedness with the world—offers a hopeful alternative to contemporary identitarianism…  Read more »

UW-Madison Speakers at PhilaDelic 2023
July 14 – 15, 2023

“Investigating the Mechanistic Relationship Between Glucocorticoid Release and Anxiolytic Effects of Psychedelics: Insights from Rodent Studies”
Cody Wenthur, PharmD, PhD

“From Peyote to Anhalonium: A Scandalously Short History of Mescaline Medicine in the Long Nineteenth Century”
Lucas Richert, PhD

UW Madison Speakers at PSYCHEDLIC SCIENCE 2023 – DENVER
June 19-23, 2023

“Psychedelic-assisted therapy introductory workshop”
Chantelle Thomas, PhD and Christopher Nicholas, PhD

“Latest developments in clinical studies for depression”
Charles L. Raison, MD

“Alexander Shulgin Research Institute: Chemistry for Consciousness”
Nicholas V Cozzi, PhD

“Islam and Psychedelics”
Hena Malik

“5-MeO-DMT as a mental health tool: Exploring possible mechanisms of action, the reactivation phenomenon, and some ethical considerations regarding the Sonoran Desert Toad”
Anny Ortiz

“Psychedelic Outcomes: Intersection of the Environment, Self-identify, and Success (The POIESIS Study)”
Cody J. Wenthur, PharmD, PhD

2023 Borghesi Mellon Workshop Series: Psychedelic Pasts, Presents, & Futures

Session Topics:

• Mycological Menagerie
• Beyond the Mystical: MEQ & Microphenomenology
• Plants for the Apocolypse
• Public Relations: Narcotic and Psychedelic Drug Knowledge Dissemination Materials
• 1619 Peyote Prohibition in Colonial New Spain

2022 UW Madison Psychedelic Symposium
Oct. 27-28, 2022

Session Topics:

• Psychedelic Rhetoric
• Psychedelic Research and Lessons to Learn from Contemplative Sciences
• Experiential Activity: Sacred Medicine
• Indigenous and Ancestral Wisdom: Reflections on How this Lens Intersects with Research Procedures, Study Design, Therapeutic Practices and Commercialization of Sacred Medicine/Psychedelics
• Urban Indigenous Collective and Psychedelic Cultural Humility
• Role of Psychedelic Societies in Outreach / Education
• Wholeness: A Mind-Body Approach
• Anesis and Intercultural Psychotherapy
• Postpartum Psychedelic Therapies and Intergenerational Trauma: MDMA for Addiction/PTSD and Ketamine for Depression
• Psychedelic Science – Greatest Hits of 2022 – Preclinical and Mechanistic
• Psychedelic Science – Greatest Hits of 2022 – Clinical and Implementation
• Ketamine Infusion in Psychiatric Treatment
• Esketamine at the VA +/- Prep and Integration

2022 Psychedelic Speaker Series

• Feb 2, 2022
  Drugs, Violence and Latin America: Global Psychotropy and Culture – (February 2, 2022)
  Speaker: Joe Patterson, Augustana Univ.
• March 10, 2022
  “A Specific Cure for Homosexuality”: Postwar Psychedelic Conversion Therapies in the United States and Canada
  Speaker: Andrea Ens, Purdue University
• March 31, 2022
  Standards without Labs: Psychedelic Drug Development in the Underground
  Speaker: Joanna Kempner, Rutgers University
• April 14, 2022
  Literary Theory on Acid
  Speaker: Ramzi Fawaz, UW-Madison
• April 28, 2022
  Right Wing Psychedelia
  Speakers: Nese Devenot, Univ of Cincinnati; Brian Pace, The Ohio State University
• May 3, 2022
  Indigenous Knowledges and Psychedelic Science
  Speaker: Evgenia Fotiou, Independent Scholar

2021 Psychedelic Symposium
November 4 – 5, 2021

Session topics:

• Psychedelic Wars: Past and Present
• Psychedelics in Latin America and the case of the Intercultural Clinic in Sonora, Mexico
• Neuropharmacology of Psychedelic Action
• Environmental Influences on Psilocybin Outcomes Across Species
• MDMA as an Adjunct to the Treatment of PTSD
• Psilocybin in the Treatment of Addictive Disorders
• Psychedelics in the Treatment of Depression
• The Phenomenology of Psychedelics