Awe and wonder are profound and often fleeting emotional experiences that challenge our sense of self, shift our perceptions of the world and invite us to ascribe greater meaning and significance to our lives. While often linked to the sublime, the sacred and the mysterious, awe and wonder are increasingly studied across a wide range of disciplines as powerful psychological, cultural and social phenomena.
We invite scholarship on the themes of awe and wonder (and related concepts), drawing on perspectives from psychology, sociology, anthropology, religious studies, philosophy, education, the arts, history and cultural studies. We invite contributions that explore the complex and varied ways awe and wonder are experienced, expressed, represented and theorised, across cultures, historical periods, spiritual traditions, and social contexts.
Awe is frequently understood as an emotional response to something vast that transcends one’s current understanding of the world, often stirring up a sense of humility or smallness. The closely related concept of wonder refers to a disposition of curiosity, openness and reverence in the face of the unknown or extraordinary. Both are contextually and culturally shaped, and their meanings and functions vary widely across different communities, traditions and times.
We welcome papers that engage with topics including (but not limited to):
- Defining and distinguishing awe and wonder: philosophical and psychological approaches
- Cultural and cross-cultural perspectives on awe and wonder, including Indigenous epistemologies and ritual
- Awe in religious, mystical and spiritual traditions: from sacred texts to spiritual journaling
- The aesthetics of awe: music, visual arts, literature, architecture and theatre as awe-eliciting media
- Secularised awe in Romanticism and the sublime (e.g. Rousseau, Burke, Goethe, Emerson)
- Historical perspectives on awe and wonder in Western and non-Western thought
- Awe and the natural world: place, landscape, and ecological connectedness
- Awe as a response to vastness, mortality, grief, and life transitions
- The role of awe in prosociality, altruism, humility, and moral behaviour
- Awe and wellbeing: links to mental health, anxiety, healing and resilience
- Awe and wonder in education, childhood, developmental psychology
- Uses of awe and wonder in self-help, personal development and therapeutic practice
- Policy implications: how cultivating awe and wonder can inform approaches to sustainability, public mental health, education or community cohesion
- The potential of awe to foster collective identity and transcendence of the individual self
- Methodological approaches to studying awe and wonder across disciplines
We invite original research and reviews that explore how wonder and awe operate not only within individuals, but across cultures, histories, social structures and belief systems and in contemporary life.
