About
Our Mission
Ten years ago, Psychedemia made history as the first psychedelics conference to be sponsored and funded by an academic institution since the resurgence of psychedelic research.
Amidst an unfolding psychedelic renaissance, it is time to discuss new approaches for integrating psychedelics into both academia and society. In partnership with the newly founded Center for Psychedelic Drug Research and Education at The Ohio State University, Psychedemia 2024 will provide a rigorous interdisciplinary symposium for exchanging ideas, evaluating dominant perspectives, and critiquing current approaches to developing social frameworks for psychedelic use. This conference will review the recent history of psychedelic research and culture; assess where we currently stand; and chart pathways for the future of the field. A richly varied program will include Lectures, Symposia, and Spotlight Sessions.
Save the Date
From August 8-11 2024, the third installment of Psychedemia will bring together scholars and thinkers from across disciplines to evaluate the progress of the psychedelic renaissance with the goal of forging an inclusive and evidence-based path forward.
Psychedelics in Academia
Psychedelic scholarship is racing forward in clinical research, neuroscience, and pharmacology. At the same time, academics in varied disciplines from history and philosophy to anthropology and the arts are bringing new ideas and syntheses, using the humanities to situate psychedelics within the settings of our cultural landscapes. Given that psychedelic experiences defy disciplinary bounds, psychedelic studies must develop with diverse academic perspectives in conversation, through the co-creation of theory, policy, and methodology. As the field breaks into mainstream acceptance, the psychedelic medical market is projected to reach a valuation of $10.75 billion by 2027. Now is the time to think critically about how the future of psychedelics might be built according to the concerns of diverse stakeholders with a focus on systemic change that furthers the goals of an equitable and just society.
Building on the Past
In the Fall of 2011, a handful of graduate students at the University of Pennsylvania joined together with a group of enthusiastic community members to hold the first university-sponsored, interdisciplinary academic conference on the study of psychedelics since the return of human trials in the late 20th century. Psychedemia 2012 aimed to bridge contemporary academic approaches in order to construct a rigorous foundation for the study of psychedelics as a potent catalyst of human experience.
Held in September of 2012 on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania, the first Psychedemia conference brought together over 400 international attendees to discuss the scientific, anthropological, artistic, religious, and medicinal dimensions of psychedelics. Ten years and 11,600 peer-reviewed papers later, recognition of the significance of psychedelic experiences is leading to changes in cultural practices, funding guidelines, therapeutic modalities, and strategies of drug discovery. Psychedelic studies is at an inflection point, such that the ideas and relationships we cultivate now have the potential to shape the future of psychedelic practice. We encourage the participation of scholars at all career stages and fields, including those traditionally underrepresented.
About the CPDRE
The mission of the Center for Psychedelic Drug Research and Education (CPDRE) is to explore and advance the research about psychedelic drugs and their effects, and to disseminate the knowledge about psychedelics through education initiatives at the college, university, and local, national, and international locations.
Meet the Organizing Team
Alan K. Davis, PhD
Alan K. Davis, PhD is a Clinical Psychologist and the Director of the Center for Psychedelic Drug Research and Education in the College of Social Work at Ohio State University. He is Assistant Professor of Social Work and Psychiatry at OSU and is also on the faculty in the Department of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University. Alan has extensive clinical experience working with US Military Veterans and civilians suffering with addiction, PTSD, and depression. His research explores alternative treatments for addiction and mental illness, including psychedelic-assisted therapies, and how to increase access to current treatment systems through reducing provider stigma about substance misuse and alternative treatment approaches. Alan has published over 70 scientific articles and book chapters and presented research at dozens of national and international scientific conferences. Published landmark trial in 2021 on the use of psilocybin therapy for depression in JAMA psychiatry. In 2022, he is launching a pilot study of the first psilocybin trial for Veterans with PTSD.
Jason C. Slot, PhD, MAT
Jason C. Slot, PhD, MAT is a Fungal Biologist in the Department of Plant Pathology at the Ohio State University and the Director of Educational Initiatives for the CPDRE. Dr. Slot conducts basic research in fungal evolutionary ecology, including the ecology and evolutionary genomics of psychedelic mushrooms. His lab has been central to early discoveries in the genetics of psilocybin production. Dr. Slot is author on over 60 scientific articles and book chapters in the areas of mycology, genome evolution, and natural product research. As a formally trained science educator, he has developed courses, workshops, and curricula on the secondary, college, and graduate levels, including an interdisciplinary undergraduate Mycology Minor, and he contributes an ecological perspective to our core Psychedelic Studies courses.
Neşe Devenot, PhD
Neşe Devenot, PhD (she/they) is a Postdoctoral Associate at the Institute for Research in Sensing (IRiS) at the University of Cincinnati and the Medicine, Society & Culture Research Fellow at Psymposia. She previously completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Bioethics at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, and she received her PhD in Comparative Literature from the University of Pennsylvania. Her scholarship examines bioethical approaches to psychedelic medicine, and she conducts research on the function of metaphor and other literary devices in narrative accounts of psychedelic experiences. They were awarded “Best Humanities Publication in Psychedelic Studies” from Breaking Convention in 2016 and received the Article Prize for best publication in Romanticism Studies from European Romantic Review in 2020. They were a 2015-16 Research Fellow at the New York Public Library’s Timothy Leary Papers and a Research Fellow with the New York University Psilocybin Cancer Anxiety Study, where they participated in the first qualitative study of patient experiences. They have presented on psychedelics at conferences in the United States, Mexico, Canada, England, France, the Netherlands, and Australia.
Brian Pace, PhD
Brian Pace, PhD teaches Psychedelic Studies: Neurobiology, Plants, Fungi, and Society in the Department of Plant Pathology at The Ohio State University. He was trained as an evolutionary ecologist: specializing in phytochemistry, ethnobotany, and ecophysiology. He is the Politics and Ecology Editor at Psymposia, a 501c3 watchdog. His research has examined ideology and psychedelic experiences. It has been featured in VICE, translated into French and Italian, and covered internationally. A former US Borlaug Global Food Security Fellow, he has conducted field work in Southern Mexico, the US midwestern prairie, and the Ecuadorian Amazon. For more than a decade, Brian has worked on agroecology and climate change. Along the way, he has taught several university courses on cannabis.
Meghan DellaCrosse
Meghan DellaCrosse is a doctoral candidate at the Wright Institute in Berkeley, CA, and a pre-doctoral intern at Wexner Medical Center's EPICENTER / Early Psychosis Research Program in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health at The Ohio State University. She is contributing to research and manuscript development as a part of the Translational Psychedelic Research (TrPR) Program at UCSF on the Bipolar Psilocybin Project (BiPsi). She previously worked as a clinical assessor on various studies including investigations of social deficits in Veterans with schizophrenia, and psilocybin as a novel treatment for depression and Parkinson’s disease. Meghan is passionate about interdisciplinary research and holds master’s degrees in clinical psychology from Columbia University, Teachers College (NY), and art history from CUNY Hunter College (NY). As a somatic educator and qualified Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction instructor, Meghan's research interests focus on novel treatments and the integration of the body into mental health care to support people with serious mental illness, as well as promoting mental health literacy and reducing stigma.
Grace Adams
After growing up in New York City, Grace attended Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, PA, where she earned her Bachelors in Scientific and Philosophical Studies of Mind in 2018. Since then, Grace has lived and worked in New York, NY and Baltimore, MD. She now lives in Eugene, OR where she also works for Source Research Foundation as their administrative associate, coordinating their grant programs and working with board members to grow the organization. In her free time, she enjoys bouldering, pilates and playing with her two cats. She also engages in community organizing in the Eugene area.