Dr. Hamide Elif Üzümcü, a faculty member of the Department of Sociology at the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Social Sciences University of Ankara, represented our university at the ENSIE 7 Conference held at the University of Málaga, Andalusia, Spain, from May 20 to 23, 2026.

Organized by the European Network for the Study of Islam and Esotericism (ENSIE) under the theme "Human and Non-Human," the conference featured a presentation by Dr. Üzümcü on May 22, 2026, during the session titled "Transmission and Adaptation of Esoteric Knowledge."

Dr. Üzümcü presented her paper titled "Imaginal Ecologies: The Environment in Children’s Storytelling within Sufi Contexts," which outlines the preliminary findings of her research project funded by an IASH–Alwaleed Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, University of Edinburgh.

Based on fieldwork conducted with children and families engaging with Sufi-related traditions in the UK, the paper explored how children’s imaginal faculty (tahayyül) is nurtured through Sufi environmental storytelling practices within everyday family dynamics. The presentation illustrated how these practices conceptualize human and non-human agents as inseparably connected, thereby challenging Western-centric frameworks that privilege human agency.