Damian Lanahan-Kalish

Damian Lanahan-Kalish is a scholar of American religion specializing in contemporary witchcraft, Paganism, and Western esotericism. He earned his PhD in Religious Studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara. His dissertation, “Magick in the City of Angels: Navigating Reality Among Contemporary Magick Users in the Greater Los Angeles Area” (2024), is based on ethnographic fieldwork with three magical communities in the Los Angeles area and examines how practitioners negotiate the boundary between subjective and objective reality through ritual practice, online and in-person classes, and cultivating communities. 

Damian’s research focuses on what he describes as the “magick tradition,” a loosely connected constellation of witches, Pagans, ceremonial magicians, and esoteric practitioners whose beliefs and practices move fluidly across categories often treated as distinct in academic scholarship. His work combines participant observation—taking classes, attending rituals, and building long-term relationships within these communities—with historical analysis that traces the lineage of contemporary magick from early modern European esotericism to present-day digital and popular culture contexts. He is currently exploring Arizona’s unique magickal community and planning a larger scope project focusing on contemporary devotion to the goddess Hecate which has grown over the past decade into a major part of the Pagan and witchcraft world in the United States.

Outside of his research interests, Damian has a passion for teaching and is constantly creating and re-working classes including subjects such as witchcraft, contemporary religion, and new religious movements. His teaching emphasizes lived religion, hands-on methodological training, and sustained student research. His classes usually involve a large variety of sources, including movies, music, podcasts, websites, social media accounts, and academic writing. 

Originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, he joined Arizona State University in the fall of 2025. Before entering academia, he worked extensively as a cook and an actor—experiences that continue to shape his teaching style and engagement with popular culture, media, and storytelling. He remains dedicated to overcomplicated cooking projects and the obsessive consumption of all forms of popular, and not-so-popular, culture. Both of which he will gladly talk your ear off about. He can often be seen wearing T-shirts he has written on with sharpies.