Saturday, March 29, 2025, 9:00 AM Pacific Time
- Judy Grahn: Inanna, Protectress of Nature’s and Women’s Cycles
- Annalisa Derr: Reclaiming Inanna: A Myth Model for Embodying Erotic Aliveness
- Pinar Durgun: Goddess of Ambiguities: Inanna/Ishtar and her (many) images
Our plenary panel examines the many dimensions of one of the world’s oldest known mythic figures, the Mesopotamian goddess Inanna. Her attributes include celestial powers of stars and planets, yet she is best known for her voluntary journey into the underworld of loss and pain. This outstanding panel includes the work of three pre-eminent scholars of Inanna’s myths and images:
Annalisa Derr, PhD, offers an affirming alternative by re-visioning the Sumerian myth, “The Descent of Inanna,” as a sacred menstrual narrative and ritual rite-of-passage. Her forthcoming book, under contract with Inner Traditions, aims to help liberate women from internalized sexism and menstrual shame and (re)awaken them to their Sacred Feminine Power. Annalisa earned her doctorate in Mythological Studies with Emphasis in Depth Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute and holds a BA in Theater with specialized training in masked and physical performance. Out of a desire to enrich the lives of everyday women, Annalisa hosts “Journey to the Goddess TV,” facilitating interviews and keynote presentations by experts in goddess scholarship and spirituality. Last, but not least, she is an aspiring flamenco dancer, Italophile, and a recent resident of Athens, Greece.
Dr. Pınar Durgun is the Jeannette and Jonathan Rosen Associate Curator of Ancient Western Asian Seals and Tablets and Department Head of Ancient Western Asian Seals and Tablets Department at the Morgan Library in New York, which contains one of the most distinguished collections of Mesopotamian cylinder seals in the United States. She studied in Turkey and has a Ph.D. in Archaeology and the Ancient World from Brown University. She is an art-historically trained archaeologist with a strong background in anthropology. Her research focuses on ancient materials and crafts, seals and sealings, death and burial, image and identity making, and copies and copying in ancient western Asia. With over ten years of experience teaching and working in museums, Dr. Durgun is interested in how museums help us engage with the past and how they can better serve our communities today.
Judy Grahn, Ph.D., has been writing about women’s spirituality and women’s contributions to human culture for over fifty years. She taught her own work in Women’s Spirituality Master’s Programs at New College of California and the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology for over thirteen years total. Her work on Inanna includes Eruptions of Inanna: Justice, Gender, and Erotic Power, for which she won the ASWM Sarasvati Award, and three book-length poems on the goddess of love, power, and beauty. She is also the winner of ASWM’s Demeter Award for Leadership in Women’s Spirituality.
Read all about our 2025 Conference and register here.