Announcing Scholar Salon 3: Arieahn Matamonasa on Mongolian Shamans, Dec. 11

Lessons from the Roadless Road: Mongolia in 2019

Arieahn Matamonasa, Ph.D., DePaul University, Chicago, IL
Date and time: Wednesday December 11, 2019, 1:00 PM Central Time

Dr. Matamonasa writes,

“I am a clinical psychologist, researcher and cross-culturally trained traditional healer. My lifelong work has been building bridges between indigenous healing and worldviews and Western psychology. In the Summer of 2019, I traveled with a group of nine other Westerners to visit the ancient steppes and valleys of Mongolia to visit the people of Khuvdgal, the Darkhad Valley and Tsagaan Nuur. These people represent the world’s oldest shamanic traditions that have persisted despite years of persecution and oppression. The world’s remaining Indigenous people are the keepers of our human intellectual and ecological knowledge through deep time. This presentation highlights some of my experiences and the lessons that are invaluable for modern cultures in this time of ecological, spiritual and social crisis.”

Highlights will include:

  • Stepping back in time: Vast, ancient wild spaces
  • Community in the West: ‘downloaded’ but not installed
  • Shaman’s Warnings: Consumerism and predatory cultures

Members will receive a link to join the Salon. If you are not yet an ASWM member, join now to participate. The Salon recording will be available to members after the event.

Recordings are listed on our Member Library’s Scholars Salon page womenandmyth.org/salons. Updated Salon News and Scholars Salon recordings are here in chronological order, most recent first.

Call for Proposals: 2020 Poster Session for ASWM Conference

Due January 5, 2020

This year we will feature a juried poster session at our conference. This is a great opportunity to explain your ideas and applied work in a more engaging way to a wider audience. During the poster session, participants will informally discuss their presentations with conference attendees, and posters will be displayed throughout the conference. Poster session participants place materials such as pictures, data, graphs, diagrams and narrative text on boards size A0 (33.1″ x 46.8″) or video. Video posters are short videos where the presenter discusses the nature and impact of their research/project which is illustrated on the printed poster they are displaying at the conference.

As with paper presentations, posters should follow the conference themes found in our Call for Proposals.

Send a 250 word abstract in PDF or MSWord to aswmsubmissions@gmail.com by November 23, 2019. ​Use “2020 poster proposal” and last name in the subject header of your email. ​Include a bio of up to 70 words and contact information including surface address and email. Presenters from all disciplines are welcome, as well as creative artists and practitioners whose work engages mythic themes in a scholarly manner. Poster Presenters must become members of ASWM.

Writing an ASWM Conference Proposal

How does ASWM’s program committee read and review proposals? We start by focusing on the written proposal that you submit. We look for a clear and succinct statement of your work. We have more than a hundred proposals to review for each event, so we are serious about the 250-word limit for an individual proposal. In this case, giving us more information than that word limit works to your disadvantage. If you exceed the word limit, you will probably be asked to submit your proposal again, following the guidelines. (Some organizations would reject such a proposal on the basis of guidelines alone.)

It will be this 250-word abstract that is made available to attendees. Your proposal enables people to make a choice of what to attend during the conference. It is your best chance to present your work, so it needs to be spelled out clearly. (Remember that you are presenting the proposal to an intelligent general audience, who may not be familiar with the jargon of your field.) See below for a checklist for proposal form and content.

Your 70-word bio will need to have enough information so that people can find you after the event if they want to make contact about your work. Biographies are included in the conference program book. Accepted proposals will be available on the website, alphabetical by author last name.

Film Proposals

If you are proposing to show a film, know that, at the first stage, our proposal readers will not look up films on websites. That’s the job of the film subcommittee, which doesn’t see proposals until we have determined whether/how the film fits with our themes. The general proposal readers recommend films to the subcommittee. What is the subject of your film (be specific)? How does it fit with our themes? How long is the film? Is it a documentary, scripted story, non-narrative, or something else? How do you want to show your film at the conference, and how much time do you need for discussion and response? And, finally, include a link to your film or video.

Hints and Tips

Does your proposal

  • stay within the word limit?
  • start with your best one-sentence summary of your work?
  • make a clear and succinct statement of what your work is about?
  • explain any unfamiliar or esoteric terms?
  • show how the work fits our conference theme(s)?
  • highlight what makes your work stand out from other work on the same topic? (ex. unique perspective, new information, synthesizing theories, etc.)
  • state your goal for the presentation? (What idea do you want people to take away from your work?)
  • include a 70-word bio with current contact information?

Thank you for submitting your work for an ASWM event, and best wishes for success in your work.

Member Library: View “MotherWorld” Scholar Salon

“Motherworld:” Creating a Life-affirming Society for All

Wednesday, September 25, 2019
This Scholar Salon is now available for members to view in our Member Library.

“MotherWorld” is the society where Mother Earth, mothers and the values of mothering – love, care and support for each other, and for all Her creatures and nature – are placed in the centre of our lives and communities.

Internationally known goddess scholar Kathy Jones is the Founder of Glastonbury Goddess Temple, Goddess Hall, and Goddess House, and the Glastonbury Goddess Conference.  The author of ten acclaimed books on Goddess studies and folklore, Kathy also offers the three-year Priestess of Avalon  training, as well as Soul Healing and other Goddess trainings.

Kathy received ASWM’s 2018 Demeter Award for Leadership in Women’s Spirituality for her key role in bringing the awareness of Goddess back not only to Glastonbury, but to Europe, the U.S., and the world.


Scholar Salons give members the chance to join an online conversation with prominent scholars from all fields. This is a members only opportunity. Join or Renew for 2019 by 9 a.m. Eastern, Wednesday, September 25th (thanks!) and we will send instructions on how to join the Salon. Access requests after this time cannot be guaranteed. For questions, email ASWM at membership@womenandmyth.org.

Kore Award for Best Dissertation: Applications Open

Applications are open until January 17, 2020 for The 2020 Kore Award for Best Dissertation in Women and Mythology.

The Kore Award is conferred by the Association for the Study of Women and Mythology. The award, established in 2009, is funded by the gift of a generous contributor and carries a $500 prize. The intention behind its founding is to create awareness of excellence in Women and Mythology, and to provide an organizational framework for supporting graduate students in their work. The award is presented at the biennial national conference, for dissertations completed and defended in 2019 and 2018. Defense must be completed by December 31, 2019.

Applicants can be from any discipline, including but not limited to literature, religious studies, art or art history, classics, anthropology, and communications. Creative dissertations must include significant analysis of mythology in addition to creative work. Applicants must be members of ASWM at time of submission.

Past winners of this award include Dr. Dawn Work-MaKinne (2010), Deity in Sisterhood: The Collective Female Sacred in Germanic Europe, Dr. Shannan Palma (2012), Tales as Old as Time: Myth, Gender and the Fairy Tale in Popular Culture, Dr. Mary Beth Moser (2014), The Everyday Spirituality of Women in the Italian Alps, Dr. Annette Williams (2016), Our Mysterious Mothers: The Primordial Feminine Power of Àjê in the Cosmology, Mythology, and Historical Reality of the West African Yoruba, and Dr. April Heaslip (2018), Regenerating Magdalene: Psyche’s Quest for the Archetypal Bride.

Applicants must be members of ASWM upon submission of entry. A letter of support from dissertation chair/director must accompany application. Applicants will be urged to also propose a paper for the national conference, and to appear at and present work at national conference, if they receive award. Housing and meals will be covered by the ASWM Board of Directors. Information about the national conference can be found at www.womenandmyth.org

Schedule for 2020 award:

Dissertations completed and defended in 2018 and 2019
Deadline for completion and defense: December 31, 2019
Application window: Sept. 16, 2019-January 17, 2020
Announcement of award winner: February 14, 2020
Awarded at conference Saturday March 14, 2020, Albuquerque, NM

Application for Kore Award for Best Dissertation in Women and Mythology