Author: WomenandMyth

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Call for Proposals: Brigit: Sun of Womanhood

Goddess, Ink is seeking proposals comprising works about the Celtic Goddess and Christian Saint Brigit in any printable form, including but not limited to:
  • Scholarly essays
  • Personal essays
  • PoetryInterior artwork (including small line drawings, in black and white)
  • Cover and Back artwork (color)
  • Chants and Invocation
  • translations of ancient poems, prayers and invocations to Brigit

Co-editors Michael McDermott and Patricia Monaghan are scholars and followers of Brigit.

Deadline for submissions: July 1, 2012  Planned publishing date for the anthology: Imbolc 2013.  Send submissions to Submit to Goddess Ink Press

Please direct inquiries to BrigitAnthology@gmail.com

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Featured Speakers for ASWM Conference: Judy Grahn

We are fortunate to be able to offer excellent keynote presenters at the 2012 Conference!  Watch for updates in the coming days.

Judy Grahn is an internationally known poet, writer, and social theorist.  Her work underpins several movements, including Gay, Lesbian, and Queer; Feminist/Woman-Centered; and Women’s Spirituality, but it has spread far beyond any of these.  She currently serves as Associate Core Faculty for the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology in Palo Alto, California, in their Women’s Spirituality Master’s Program.

Her presentation is titled:  Goddess Is Alive! But How Do We Know…?

We have gathered the images and myths, the rock art and the archeological speculations, the myriad clues in ancient literature and contemporary ritual. Practitioners from living traditions have surfaced to teach and demonstrate. Many if not most of us have felt the presence of a living goddess energy at some time in our lives, and maybe we have students who hunger for this or have experienced “something” from a different dimension. How do we track these occasions, how do we teach methods for recording and analyzing rare happenings, how do we know, “this time it’s real—?”   And just what is “real”? Some thoughts on Organic Inquiry methods, art-based research, teaching divination as a method of gathering data. 

To learn more about Judy’s work, see her web site.

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Program Preview for “Creating the Chalice”

Charlene Spretnak, Judy Grahn, Ana Castillo, Max Dashu, Miriam Robbins Dexter, Heide Goettner-Abendroth, Ava Park, Luisah Teish, Jean Shinoda Bolen, Macha NightMare, Amejo Amyot, Lauren Raine, Patricia Monaghan, Cristina Biaggi, Sudie Rakusin, Vicki Noble, Lydia Ruyle, Arisika Razak, Mara Keller, Joan Marler, Jennifer Berezan, Annie Finch, Grrrl Brigade!*

What do these great women and girls have in common?  They are some of the speakers and presenters at the ASWM National Conference!

 Panel topics include:  Place Wisdom, Womanism, Cultural Appropriation, Archaeomythology, Matriarchal Studies, Women in Publishing, Visionary Films, Ritual Creation,  Restorative Feminism. 

Conference also features Film Series, Workshops, Networking Luncheon, and Marketplace.

Registration is now open—early bird fees are $190 for members, $235 for nonmembers until April 17, 2012.

Join and register at this Conference Link!

*Note:  Presenters may be subject to change as life intervenes.

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ASWM Launches Film Series

ASWM has a keen interest in quality films on scholarly subjects related to women and mythology.  Such films are excellent educational and community resources.  With this in mind we have launched a Film Series for conferences/symposia.  We will consider documentary, narrative, and creative films for inclusion in the series.  The following guidelines are in place for selection of films.

ASWM Film Guidelines

1.      The film should be a scholarly work from a feminist/womanist perspective.

2.      The focus of the film should include some form of women’s experience. (This may also include addressing the exclusion of women.)

3.      The film topic should include a component of myth, sacredness and/or practice inspired by earth spirituality.

4.      The film may address  historical, contemporary or future-oriented topics anywhere on the globe, in cyberspace, and beyond.

5.      The film may be artistic or realistic in approach.

6.      ASWM wishes to encourage respectful study and representation of diverse cultures and experience.  To that end, films should include the perspective of those being filmed to every extent possible.  Collaborative projects are welcomed.

Dates and deadlines for each event will be announced on this site.  Films may be submitted for consideration by contacting aswmsubmissions@gmail.com for the submission form.  Please put “Film Proposal” in the subject line followed by the film title.

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2012 Conference Themes, “Creating the Chalice”

CREATING THE CHALICE:  

Imagination and Integrity in Goddess Studies

The Association for the Study of Women

and Mythology

Biennial National Conference

Holiday Inn, Fisherman’s Wharf

San Francisco May 11-12, 2012.

Advancing our scholarship involves the evolution and refinement of our methods.  Suggested topics for this exciting conference will include, but are not limited to, the following lines of inquiry:

  • What are new paths for the field of Women’s Spirituality and Goddess Studies?  How creative can we be?  Are we inventing, reconstructing, or using creative license to reawaken and bring the past into the present?  How do we evaluate this work?  How can we use this creative work together with more “traditional’ approaches to advance our scholarship?
  • What are new models and methods for our scholarly inquiry?  Can we develop and advance our scholarship with methods such as Organic or Heuristic inquiry?  What is Spiritual Autobiography, and how can this be useful?  Sacred geography?  What else?  How shall our new methods be evaluated?  What are our criteria for solid scholarship using these new models?
  • What are the complexities around issues of Cultural Appropriation?  How do we understand and address the tensions around rootedness and local culture on the one hand, and issues of lineage and history on the other?  Are there new models of scholarship that honor history and culture while simultaneously enriching our scholarship?

Our goal is to include academic presenters from many disciplines and backgrounds, as well as creative artists and practitioners who engage mythic themes in a scholarly manner in their work.  Experiential workshops and a film series are also offered.  Presenters must become members of ASWM prior to conference.

About the chalice:  see Susan’s work at www.SweetwaterPottery.biz