Author: WomenandMyth

Saturday, March 29, 2025, Westward Look Inn, Tucson AZ

Stories from Ethnoautobiographical Engagement with the Land

with Michelle Boyle, Kimberly Davis, Dawn Johnson Harvey and Allison Smith

• Spirit in Stones, Michelle Boyle
• A Druidic Account of the Healing Earth, Dawn Johnson Harvey
• Black Women Remember: The Reemergence of the Primordial Mothers for Personal, Political, and Planetary Healing, Kimberly Davis
• Myth & Migration: Sicilian Folktales Take Root in New Ecologies, Allison Smith

Michelle Boyle, MA, recently returned from a year doing fieldwork as a guest researcher at the University of Torino, Italy. She is currently completing her doctorate, on ancestral healing and intergenerational trauma, in East West Psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies. Michelle is a mother, grandmother, counselor, and healer, and lives with her youngest child and four-footed family on Caddo and Wichita territory in north Texas.

Dr. Kimberly J. Davis is a spiritual scholar, author, teacher, life coach, and intuitive healer. She is the founder of Journey to Wholeness Center and Journey Healing Institute. Kimberly holds a PhD in Philosophy and Religion with a concentration in Women’s Spirituality from the California Institute of Integral Studies and an MBA in Finance from DePaul University. Her scholarship centers the lived experiences of African American women as they navigate and heal the soul-wounding effects of historical trauma through embodied spiritualities.

Dawn Johnson Harvey, MS, LMHC is a PhD student in East-West Ecopsychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies. She also holds a master’s degree in Marriage and Family Therapy and provides trauma-informed narrative therapy. Her dissertation explores the decolonization of the self in the community through Ethnoautobiography, a process of critical self-inquiry to unlearn Whiteness and reawaken ancestral ties with the integral earth community.

Dr. Ying Xu earned a BA and MA in English in China and a Ph.D. in English from UNM, specializing in nineteenth-century American literature and Asian American literature. A contributor to OUPblog and Oxford Bibliographies, her latest work was featured in MLA’s special collection on Teaching. She translated Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony, published in 2023, and is currently translating Joy Harjo’s Crazy Brave, set for release in 2025.

Read all about the ASWM Conference and register  here.

Saturday, March 29, 2025, Westward Look Inn, Tucson AZ

Artistic Creation and the Natural World: Deepening and Healing Relationships through Art, Dance, and Literature

with Cristina Biaggi, Laura Shannon, Adhi TwoOwls, and Ying Xu

• Rescue and Myth, Cristina Biaggi
• The Tree of Life in Balkan Women’s Circle Dance: from Mother’s Placenta to the Mothering Principle, Laura Shannon
• Healing Through Spirit and Expression: The Intersection of Shamanism and Art, Adhi TwoOwls
• Carrying Pebbles in [Their] Grief: Qiu Jin (1875-1907) and the Jingwei Bird/Nüwa, Ying Xu

Cristina Biaggi, Ph.D. has achieved significant recognition for her contributions in the art and in the literary worlds, in the field of feminist art and Goddess Studies. She is the author of five books: Habitations of the Great Goddess, Footsteps of the Goddess, The Rule of Mars, Activism into Art and Four Legs and Two. She has also created large installations, abstract collages, figurative works, portraits of people and their animals.

Laura Shannon has been researching traditional Greek and Balkan women’s dances since 1985. Founding Director of the Athena Institute for Women’s Dance and Culture, Carol P. Christ’s successor as Director of the Ariadne Institute for the Study of Myth and Ritual, and an Honorary Lifetime Member of the Sacred Dance Guild, she is currently writing a PhD on women’s circle dance at the University of Gloucester (UK).

Adhi TwoOwls is an artist, educator, and alternative healing therapist specializing in  the intersection of shamanism, art, and wellness. With expertise in art history, drawing, and holistic practices, Adhi leads workshops and retreats exploring creativity, spirituality, and healing. Passionate about fostering connections between ancient traditions and modern approaches, Adhi empowers individuals to find resilience and transformation through guided meditation, ceremonial art-making, and integrative therapies.

Dr. Ying Xu earned a BA and MA in English in China and a Ph.D. in English from UNM, specializing in nineteenth-century American literature and Asian American literature. A contributor to OUPblog and Oxford Bibliographies, her latest work was featured in MLA’s special collection on Teaching. She translated Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony, published in 2023, and is currently translating Joy Harjo’s Crazy Brave, set for release in 2025.

Read all about the ASWM Conference and register  here.

Saturday, March 29, 2025, Westward Look Inn, Tucson AZ

Reclaiming Animal-Human Relationships Drawing on Land Wisdom and Myth

with Claire Princess Ayelotan, Heather Taylor, Barbara Mann, and Kaarina Kailo

• Foundational Myths, Witchcraft Accusations, and the Symbolism of Cats in Yoruba Cosmology, Claire Princess Avelotan
• Bear wisdom and original Instructions for healthy living, Kaarina Kailo
• Original Instructions: Boundary Crossing with Bears, Barbara Mann
• Mythical Horses Connecting Us to the Primal Energy of Life, Land, and Imagination, Heather Taylor

Dr Claire Princess Ayelotan is a researcher in Theology, Religious Studies, and Law, specialising in African spirituality, witchcraft accusations, and Yoruba cosmology. Her interdisciplinary research explores connections between myth, social justice, and legal frameworks within Nigerian and diaspora populations. Utilising African Womanist viewpoints and symbolic interactionism, Dr Ayelotan examines the significance of human and animal symbolism in mythologies and traditions, focusing on their intersections with human rights and legal systems.

Dr. Kaarina Kailo is a cosmopolitan activist, politician, self-made artist and researcher. She has worked as professor of Women’s Studies at Oulu University, Finland, at the Finnish Academy, and has held women’s studies positions at Concordia University, Simone de Beauvoir Institute and University of Quebec, Chicoutimi, Canada. She has published hundreds of articles on the gift economy/imaginary, Bear and Great Mother Worship/mythology, the woman who married the bear, sauna and sweat lodge healing, Finno-Ugric ecomythology, and modern matriarchal studies.

Barbara Alice Mann, Ph.D., is Professor Emerita of Humanities, Jesup Scott Honors College, of the University of Toledo, in Toledo, Ohio, USA. Including encyclopedias and bibliographies, she  has produced seventeen books and over 500 articles. Her latest work is The Woman Who Married the Bear (Oxford University Press, August, 2023) co-authored with Finnish scholar Dr. Kaarina Kailo. Mann’s most recent monographs include President by Massacre: Indian-Killing for Political Gain; Spirits of Blood, Spirits of Breath: The Twinned Cosmos of Indigenous America; The Tainted Gift: The Disease Method of Settler Advance; Daughters of Mother Earth; and Iroquoian Women: The Gantowisas (Lang, 2000, 2004, 2006).

Heather A. Taylor is the Co-Founder of the International Society of Mythology. She is also producer/director of the award-winning documentary Breaking Through the Clouds: The First Women’s National Air Derby. Heather has a PhD in Mythology and a Masters in Producing Film. Heather has a special interest in helping people find their passion (genius) which is often done with the aid of an animal, real and mythic.

Read all about the ASWM Conference and register  here.