Dr. Elinor Gadon’s Keynote To Explore “History or Mystery”

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We are pleased that Dr. Elinor W. Gadon will present the conference keynote entitled History or Mystery:  Fact of Fiction?   

Dr. Gadon is a cultural historian who has taught at Harvard Divinity School and the California Institute of Integral Studies. She is presently a Resident Scholar at Brandeis University’s Women’s Studies Resource Center.

Her major publication, The Once and Future Goddess: A Symbol for Our Time, is a visual chronicle of the history of the sacred female and her re-emergence in the cultural mythology of our time.

Her research has focused on the analysis of myth and imagery within their particular cultural contexts, especially with reference to issues of gender and spirituality. In particular she has focused on India and the contributions of women artists. With Shulamit Reinharz, she has written Tiger by the Tail: Women Artists of India Transforming Culture (2007).

Dr. Gadon has recently completed From Blood to Fire: The Changing Culture of the Village Goddesses of Orissa in collaboration with sociologist Rita Ray and has submitted it for publication. She is presently working on a monograph The Village Goddesses of Orissa.  Her next project will be her memoirs.

 In 2006 she received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Women’s Caucus for Art, an international organization that recognizes the lasting contributions of women artists and art historians.

In her article “The Secular Israeli Woman” for The Journal of Pedagogy, Pluralism, and Practice (Fall 2009), Dr. Gadon wrote,

“The highest level of a woman’s spirituality is the integration of internal and external voices, the integration between subjective and objective knowledge and the integration between intuitive, personal knowledge and the knowledge received from others. This stage includes waiving belief in a black and white world and developing an ability to live with conflicts, knowing how to maintain connections and responsibilities within the environment, and listening and respecting the body and feelings without shame.”

Matriarchal Studies Day 2016

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Modern Matriarchal Studies Day

March 31, 2016

 

Plan to come a day early to Boston and enjoy the Matriarchal Studies Day seminar and celebration, in the same location as our ASWM Conference.   Hosts for the day are Vicki Noble and Letecia Layson. The program includes a presentation from Dr. Heide Goettner-Abendroth, founder of Modern Matriarchal Studies (via Skype).   Also on the agenda are explorations of woman-centered arts, themes of motherhood, and the Gift Economy. Presenters will include Max Dashu, Polly Wood, Beverly Little Thunder, and Genevieve Vaughan. The keynote presentation is by Lucia Chiavola Birnbaum, and evening entertainment will be provided by internationally known folksinger Julie Felix.

See the Matriarchal Studies Day agenda below or here Matriarchal Studies Day Agenda

The registration fee includes your lunch.  Follow the links to register:

$60 (before February 11)

$75 (Feb 11 to March 25)

$90 (after March 25 and Walk-ins)

For more information, contcact Joan Cichon at cichon@oakton.edu

Please note:  Matriarchal Studies Day is presented in conjunction with our conference, to the benefit of both groups,but registration for this event is not covered by registering for the ASWM Conference.

Matriarchal Studies Day Agenda

Burlington Marriott

Boston, MA

March 31, 2016

 

 

9:00     Opening Ritual / Julie Felix, troubadour

Greetings from Turtle Island / Kunsi Keya Tamakoce / Beverly Little Thunder

 

9:30-10:45

Herstory / Background of Matriarchal Studies:

Lydia Ruyle–Matriarchal Studies Conferences Intro

Matriarchal Studies Foundress: Heide Goettner Abendroth via SKYPE

 

BREAK

 

11:00-12:00

Woman Centered Art, Drama, Music:

Constance Tippett—Goddess Timeline

Indigenous Stories—Beverly Little Thunder

                        Polly Wood–Blood Songs

Foremothers Book—Vicki Noble & Miriam Robbins Dexter

 

LUNCH

 

1:00-2:20

            Reclaiming the Matriarchal, Radical and Wild Motherhood Panel:

Mariam Tazi-Preve, Genevieve Vaughan, Max Dashu, Lin Daniels

 

BREAK

 

2:30-3:30       

Women Centered Future:

Vicki Noble—Oxytocin, Matriarchy, and Human Evolution

Erica Starks—Matriarchal Studies High School Curriculum

Genevieve Vaughan—The Gift Economy

 

3:30-4:00

Honorary Speaker: Elinor Gadon—The Village Goddess in India

 

4:00-5:00

Presenters & Attendees Discussion

 

5:00-7:30                    DINNER [On Your Own]

 

 

7:30-9:00

Keynote Speaker: Lucia Chiavola Birnbaum

Closing Ritual: Julie Felix, Troubadour

 

Our gratitude and thanks go to Lin Daniels, who helped Lydia Ruyle and Vicki Noble plan the Matriarchal Studies Day 2016. Thanks to Barb Lutz for building our altar.

Call for Papers: Feminist Gift Economy

Canadian Woman Studies/les cahiers de la femme:

Feminist Gift Economy Theorizing and Practice:  A Matricentric Alternative to Patriarchy

32.1 (Summer/Fall 2016)

Deadline:  January 30, 2016

The aim of this issue of CWS/cf is to recognize and give value to unilateral gifting and to explore the new theoretical and practical understandings and political possibilities uncovered by the recognition of its maternal roots. The study of Indigenous gift economies in the West denies the importance of direct unilateral giving and some have even questioned its existence. However a great deal of unilateral giving is called for in the practice of care by mothers, who are usually women but can also be men, other children, or entire villages.

Write or call as soon as possible indicating your intention to submit your work.

Canadian Woman Studies/les cahiers de la femme

210 Founders, York University, 4700 Keele St. Toronto, ON M3J 1P3

Telephone: (416) 736-5356 Fax: (416) 736-5765 E-mail: cwscf@yorku.ca

 

2016 Western Region AAR Conference

AMERICAN ACADEMY OF RELIGION/WESTERN REGION (AAR/WR)

2016 ANNUAL CONFERENCE – CALL FOR PAPERS

University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, April 1-3, 2016

 

Conference Theme:

The overall theme for the 2016 Conference is Social Justice. We are using this idea in its broadest terms. We are hoping to encompass racism, feminism, womanism, eco-justice, gender justice, classism, neo-colonialism, etc., seen through the eyes of religious scholars. See submission guidelines and application here.

Extended Deadline:  Saturday, October 10, 2015, is the deadline for submitting proposals via e-mail to unit chairs for papers for the 2016 AAR/WR Conference. Proposals or abstracts should be no more than 250 words in length and, along with participant forms, should be sent as an attachment to unit chair(s) at the e-mail addresses provided below. If you are proposing a panel of three to four papers, please include short abstracts for each paper on the panel, and a short description of your panel theme.

Individuals whose proposals are accepted must be members of the AAR before the conference date in order to present.  For any questions regarding the call for papers please contact the Program Chair Dorothea Kahena Viale at  dkviale@cpp.edu.