Alice Walker, author of The Color Purple, says of Dr. Lucia Chiavola Birnbaum “You are one of the most forward thinking, history conscious, and integrative thinkers… You are doing the work that truly turns the tide.”
In a break with tradition, the ASWM Board of Directors awarded both Dr. Birnbaum and Dr. Elinor Gadon the 2016 Demeter Award for Leadership in Women’s Spirituality. Dr. Birnbaum was honored in recognition of decades of visionary scholarship as a Founding Mother of Feminist Spirituality, Cultural History and Political Awareness. Her continuing intellectual leadership ,as a cultural historian, educator and mentor, focuses on questions about the origins of submerged cultures.
Beginning over thirty years ago with the English and Italian publications of Liberazione della donna: Feminism in Italy(1986, l988), and Black Madonnas: Feminism, religion, and politics in Italy (1993), Dr. Birnbaum’s work has enlightened and continues to inspire readers with knowledge concerning the hidden herstory of our quintessential African cultural heritage and foremothers. Incorporating knowledge from history, anthropology, and genetics, she examines the transformative power of the image of the primordial Dark Mother and female divinity that was carried out of Africa on waves of human migration.
Here is the announcement from the CIIS Administration. Congratulations, Annette!
It is our pleasure to announce that Dr. Annette Williams has accepted the position of Chair and Core Faculty in the Women’s Spirituality program.
Annette Williams, ASWM 2020 Keynote Speaker
Dr. Annette Williams holds a doctorate in Philosophy and Religion with specialization in Women’s Spirituality as well a master’s degree in psychology with an emphasis in Jungian and archetypal approaches. Her research interests have centered on healing from sexual trauma at the level of the soul that involves reclamation of the powerful erotic (à la Audre Lorde) and libidinal energies (à la Jung) suppressed by assault. An initiate within and student of Yorùbá Ifá tradition, Annette has had the privilege of lecturing on the philosophy and lived reality of this West African religion. Her more recent research takes up the theme of women’s spiritual power and agency within the tradition with specific reference to the primordial feminine authority of àjẹ́. Annette has also been a French/English translator and bi-lingual volunteer at sexual assault and women’s centers.
Dr. Annette L. Williams received the 2016 Kore Award for Best Dissertation, for Our Mysterious Mothers: The Primordial Feminine Power of Àjẹ́ in the Cosmology, Mythology, and Historical Reality of the West African Yoruba written for the California Institute of Integral Studies.
Established in 2010 by ASWM co-founder Patricia Monaghan, the Kore Award recognizes excellence and relevance in dissertation research. The award was conferred at the 2016 ASWM Conference, via Skype due to schedule conflicts.
The text of Dr. William’s award letter reads,
You write that among the Yoruba, àjẹ́ is the primordial force of causation and creation. It is the power of the feminine, of female divinity and women, and the women themselves who wield this power. Unfortunately, it has been translated as “witch” or “witchcraft” with attendant malevolent connotations. Though the fearsome nature of àjẹ́ cannot be denied, it is actually a richly nuanced term. Examination of Yoruba sacred text, Odu Ifa, reveals a spiritual and temporal power exercised in religious, judicial, political, and economic domains throughout Yoruba history.
Your dissertation explores the many factors contributing to the duality in attitude towards àjẹ́, forcing an intense representation of their fearsome aspects to the virtual disavowal of their positive dimensions. You were able to interview people with knowledge of àjẹ́ both in Yorubaland in Africa, and in the United States. You employed transdisciplinary methodologies and multiple lenses, including hermeneutics, historiography and critical theory to tease out the place of àjẹ́ within Yoruba cosmology and historical reality. You critically read the influence both of sexist patriarchy and colonialist British imperialism in the culture and in the reading of the Odu Ifa.
You write, “In our out-of-balance world, there might be wisdom to be gleaned from beings that were given the charge of maintaining cosmic balance. Giving proper respect and honor to “our mothers” (awon iya wa) who own and control àjẹ́, individuals are called to exercise their àjẹ́ in the world in the cause of social justice, to be the guardians of a just society.”
Donna Read and ASWM Vice President Dawn Work-Makinne
At our Boston conference, Donna Read, innovator, filmmaker, producer and activist, received ASWM’s2016 Saga Award for Special Contributions to Women’s History and Culture. The award honors Donna’s role in making feminist scholarship and the history of spirituality visible and accessible to a wide audience,
The ASWM Board of Directors recognizes Donna as “one of the premier visionary artists of our time” for films that include the Women’s Spirituality Series (Goddess Remembered, Burning Times, and Full Circle), Signs Out of Time, Permaculture: The Growing Edge, and (with producer/directorDonna Roberts) Yemanjá: Wisdom from the African Heart of Brazil.
In particular, Donna’s visual chronicles in both the “Women & Spirituality trilogy” and “Signs Out of Time” document the history of the sacred feminine and its re-emergence in the cultural mythology and activism of our time. Her films introduced scholars, feminists, artists and interested women to new interpretations of the myriad array of images of the female divine. As her award letter states, this work “has enlightened and continues to inspire viewers to re-examine their assumptions about women, about men, about spirituality and about culture.”
We were privileged to have Donna present Yemanjá: Wisdom from the African Heart of Brazil to our 2016 conference, and moderate an important discussion about the film and the remarkable women upon whose work it is based.
Hearing of her award, Donna’s good friend and collaborator Starhawk had this to say:
Donna Read Cooper has made great contributions to women’s culture and history. She created key resources through her work as a filmmaker, first with the National Film Board of Canada and later with her own independent company, Belili Productions. She began as an editor, worked for many years at Studio D, the Film Board’s special studio for women, and progressed on to direct and produce documentaries concerned with women and the earth, including the Women’s Spirituality Trilogy: Goddess Remembered, Burning Times and Full Circle. Together, we made Signs Out of Time, on the life of archaeologist Marija Gimbutas, and Permaculture: The Growing Edge.
As her long-time friend, and sometime film making companion, I know some of the obstacles she faced. From the early days, when women in film faced prejudice and dismissal, to challenges persuading the more hard-nosed political feminists that women’s spirituality was a valid subject, to the difficulty raising funds for independent documentaries, to the health challenges that come with aging.
But she always persevered. Donna made films about key issues, but she also took action. We’ve marched together in the streets, stood together in front of tanks on the West Bank supporting the nonviolent resistance in Palestine, attended endless meetings, and most recently, Donna has opened her home to Syrian refugees. Through it all managed to raise five children, and remain a mentor, teacher, and a good friend to me and to many younger women.
I am thrilled that Donna is receiving this well-deserved award that honors a lifetime of devotion to women and social justice.
Congratulations to Donna, along with deep gratitude for her work which has both chronicled and transformed generations of scholarship.
THE AMAZONS: Lives and Legends of Warrior Women across the Ancient World (Princeton, 2014)
It is with great pleasure that ASWM confers the 2016 Sarasvati Book Award for Nonfiction to THE AMAZONS for its power in reframing knowledge about our female ancestors and reawakening scholarly as well as metaphysical and physical pathways that link history and myth.
Think of everything you know about the ancient mythological warrior women collectively known as the Amazons–and prepare to have most of it overturned. In a breathtaking achievement of research and methodical exploration of archaeological, literary, and artistic sources, Adrienne Mayor sifts through centuries of evidence to get at the reality of who the Amazons were, where and when they lived, what they did, and how they did it.
The award letter states,
The authoritative command of the research reveals the Amazons as they have never been seen before, not merely figments of the Greek imagination, but actual flesh and blood warrior women of nomadic cultures, inspiring exciting tales from ancient Egypt, Persia, India, Central Asia and China. First to examine the evidence systematically and in detail, the book reveals the truth behind storytelling as it persuasively elucidates the history, art, and imagination of ancient peoples, drawing on an impressively diverse set of data sources from classical myth, nomadic traditions and folklore, and scientific archaeology to visual representations from Greek pottery to body tattoo.
Dr. Adrienne Mayor, photo by Josiah Ober
Adrienne Mayor, a research scholar in Classics and History of Science, Stanford University, is the author of The First Fossil Hunters: (2000); Fossil Legends of the First Americans (2005); Greek Fire, Poison Arrows & Scorpion Bombs: Biological and Chemical Warfare in the Ancient World (2003); The Poison King: Rome’s Deadliest Enemy (2010, National Book Award nonfiction finalist); The Amazons: Lives and Legends of Warrior Women across the Ancient World (2014); and many scholarly and popular articles. Her work is featured on NPR, BBC, History Channel, New York Times, USA Today, Smithsonian, and National Geographic and she is a regular contributor at WondersandMarvels.com.
The Sarasvati Award, named for the Hindu goddess of learning and the creative arts, honors creative work in the fields of goddess and mythology studies. The award is presented biennially at ASWM conferences. The award will be accepted this year by Dr. Miriam Robbins Dexter on behalf of Dr. Mayor.
Past winners of the Sarasvati Award for Nonfiction include Sacred Display: Divine and Magical Female Figures of Eurasia by Miriam Robbins Dexter and Victor H. Mair (Cambria, 2010). and The Dancing Goddesses: Folklore, Archaeology and the Origins of European Dance, by Elizabeth Wayland Barber (Norton, 2013).
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