Category: Calls for Submissions

Calls for submissions and proposals for ASWM-sponsored events, publications, conferences and symposia, as well as those of allied organizations

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2025 Conference “Sacred Stories of the Sentient Earth” Call for Proposals

CONFERENCE CALL FOR PROPOSALS

2025  Conference, Association for the Study of Women and Mythology 

“Sacred Stories of the Sentient Earth:  Scholarship for Collaboration, Intervention, and Reciprocity“

March 27-29, 2025

Westward Look Inn, Tucson, Arizona

With the precursor of  Donna Haraway’s early work pointing out how dogs socialized people as much as we them, subsequent work that supports the same for cats, and Haraway’s  Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene (2016), a whole new interdisciplinary literature is emerging exploring the hidden lives of plants and animals and the earth herself. To name a few: The Soul of an Octopus (Sy Montgomery), Relational Reality (Charlene Spretnak ), The Light Eaters: How the Unseen World of Plant Intelligence Offers a New Understanding of Life on Earth (Zoë Schlanger), What Would Animals Say if We Asked the Right Question? (Vinciane Despret), and Finding the Mother Tree (Suzanne Simard).

Overlooking or dismissing animal, plant , and earth intelligence is rooted in the hubris of Western culture.  With rising consciousness, we turn instead to wisdom from Indigenous Cultures in conjunction with newer scientific discoveries and timeless mythologies to find inspiration and answers to our connection with every aspect of life on our planet.

Our 2025 Conference focuses on meanings and relationships among mythology, science, and culture regarding animals, the green world, the earth and her ecosystems.

With our primary focus on interconnectedness, we welcome academic and artistic presentations concerning mythological, ecological and scientific scholarship. In particular we seek work that addresses collaborations between humans and other sentient beings, foundational myths about the intelligence of nature, and scientific and cultural solutions to transgressions against the balance of nature.

Such topics may include (but are not limited to):

  • Oasis: The Intersection of Hospitality, Survival, and Water in Desert Cultures
  • Dialogues between Western scientific findings and indigenous science and insights
  • Cautionary tales of animal guardians redressing human folly and greed
  • From Drought to Plenty: Strategies for Transforming Scarcity into Abundance
  • Patterns of cross-species companionship in science and contemporary fiction and arts
  • Mythical Waters: Exploring the Legends and Preservation of Life-Giving Springs and Wells
  • Embodying the Divine: Visual and Performing Arts Inspired by the Sacred Feminine
  • The stories in the rocks: rock art, symbolism, and decolonization
  • Comparative mythologies and science about pollinator-plant symbiosis
  • “O Mother Sun” Exploring Female Solar Deities and gender in the cosmos”
  • Mythologies and goddesses of origins, transitions, liminalities, and migration
  • Myths of reciprocity and partnership among sentient beings
  • Drops of Dew and Ephemeral Streams: Sacred Sites of Temporary Waters and Their Cultural Significance
  • Water Wisdom: Integrating Traditional Practices with Modern Water Conservation
  • New Discoveries and Ancient Wisdom: Labyrinths and Rings of Connection

2025 ASWM Call For Proposals

We especially encourage proposals from First Nations women of the Americas,  Indigenous women, internationally, and women of color.

We are accepting proposals for papers, panels, and posters. If you are proposing a poster please put “POSTER” before your title.

All proposal abstracts (no longer than 250 words) and a short (70 words or fewer) bio for each Presenter are to be submitted on this FORM.

See  complete guidelines and timelines: 2025 ASWM Call For Proposals

Check out our tips on writing proposals.

Deadline for papers, panels and posters  has been extended to January 1, 2025.

 

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Call for Proposals: Poster Session for 2023 Conference

Posters Due February 1, 2023

This year we will again feature a juried poster session at our conference, “Waters of Life: Mythos, Divinity, Beings and Ecology.”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. 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.

Presenters from all disciplines are welcome, as well as creative artists and practitioners whose work engages mythic themes in a scholarly manner.

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

Submit your information and 250 word abstract on the Submissions Form. Make sure to start your title with the word “POSTER” so that we will include it in the correct category.

All Poster Presenters must become members of ASWM.  If you have questions please contact us at  aswmsubmissions@gmail.com by January 25, 2023. ​Use “2023 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. All Poster Presenters must become members of ASWM.

2023 ASWM Conference

 “Waters of Life: Exploring Mythos, Divinity, Beings, and Ecology”

Crowne Plaza, Syracuse New York

ASWM Conference May 5-6, 2023

In-person registration is open. Good news–Live streaming is available for keynotes and all panels in main room. See below to register.

“Salmon River” by Natalie Sappier

Water is one of the elements (Earth, Air, Fire, Water) recognized in multiple spiritual traditions as building blocks of everything on earth from the holy to the mundane. Water  is scientifically recognized as a necessary component of life, crucial for our survival and composing 50%-60% of our bodies.  

Indigenous peoples honor the intertwining of life and water and hold it as sacred in ritual, story and everyday life, while the industrial world has reduced it to a commodity.  With the onset of global warming, a consciousness is arising of the need for respect, reverence and protection for our water sources – a time to look back and around to gather the wisdom of Water Keepers, past and present, around the globe. 

This conference will provide the opportunity to explore world myths of water Goddesses, water creatures and water itself in cultural, spiritual, historical, and ecological contexts.  We especially encourage proposals from First Nations women of the Americas,  Indigenous women, internationally, and women of color.

CONFERENCE  DETAILS:

Please note: The International Feminists for a Gift Economy will hold a free Day of Global Sisterhood on Sunday May 7 at the Crowne Plaza. The Matriarchal Studies Day has been cancelled.

If you have questions about ASWM or our conference please contact Events@womenandmyth.org

Read about artist  Natalie Sappier and “Salmon River,” the featured artwork for this event.

Our deep gratitude to the Worldwide Indigenous Sciences Network for their grant support of our Native American and Indigenous conference presenters.

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2023 ASWM Conference “The Waters of Life” Call for Proposals

Conference Call for Proposals

The Waters of Life – Exploring Water Mythos, Divinity, Beings & Ecology

May 5th and 6th, 2023

Crowne Plaza, Syracuse New York

This conference will provide the opportunity to explore myths from around the world of water Goddesses, water creatures and water itself in cultural, spiritual, historical, and ecological contexts.  Water as one of the Elements (Earth, Air, Fire, Water) is recognized as a building block of everything on earth from the spiritual to the mundane in multiple spiritual traditions and Water as 50%-60% of our bodies is scientifically recognized as an elemental component of life, crucial for survival.   Indigenous peoples honor the intertwining of life and water and hold it as sacred in ritual, story and everyday life, while the industrial world has reduced it to a commodity.  With the onset of global warming, a consciousness is arising of the need for respect, reverence and protection for our water sources – a time to look back and around to gather the wisdom of Water Keepers, past and present, around the globe.  Potential topics include, though are not limited to: 

  • Water Mythos Grounded in Reality & Science
  • Exploring Beings, Myths and Ecology of our Aqueous Worlds
  • Oceans Infinite but Endangered- Exploring Water-based Mythology and Ecology
  • New views on key species in myth and in the real world such as: cranes/waterbirds, sharks, whales, octopuses
  • Indigenous sciences and traditional technologies
  • Interrelationships of water, water beings and ecosystems in myth and science
  • Ethical perspectives in the use of sacred stories
  • Emerging new perspectives in post-humanism that grant agency to non-human beings
  • Methodologies for inclusions of mysteries in traditional and academic research
  • Place wisdom, environmental resilience, identity and myth
  • Examining racial and gender intersectionality in history and myth, nature and society
  • Indigenous science and climate change: decolonizing environmental and ecological knowledge, environmental justice
  • Violence against women and the planet: commodification/pollution of water, extinction of species
  • Transnational perspectives on climate change, indigenous women’s knowledge, and the role of non-human species
  • Natural resource management and indigenous methods

Given the location of our conference, these topics are also relevant:

  • Narratives of women, social and environmental justice related to Seneca Falls
  • Exploring history, myth, inclusions and exclusions of the early Women’s Suffrage movement at Seneca Falls

We especially encourage proposals from First Nations women of the Americas,  Indigenous women, internationally, and women of color.

We are accepting proposals for papers, panels, and posters. All proposal abstracts (no longer than 250 words) and a short (70 words or fewer) bio for each Presenter are to be submitted on this form.

Check out our tips on writing proposals.

Deadline for papers, panels and posters  is February 1, 2023.

 

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Call for Proposals: ASWM 2022 Symposium

 

 “Hearing the Invisible: Lessons from Sentient Beings and Inter-relational Ecosystems”

Call for Proposals: ASWM Online Symposium: Sunday, April 10, 2020

“The Caretaker of the Precious,” Denise Kester (2001)

Jane Goodall has pointed out our own contemporary lesson that human global disregard for nature brought on the current pandemic, documenting that mistreatment/exploitation of sentient beings can result in an exponential crisis for the whole planet.

Our 2022 biennial Symposium focuses on meanings found in the relational reality among science, culture, and mythology in regards to animals, the green world, and ecosystems.

We especially encourage proposals from Native American/Indigenous scholars and women of color.  We welcome scholars from all fields with contributions to further expanding our understanding of our universal relatedness in the community of sentient beings.

With our primary focus on interconnectedness, we welcome academic and artistic presentations concerning ecological and scientific scholarship. In particular we seek work that addresses collaborations between humans and other sentient beings, foundational myths about earth’s response to misuse, and scientific solutions to transgressions against the balance of nature. 

Such topics may include (but are not limited to):

  • Dialogues  between “Western” scientific findings and indigenous science and insights
  • Cautionary tales of animal guardians redressing human greed and over-consumption
  • Examples, in Haraway’s terms, of “staying with the trouble” of ecological devastation
  • Women’s roles in promoting justice for land, animals and climate
  • Patterns of Cross-species Companionship in Science and Contemporary Fiction and Arts
  • Our Cousins the Bears: Myths of Cross-species Relationships
  • Selkies and Crane Wives: What Shapeshifting Women can teach us
  • Goddesses and Sea Creatures: Wisdom from the Deep
  • Comparative mythologies and science about pollinator-plant symbiosis
  • Mythologies and goddesses of origins, transitions, liminalities, and migration
  • Divine interventions for healing out-of-balance human behaviors
  • Myths of reciprocity and partnership among sentient beings
  • Feminist spiritual traditions that inspire earth-centered activism

Proposal deadline: January 20, 2022

For questions, contact submissions@womenandmyth.org .

Click here to view a detailed Call for Proposals with guidelines and submission form

 

About the artwork: “The Caretaker of the Precious,” a monoprint by Denise Kester  of Drawing on the Dream (2001) beautifully conveys the intention and spirit of our program.