Category: Conferences & Symposia

ASWM Conferences, held biennially in even-numbered years, and symposia, held on occasion in odd-numbered years

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Listening to Bears, Horses, and Seal Folk (Symposium 2022)

“Listening to and Speaking with–Animals and Other Sentient Beings”

2022 Symposium Panel

Sunday April 10th, 1PM Eastern Daylight Time

Current threats to an eco-socially sustainable future require that we re-introduce myths and rituals that reflect an understanding of humans’ interdependence with the community of sentient beings. Drawing on ancestral traditions and understandings, these four authors provide excellent examples of such relationships.

Seal Woman Stamp, Faroe Islands, 2007

Rebecca Vincent “Why We Need Selkies” addresses our need for more than just technological fixes and cerebral solutions to the environmental crises as she examines the role selkies and mythic water spirits could play in helping catalyze a shift into a new dream. As the Achuar People of South America say we need to truly solve our environmental crises

Kaarina Kailo “The Woman who Married the Bear and Original Instructions” explains through the story of the Woman Who Married a Bear the importance of Finno-Ugric cultures’ rebirth rituals such as Spring festivals with bear goddess Brigit, celebrating, gifting, feasting as life returned and further, allows us to see how the attitude towards mother and bear worship changed in the shift to patriarchal cultures.

Grizzly Bear, US Fish and Wildlife Service, 2012

Barbara Mann “Thinking Yours Doesn’t Stink: Dis/Respect for Others”    explores tales of women who marry bears in Native North American tradition, which typically begins with violations of protocol, from working alone in the woods and being disrespectful of bears to two-timing their human husband with the bears. The powerful bears can shape-shift, read thoughts, put thoughts and images into human heads, foretell the future and will sacrifice themselves to hunters, but resuscitate from their bones.

Wild horses, US Bureau of Land Management, 2014

Susan Moulton “WILD vs DOMESTIC” focuses on equus caballus, to explore communication and mutual reliance among species along with the wisdom embodied by the central “lead” female. This mare functioned as a repository of information at the heart of complex interactive plant and animal communities, starting with the earliest visual records of feral horses on cave walls in the Palaeolithic, and distinct from later cultures with animal “domestication” in the Bronze Age.

See the 2022 Symposium page for event information.

REGISTER HERE:

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Environmental Hero Dr. Vandana Shiva to address ASWM symposium

For immediate release:

Environmental Hero Dr. Vandana Shiva to address international symposium

Dr. Vandana Shiva has written and spoken extensively about advances in the fields of food production, the roles of women in agriculture, and climate justice.  Her work to promote biodiversity in agriculture to increase productivity, nutrition, farmer’s incomes and it is for this work she was recognized as an ‘environmental hero’ by Time magazine in 2003. 

Dr. Shiva will give the keynote presentation for the 2022 Symposium of the Association for the Study of Women and Mythology:

“HEARING THE INVISIBLE: Lessons from Sentient Beings and Inter-relational Ecosystems”

Sunday, April 10, 2022

“The Caretaker of the Precious” by Denise Kester

 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.

This year’s symposium will take place entirely online, Sunday, April 10, 2022. The theme brings together scholars, artists, educators, and individuals of a variety of backgrounds for discussion and inquiry. 

With our primary focus on interconnectedness, the symposium will feature academic and artistic presentations concerning ecological and scientific scholarship. Panels will address 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. 

ASWM is the only nonprofit dedicated specifically to fostering the growth of scholarship and resources related to women and mythology, the divine feminine, and ecofeminism.  Founded in 2008, ASWM is an international membership organization that produces academic conferences and symposia, online scholarly salons, and volumes of proceedings. We offer a unique perspective in generating dialogues among academic scholars, artists, and teachers from a variety of cultures and backgrounds.

The theme of this symposium, as with all of our past events, arises from our ongoing commitment to making scholarship relevant and available to all, for its power to inform and transform. 

Registration now open: 

General Public Register here  ($160)   

ASWM Members (Register here for your $50 discount)

Join/Renew here.

All inquiries: media@womenandmyth.org
Facebook.com/womenandmyth 

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Member registration for 2022 Symposium

  ASWM Members--Thank you for your support! Click here to register for our 2022 Symposium using your $50 member-only discount.        

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Denise Kester’s Artwork Draws on the Dream for our 2022 Symposium

“The Caretaker of the Precious” by Denise Kester

Our thanks to Denise Kester for sharing her artwork with us for our 2022 Symposium, “Hearing the Invisible: Lessons from Sentient Beings and Inter-related Ecosystems.” Our focus is on connections and relationships among people, animals, and the green world. Denise’s monoprint “The Caretaker of the Precious” (2001) beautifully conveys the intention and spirit of our program, as does her poem that accompanies the piece:

She says it is the small things that matter.

She says it is the life force of the unseen and

the vulnerable that hold our world

together by their fragile threads.

She says these things are precious to me.

I will care for them.

 

Denise is a full-time artist in Ashland, Oregon. She is author of the book “Drawing on the Dream.” She specializes in monoprint and monotype viscosity printing, as well as drawing and painting, based in part on her dreams and intuition. Denise teaches a variety of workshops on the creative process, including printmaking, bookmaking, surface design, collage, and block printing.

She says of her work, “I draw from the dream and the dream draws from me. The stories and the art I reach for are also reaching for me. Together in partnership we create a visual story that is relevant to me and also to the global community. I explore the connection and interconnection with the universe through art and dreams.”

Check out Denise’s interview with Oregon Art Beat to see the behind-the-scenes creative process that results in her colorful images of animals and nature. And see more of her work on her website, Denise Kester: Drawing on the Dream. 

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Gimbutas Symposium Recordings Available for Purchase

Marija Gimbutas

Great news! There is now an opportunity to register to see all the recordings of our 2021 symposium in celebration of Marija Gimbutas’ centennial.  The entire program of scholarly panels, arts and culture are ready for new registrations.

Registration for symposium recordings is now available to the public! Register here.  

To give you plenty of time to view the program at leisure, all sessions will remain available for a year from the date of purchase.