Category: Conferences & Symposia

How does ASWM’s program committee read and review proposals? We start by focusing on the written proposal that you submit. We look for a clear and succinct statement of your work. We have more than a hundred proposals to review for each event, so we are serious about the 250-word limit for an individual proposal. In this case, giving us more information than that word limit works to your disadvantage. If you exceed the word limit, you will probably be asked to submit your proposal again, following the guidelines. (Some organizations would reject such a proposal on the basis of guidelines alone.)

It will be this 250-word abstract that is made available to attendees. Your proposal enables people to make a choice of what to attend during the conference. It is your best chance to present your work, so it needs to be spelled out clearly. (Remember that you are presenting the proposal to an intelligent general audience, who may not be familiar with the jargon of your field.) See below for a checklist for proposal form and content.

Your 70-word bio will need to have enough information so that people can find you after the event if they want to make contact about your work. Biographies are included in the conference program book. Accepted proposals will be available on the website, alphabetical by author last name.

Film Proposals

If you are proposing to show a film, know that, at the first stage, our proposal readers will not look up films on websites. That’s the job of the film subcommittee, which doesn’t see proposals until we have determined whether/how the film fits with our themes. The general proposal readers recommend films to the subcommittee. What is the subject of your film (be specific)? How does it fit with our themes? How long is the film? Is it a documentary, scripted story, non-narrative, or something else? How do you want to show your film at the conference, and how much time do you need for discussion and response? And, finally, include a link to your film or video.

Hints and Tips

Does your proposal

• stay within the word limit?
• start with your best one-sentence summary of your work?
• make a clear and succinct statement of what your work is about?
• explain any unfamiliar or esoteric terms?
• show how the work fits our conference theme(s)?
• highlight what makes your work stand out from other work on the same topic? (ex. unique perspective, new information, synthesizing theories, etc.)
• state your goal for the presentation? (What idea do you want people to take away from your work?)
• include a 70-word bio with current contact information?

Thank you for submitting your work for an ASWM event, and best wishes for success in your work.

Call for Proposal

Rivers of Change, Prophecy, Possibilities

The Association for the Study of Women and Mythology (ASWM)
2020 ASWM National Conference
March 12-14 2020
Tamaya Resort on Santa Ana Pueblo (near Albuquerque NM)

Our Call for Proposals for panel presentations is now closed. Proposals for poster sessions are still being accepted.

ASWM is a professional organization supporting scholarly and creative endeavors that explore or elucidate aspects of the sacred feminine. We will meet on land with deep connections to Native American and New Mexican traditions. Our conference themes include:

• • Cultural and mythic Native American and Latina traditions
  • Women in states of creative or prophetic flow
  • Relearning Nature through mythology and sense of place
  • Myth and folklore related to relationships of women, animals and nature
  • Stories of goddesses and strong women protecting the environment
  • Mythologies of place-fulness and place-lessness
  • Rivers and mythology of development in world cultures and traditions
  • Myth and folklore associated with water, abundance and scarcity

Suggested topics for this conference include, but are not limited to, the following:

• How does mythology about women interact with the sense and reality of place? How does our scholarship change when place becomes an element or partner in our research? What does it mean to find wisdom in places?
• What are new paths for the fields of Women’s Spirituality and Goddess Studies?  What are new models and methods for our scholarly inquiry?  
• What are the complexities around issues of Cultural Appropriation?  How do we understand and address the tensions around rootedness and local culture and issues of lineage and history?  Are there new ways to honor history and culture while enriching our scholarship?
• One of the groundbreaking works from Patricia Monaghan was Oh Mother Sun: A New Vision of the Cosmic Feminine. We invite you to submit proposal ideas that are in dialogue with this work about solar goddesses.  
• Rivers, development and mythology of development in world cultures and traditions 
• Floods, Fires, fury of nature and destruction of the environment
• Environmental activism, sense of place and gender expression in world cultures and traditions
• Gender and myth and gender as myth in colonial and postcolonial cultures
• Mythology, environment and architectural expressions of the conscious and the unconscious
• The role of mythology in producing a sense of belonging and sense of place in colonial and postcolonial cultures
• Relearning Nature through mythology and sense of place
• Memory, mythology and sense of place
• Myths and sacred stories that strengthen identity and agency in girls and young women
• Science, technology, mythology and environmental ethics for the twenty first century
• The roles of women in prophecy and the role of prophecy in women’s lives
• Migrants, refugees, and mythologies of place-fulness and place-lessness
• Nature, Places, Non-Places and Spirituality in indigenous and late-capitalist societies
• Animal mysteries, including myth and folklore especially related to relationships of women, animals and environment
• Liminal deity, spanning borders of species, sex, and gender

Proposals for papers, panels, posters and workshops addressing these topics will be given preference, but other subjects will be considered.  Please indicate the topic under which you are submitting your paper in your abstract. Papers should be 20 minutes; up to four papers on a related topic may be proposed together.  Workshops (limited to 90 minutes) should be organized to provide audience interaction and must clearly address theme.

Presenters from all disciplines are welcome, as well as creative artists, filmmakers and practitioners who engage mythic themes in a scholarly manner in their work.  Presenters must become members of ASWM prior to conference. 

Send 250-word abstract (for panels, 200 word abstract plus up to 150 words per paper) by November 1, 2019. Include bio of up to 70 words for each presenter, as well as contact information including surface address and email.  Notifications will be sent out in late December.  

Submissions are closed for papers and workshops or panels. We are still accepting proposals for a poster session. If you have questions contact the Program Committee (aswmsubmissions@gmail.com).