Category: Conferences & Symposia

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

Posted on

2015 Keynote by Susan Griffin

SusanGriffin_DS

“Who Is Telling the Story? A Few Remarks on the Mythic Imagination”

The wondrous events and magic depicted in myth mirror the creative process of storytelling in countless ways. Using her own experience as a writer as well as that of other contemporary and classic writers and poets, Griffin will describe the often mysterious alchemical process by which words and rhymes, plots, turns of plots, characters, scenes and even whole landscapes enter the imaginary realm of the tale, a process which challenges many of the dualities engrained in modern consciousness. 

Susan Griffin  was born in Los Angeles California in 1943, in the midst of the Second World War and the holocaust, and these events had a lasting effect on her thinking. She draws deep connections between the destruction of nature, the diminishment of women, and racism, and she traces the causes of war to denial in both private and public life.   Her work moves beyond the boundaries of form and perception. She is known for her innovative style. Her groundbreaking book Woman and Nature, is an extended prose-poem that inspired the ecofeminist movement.

In A Chorus of Stones, the Private Life of War, Griffin blends history and memoir. Her most recent book, Wrestling with the Angel of Democracy, the Autobiography of an American Citizen  (published by Trumpeter books in April, 2008) explores the state of mind that engenders and sustains democracy.

Her “social autobiography,” A Chorus of Stones, was a finalist for both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Award, winner of the BABRA Award in 1992, and also a NY Times Notable Book of the Year. Her play Voices, which won an Emmy in 1975 for a local PBS production, has been performed throughout the world, including a radio production by the BBC.  In 2009 she was awarded a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship.

Additionally, she has been named by Utne Reader as one of a hundred important visionaries for the new millennium.

Posted on

Registration for 2015 Symposium Is Now Open

At the link below you’ll find the registration pages for our 2015 Symposium.  You’ll be offered the chance to join when you register, giving you member rates for the event.  Please remember that if you have received confirmation that you are presenting, you must join ASWM in order to be part of the program.

Register here for 2015 “Tales and Totems:  Myth and Lineage in Goddess Scholarship”

And reserve your room  here:  Red Lion Hotel Reservation Link.

Posted on

Call for Papers, 2015 Symposium “Tales and Totems”

BeeG.oldgold 

ASWM Symposium Portland, OR

April 11th 2015 

 Call for Proposals

“Tales and Totems: Lineage and Myth in Goddess Scholarship”

 

The work of Goddess Scholarship is intrinsically bound within a framework where we actively seek out, document, and honor the stories and concerns that animated the lives of our foremothers. We do this so that these stories will contribute meaningfully in the context of modern life.  The research methodologies have focused on representing our historical, thealogical, philosophical, mythological, symbolic, cultural, linguistic and aesthetic lineages.

In keeping with this emphasis of our methodology and our discipline, and embracing the sacred Nature of this year’s conference location in the Pacific Northwest rich with the tales and totems of the First Nations, we invite papers and panels including, but not limited to the following topics:

·       Tales and totems of the Pacific Northwest

·       Ancestry, foremothers and methodology

·       Prehistory, history and changing experiences of the sacred and the profane

·       Shakti, prakriti, and purusha from east to west

·       Goddess myths, clans, and communities

·       Cultural ecofeminism

·       Myth and lineage of sacred places

·       Animals as totems and symbols

·       Creation stories of the First Nations, particularly the Pacific North West

·       Indigenous myths, aboriginal histories, and women’s communities

·       First Nations, First Worlds, Third Worlds and the global environmental crises

·       Totems and symbolic language

·       Goddess lineage, rituals and community

·       Mother earth, motherhood and matriarchy

·      Altars in the home, nature and at work

Papers should be 20 minutes; panels with up to four papers on a related topic may be proposed together. Workshop proposals should be organized to provide audience interaction and must clearly address the theme. All sessions and workshops are limited to 90 minutes.

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

Send 250-word abstract (for panels, 200 word abstract plus up to 150 words per paper) in PDF or MSWord to aswmsubmissions@gmail.com by November 15,2014. Use “2015 proposal” in subject header.  Include bio of up to 70 words for each presenter, as well as contact information including surface address and email.   See www.womenandmyth.org for program updates and registration.

Posted on

2015 ASWM Symposium in Portland OR

BeeG.oldgold

“Tales and Totems:  Lineage and Myth in Goddess Scholarship”

Following this theme that reflects the rich traditions of the Pacific Northwest, we will hold our 2015 Regional Symposium in Portland, OR on April 11, 2015.   Please save the date to join us in Portland, and check this site for updated information about program and registration.

Here’s the Call for Proposals.  We welcome papers and workshops from academic presenters, practitioners, and graduate students.

Posted on

A Special Celebration with Jean Shinoda Bolen

30th Anniversary Reissue

This year is the 30th anniversary of the groundbreaking book, Goddesses in Everywoman:  Powerful Archetypes in Women’s Lives. The book introduced modern women to the importance of archetypes, examining Greek goddesses as personifications of deep patterns that have a powerful effect on shaping personality, behavior, and meaning.  How we understand goddess archetypes can have a profound effect on our ability to live meaningful lives and nurture a sense of sacredness.

About Goddesses in Everywoman, Gloria Steinem says,“The highest value of this book lies in the moments of recognition it provides:  that insightful second when we understand and internalize, when we recognize what we ourselves have experienced, feel trust because of that truth, and then are taken one step further.”

Jean Shinoda Bolen will lead a special conference session in celebration of Goddesses in Everywoman and its contribution to empowering women.  This session is your chance to sit in circles and to discuss the role of goddess archetypes in your life with Dr. Bolen, a pre-eminent scholar and psychologist.  Don’t miss this unique opportunity to meet and talk with her about the borderlands between myth and women’s development.  Session on Friday March 28 at the ASWM Conference in San Antonio—there’s still time to register!