Category: Conferences & Symposia

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

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Report on 2013 Symposium

In April, we presented our 2013 Symposium:

“Lady of Ten Thousand Lakes:  Finding Wisdom in Places”
ASWM Regional Symposium, St. Paul, MN, April 20, 2013

Our keynote speaker was Arieahn Matamonasa-Bennett, Ph.D.,  a Native American scholar and licensed clinical psychologist on the faculty of DePaul University School for New Learning.  Her presentation was  “Honoring the Web:  Indigenous Wisdom and the Power of Place.”

In addition, Lydia Ruyle was on hand to receive the 2013 Brigit Award for Excellence in the Arts.  Lydia’s Goddess Icon Banners have flown all around the world, bringing goddess imagery to new audiences.

Panels included Methodology, Place Wisdom. Matriarchal Studies, and Art and Archaeology.  There was a special showing of “Things We Don’t Talk About,” a documentary of the Red Tent movement by ASWM member Isadora Leidenfrost.

Watch for articles bout the Symposium, and save the dates for our 2014 conference!

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2014 Conference Call for Proposals

Borderlands: Scholarship as Pilgrimage and Mystery

The Association for the Study of Women and Mythology (ASWM)

2014 National Conference San Antonio, TX March 28-30

 We invite you to submit proposals to the ASWM Third Biennial National Conference. ASWM is a professional organization supporting scholarly and creative endeavors that explore or elucidate aspects of the sacred feminine.

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

  • As this conference takes place in the modern borderland between Mexico and the US and in the stronghold of Native American and Latina traditions of the Southwest, we invite you to consider these topics:

    • Mesoamerican culture in relation to women and myth

    • La Virgen de Guadalupe and other Dark Goddesses

    • Cultural and mythic traditions (such as Day of the Dead/Dia de los Muertos and La Llorona)

    • Borderland myths and reality of women’s lives

    • Curanderas and healing practices

    • Myth and folklore associated with water

  • 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 field of Women’s Spirituality and Goddess Studies, including archeomythology?  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 books 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.

  • Animal mysteries, including myth and folklore especially related to horses and predators.

  • Liminal deity, spanning borders of species, sex, and gender

Proposals for papers, panels, and workshops addressing these topics will be given preference, but other subjects will be considered.  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) to aswmsubmissions@gmail.com by October 15, 2013.  Include bio of up to 70 words for each presenter, as well as contact information including surface address and email.  See www.womenandmyth.org.

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St Paul 2013–Events and Restaurants

For those of you who have registered for the symposium–many thanks!  Here is a MN Restaurant list; some are near the Carondolet Center.  Remember that there is a continental breakfast and networking luncheon included in your registration fee–but we’re on our own for dinner.

If you arrive Friday before 7:30, there will be a memorial service for Patricia Monaghan at the Carondolet Center.  If you plan to stay over Saturday night, we have discovered some wonderful theatre offerings that might interest you.  They are also included on the Restaurant List.

We will see you in St. Paul!

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Lydia Ruyle Receives 2013 Brigit Award for the Arts

lydiaWe are honored to offer the 2013 Brigit Award for Excellence in the Arts to Lydia Ruyle. Lydia is an artist scholar emeritus of the Visual Arts faculty, University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, Colorado, where The Lydia Ruyle Room for Women Artists was dedicated in 2010.  In April 2013, the University presented Lydia with a Lifetime Achievement Award.

Few artists can claim to have profoundly expanded and improved contemporary images of women. Lydia is beloved around the globe for her stunning presentation of multicultural goddesses and symbols of divinity.  Her Goddess Icon Banner Project began in 1995 with 18 banners created for exhibit in Ephesus, and has grown to include representations of over 295 goddesses.  The Brigit Award recognizes not only this great body of work but also Lydia’s dedicated scholarship in researching these diverse, inspiring images.

Sid Reger and Dawn Work-Makinne present the Brigit Award to Lydia in St. Paul, while  Lydia’s Gobekli Tepe Sheela banner dances in the background.

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