Conferences & Symposia – Page 49

March 28, 2013January 9, 2024

Arieahn Matamonasa-Bennett to Speak on the Power of Place

We are please to announce that Arieahn Matamonasa-Bennett, Ph.D., will give the keynote presentation for ASWM’s Symposium (April 20, St. Paul, MN). Her topic is “Honoring the Web: Indigenous Wisdom and the Power of Place.”

Arieahn is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist who has been teaching and facilitating spiritual and personal growth workshops and development workshops for over 15 years. She holds a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology and is an assistant professor at DePaul University.

Arieahn is frequently sought out regionally and nationally for her expertise on Native American Studies and Indigenous Healing Practices; Equine (Horse) Assisted Psychotherapy; and the Animal-Human Bond.

November 10, 2012January 9, 2024

2013 ASWM Symposium–Call for Papers

Lady of Ten Thousand Lakes: Finding Wisdom in Places

Call for Papers

The Association for the Study of Women and Mythology Biennial Symposium

St. Paul, MN, April 20, 2013

Much of mythology is grounded in place. Suggested topics for this symposium might include, but are not limited to, the following:

How do and should the scholarship in Goddess Studies and Women’s Mythology and Spirituality engage with the sense and reality of place? What women’s myths are especially grounded in a place or places? What happens when such disciplines as Natural History, Ecology, and other sciences of place interact with Women and Mythology?

What does place mean methodologically? How does our scholarship change when place becomes an element or partner in our research? How does this intersect with Embodied Research or Embodied Methodologies? What are the criteria for solid scholarship using these new models?

Do issues of place add an activist quality to our scholarship? Does activism have a place in scholarship? What does it mean to find wisdom in places?

Proposals for papers, panels, and workshops addressing these topics will be given preference, but other subjects will be considered. 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. (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 prior to conference.

Send 250-word abstract (for panels, 200 word abstract plus up to 150 words per paper) to aswmsubmissions@gmail.com by January 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.

July 5, 2012January 9, 2024

Dr. Shannan Palma wins 2012 Kore Award for Best Dissertation

The 2012 Kore Award for Best Dissertation in Women and Mythology has been award to Dr. Shannan Palma, a recent graduate of Emory University in Atlanta. Her dissertation, “Tales as Old as Time: Myth, Gender and the Fairy Tale in Popular Culture” takes the reader on a surprising journey through the theory of myth and an analysis of three very familiar fairy tales.

Driving Palma’s research is the question, “How and why do women become invested in stories, symbols, and ideas that are not in our own best interests?”

Cinderella_Dulac-web She chooses for analysis “Sleeping Beauty,” “Beauty and the Beast” and “Cinderella,” but instead of the typical analysis of the texts as a folklorist might do, Palma leads us on a journey through the tales in popular culture: novels, poetry, television series, advertising, photography, graphic arts and film. And her conclusions are surprising. She finds in “Sleeping Beauty” the working through of trauma narratives; in “Beauty and the Beast,” issues of visibility and community, and in “Cinderella,” thinking about fairy tales themselves, and the possibility of happily ever after.

The Kore Award Committee appreciated Palma’s “strong theoretical and methodological structure and unique analyses that remained firmly grounded in the realm of women’s studies and women’s concerns.” We congratulate Dr. Palma and wish her the best in her scholarly career.

June 24, 2012January 9, 2024

Ana Castillo’s Keynote Presentation on the web

Ana Castillo is an award-winning Mexican-American Chicana novelist, poet, essayist, and short story writer. Her work, which centers on the essential issues of identity, race, gender, and class, was recently banned by a large school district in Tucson, AZ, in a move to eliminate an ethnic studies program from the schools. In her address for the ASWM conference in San Francisco in May 2012, she gave a stirring and poetic talk that links such diverse topics as Mesoamerican history, the Mayan prophecy, the Virgin of Guadalupe, and the Milky Way: “The Last Goddess Standing.”

Part I http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmL2sZzSLx4

Part II http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOEhB1AVfks

June 13, 2012January 9, 2024

“Sacred Display” Receives Award for Best Nonfiction Book

This year, for the first time, ASWM offered a book award for best scholarly nonfiction, named for Sarasvati, Hindu goddess of creativity and the arts. The five-person panel of judges included Mary Jo Neitz, Wendy Griffin, Chandra Alexandre, and ASWM board members Sid Reger and Denise Saint-Arnault.

The nonfiction winner was Sacred Display: Divine and Magical Female Figures of Eurasia by Miriam Robbins Dexter and Victor Mair (Cambria Press). Dexter was also one of the keynote speakers at this year’s conference, and was present to accept the award on behalf of the publisher.

The judging panel evaluated each entry in terms of how much it added to the field of goddess studies, how well researched the book was, and how eloquently expressed the findings were. In all categories, “Sacred Display” was commended by the judging panel. The book analyzes cross-cultural images of female “display figures,” such as Sheela-na-Gigs and frog goddesses. The authors argue that the apparently “sexual” display of these figures in fact reflect an ancient and widespread belief in the power of the female body to create fertility, magic, and sovereignty.

In making their decision, the judges cites the “absolute treasury of new translations that adds significantly to the field,” as well as “an innovative combination of textual and visual analysis in which each illuminated the other.” The subject, one that has not previously been studied in such depth, was described as “a provocative one,” for nude female figures are often described as pornographic or otherwise not evocative of women’s empowerment. “By placing these figures at the center of their study, the authors challenged the presumption that nakedness equals powerlessness when the nude person is female,” according to the judges.