Charlene Spretnak, Judy Grahn, Ana Castillo, Max Dashu, Miriam Robbins Dexter, Heide Goettner-Abendroth, Ava Park, Luisah Teish, Jean Shinoda Bolen, Macha NightMare, Amejo Amyot, Lauren Raine, Patricia Monaghan, Cristina Biaggi, Sudie Rakusin, Vicki Noble, Lydia Ruyle, Arisika Razak, Mara Keller, Joan Marler, Jennifer Berezan, Annie Finch, Grrrl Brigade!*
What do these great women and girls have in common? They are some of the speakers and presenters at the ASWM National Conference!
Panel topics include: Place Wisdom, Womanism, Cultural Appropriation, Archaeomythology, Matriarchal Studies, Women in Publishing, Visionary Films, Ritual Creation, Restorative Feminism.
Conference also features Film Series, Workshops, Networking Luncheon, and Marketplace.
Registration is now open—early bird fees are $190 for members, $235 for nonmembers until April 17, 2012.
Advancing our scholarship involves the evolution and refinement of our methods. Suggested topics for this exciting conference will include, but are not limited to, the following lines of inquiry:
What are new paths for the field of Women’s Spirituality and Goddess Studies? How creative can we be? Are we inventing, reconstructing, or using creative license to reawaken and bring the past into the present? How do we evaluate this work? How can we use this creative work together with more “traditional’ approaches to advance our scholarship?
What are new models and methods for our scholarly inquiry? Can we develop and advance our scholarship with methods such as Organic or Heuristic inquiry? What is Spiritual Autobiography, and how can this be useful? Sacred geography? What else? How shall our new methods be evaluated? What are our criteria for solid scholarship using these new models?
What are the complexities around issues of Cultural Appropriation? How do we understand and address the tensions around rootedness and local culture on the one hand, and issues of lineage and history on the other? Are there new models of scholarship that honor history and culture while simultaneously enriching our scholarship?
Our goal is to include academic presenters from many disciplines and backgrounds, as well as creative artists and practitioners who engage mythic themes in a scholarly manner in their work. Experiential workshops and a film series are also offered. Presenters must become members of ASWM prior to conference.
Registration is now open for our 2012 National Conference, “Creating the Chalice: Imagination and Integrity in Goddess Studies.” (See the registration page to register and, if you like, become a member.)
The conference takes place May 11-12, at the Holiday Inn Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco. We have a block of rooms reserved at a group rate; see link to Holiday Inn FW.
We are excited to present a rich and varied program this year. Some of our panel topics include:
Archaeomythology
Cultural Appropriation
Mother-Daughter Mythology
Place Wisdom
Young Adult Fiction
Methodologies
Womanism, Goddess Studies, and Women’s Spirituality
Visual Arts
Matriarchal Studies
Poetry
Women in Publishing
Our keynote speakers are Miriam Robbins Dexter, Judy Grahn, and Ana Castillo. There will also be a special presentation by our 2012 Demeter Award winner, Charlene Spretnak. We will also have as a special panelist Dr. Heide Goertner-Abendroth, founder of Modern Matriarchal Studies. And we will present the winners of the Kore Award for Best Dissertation in Women and Mythology, and the Sarasvati Awards for Best Published Fiction and Non-fiction Books.
As in our past conference and symposia, we will feature selected films that are relevant to issues in women’s experiences, feminisms, and mythology. We will also include workshops that permit the integration of body-mind wisdom.
We will again feature a lively networking luncheon, with opportunities to meet other participants to discuss such topics as academic careers, ritual, issues for graduate students, and the performing and visual arts. We will have a Book Fair and Marketplace for arts and crafts.
Friday evening’s entertainment is coordinated by faculty members from the California Institute of Integral Studies and the Institute for Transpersonal Psychology.
Remember that theMatriarchal StudiesDay takes place in the same location, on May 10—the day before our conference begins! We hope that you will be able to attend both events for a long weekend of stimulating and inspiring presentations.
Keep checking back–in a few weeks we will announce the schedule.
We have been working with a group of matriarchal studies scholars in the US, to arrange their Matriarchal Studies Day to occur the day before our national conference. Like ASWM’s conference, their event will take place at the Holiday Inn at Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco. We have also arranged to co-sponsor their evening keynote presentation by Dr. Heide Goettner-Abendroth, the founder of Modern Matriarchal Studies as a branch of feminist anthropology.
When you see their program, and ours, we hope that you will want to join us for both of these exciting events!
Priestesses of Pele, by Lydia Ruyle
MATRIARCHAL STUDIES DAY May 10, 2012: 9:00 am – 9:00 PM
Fisherman’s Wharf Holiday Inn, San Francisco, California
Sarasvati Awards for Best Books in Women and Mythology
The Association for Study of Women and Mythology announces the first biennial competition for the Sarasvati Awards for Best Books in Women and Mythology. Two awards will be given at the ASWM national conference in San Francisco in May, one for nonfiction/scholarly work, one for creative work in poetry, fiction or other genre, for books published during 2010 and 2011.
Books must be published in print, not only in e-book format. Nominations must come directly from publisher; authors should contact their publishers to ask them to nominate for this award. Each publisher may nominate one work in each category, although publishers may nominate in only one category if they prefer. At this point, anthologies do not qualify for this award. Publishers should contact ASWM at SarasvatiAwards@gmail.com to receive required submissions form and details of submissions process.
Judges will be a panel of published writers in women and mythology. Their own work cannot be accepted for consideration for these awards.
Awardees will be invited to read at the ASWM national conference during the year of their award and/or the next biannual meeting following.
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