Margot Adler Receives 2010 Demeter Award

On April 2010, ASWM conferred the first Demeter Award for Leadership in Women’s Spirituality to journalist and cultural commentator Margot Adler.

Margot Adler is a long-time correspondent for National Public Radio, based in NPR’s New York Bureau. Her reports can be heard regularly on All Things Considered, Morning Edition and Weekend Edition. From 1999-2008, Adler was also the host of NPR’s Justice Talking, a weekly show exploring constitutional controversies in the nation’s courts.

Adler is the author of the ground-breaking study of alternative spirituality in America, Drawing Down the Moon, which introduced nature religions to hundreds of thousands of readers.  She is an active lecturer on pagan studies and women’s spirituality.  The presentation of the first Demeter Award to Adler recognized her influence in changing public perceptions of women’s religions, past and present.

Green Goddess Conference–A “Life-weaving Web”

Annie Finch at Kirkridge, photo by Ora Wry

Award-winning poet Annie Finch, featured speaker at our ASWM Conference, reflects on the activities of the weekend:

The ASWM conference was truly a life-weaving web–and a life-changing one for me. I have rarely (never?!!) read for an audience that “got” my goddess poems so profoundly–it was humbling. Overall, the quality of so many presentations was so high–and the content so amazing, so rich, so nourishing. I especially remember performances by Elizabeth Cunningham in her bawdy bodice, reciting a Magdalen prologue from memory prefaced and concluded by songs (what novelist ever does that??!); Cristina Eisenberg’s superb keynote presentation on women and wolves; the remarkable world premiere of the film Pink Smoke Over the Vatican; untangling patriarchy over lunch with Oloye Aina Olomo; dancing a raucous Sicilian dance and participating in Betz King’s superb womb-healing ceremony; being inundated, filled, by fantastic presentations exploring images of the Goddess in the form of bee, butterfly, deer, snake, wolf. . . and meeting so many new and established (Margot Adler! Diane Wolkstein!) brave scholars, writers, and artists, who give so much, care so much, do so much to further this much-needed herstory. I wish ASWM a long and flourishing life, since I know that will mean many more astounding conferences!

Past Events

Here are some of our excellent Salon and Conference presenters!

 


2023 CONFERENCE

“Salmon River” by Natalie Sappier

 


2022 SYMPOSIUM


2021 SYMPOSIUM

Marija Gimbutas
Marija Gimbutas

Ongoing Scholar Salons: Save the Dates

News posts about Scholar Salons News can be found here.

Scholar Salons are a member benefit; members will find a comprehensive list of all upcoming Salons, Registration links and Recrodings can be found on the Scholar Salons: Registration and Recordings page Or members can browse Salons and recordings here. 

Note to members: Please try to register at least a week before a salon, so that if you have any issues registering or logging in, our volunteers can help resolve them in time.

 

Green Goddess Conference Follow-up

The 2010 Green Goddess Conference has come and gone (alas) but it has left us with wonderful memories and connections.

More than 80 of us met in the mountains of Pennsylvania for three very busy, very productive days.  The program was packed full, including both academic presentations and experiential workshops.  The conference was a great success,  according to our measures—the “hive” was full of energy and ideas, many new friendships and collaborations took place, and we enjoyed diverse and stimulating presentations and performances.  Furthermore, all of the organizers are still good friends (not always a given in event planning)!

Your president/web reporter will offer follow up articles and pictures of the event soon.  At present I am re-learning to sit still with a cat on my lap and to listen to the violets bloom.

Watch this site for conference reports and announcements of upcoming events.  We are already planning for regional symposia in 2011 (WI and PA) and a conference in Chicago in 2012!

2010 Kore Award for Best Dissertation

Dawn Work-MaKinne receives first Kore Award

The first Kore Award for Best Dissertation in Goddess Studies was presented  April 24, 2010, at ASWM’s  Green Goddess Conference.  The award went to Dawn E. Work-MaKinne, Ph.D., a graduate of Union Institute & University.  Her dissertation, Deity in Sisterhood: The Collective Sacred Female in Germanic Europe, was commended for its “skilled integration of important German language material critical to studies of mythology.”

Dr. Work-MaKinne received her Doctor of Philosophy in Interdisciplinary Studies in 2010, with a Concentration in Arts and Sciences and a specialization in Women’s Studies in Religion. Continue reading “2010 Kore Award for Best Dissertation”