Category: Conferences & Symposia

See bottom of page for link to presenters’ biographies with full descriptions of presentations.

SATURDAY March 12

11:00 Registration

12:30 Opening Remarks

Patricia Monaghan and Sid Reger

12:45-2:00  PLENARY

Living Goddesses:  Embodying the Divine in Buddhist Nepal

Miranda Shaw, Ph.D., author of Passionate Enlightenment and Buddhist Goddesses of India

2:15 to 3:45

SESSION I: PANEL   Patterns of Descent and Rebirth

Catalina Florescu, Ph.D.

Reinventing the Myth of Demeter

Stephanie Melmed, C.S.W.

Embodying the Descent Myth

Merry Norris

My Gift From the Goddess: EmBODYment

SESSION II: PANEL  Arts, Goddesses and Creativity

Lydia Ruyle, M.F.A.

The Embodied Goddess of the Western Hemisphere

Amejo Amyot, Ph.D.

Ancient Earth Goddess in art

Tova Beck-Friedman, M.F.A.

Translating Ideas into Images  (short films)

SESSION III:  WORKSHOP  Singing in Sacred Circle

Shelley Graff, singer-songwriter

4:00-5:30

SESSION IV:  PANEL  Word, Image, and Archetype

Responder:  Patricia Monaghan

Lisa Paul Streitfeld, author, journalist

The Embodied Goddess in 21^st Century Art

Lorraine S. Schein, M.F.A.

Poetry

Johanna Braff, Ph.D. candidate

Sappho 16’s Helen: victim of the gods or promoter of evil?

Leesa Sklover-Filgate, Ph.D.

Lost in the wild: The Ruptured Mother-Child Archetype

SESSION V:  PANEL  Priestesses and Sacred Mothers

Sabine Jell-Bahlsen, Ph.D.

The Water Goddess, OGBUIDE

Elizabeth Jacquet

Feminine Iconography in Etruscan Death Rituals

Iyalode Mei Mei Sanford, Ph.D.

Abundant Embodiment . . . in Yoruba Religions

H.E. Oloyo Aina Olomo

Primordial Mothers of Yoruba Spirituality

SESSION VI:  WORKSHOP Evoking and Remembering the Ancient Earth Goddess

Amejo Amyot, Ph.D.  (sculptor, educator)

5:30-7:30 dinner break

7:30-9:00 An Evening with Goddesses and Heroines

Announcing our first-ever Brigit Award for Excellence in the Arts, to… Layne Redmond!

Shelley Graff, singing together

Tova Beck-Friedman,  short film

Serpentessa, The Dance of the Serpent Priestess

She Who,  a capella chorus

SUNDAY, March 13

7:45-9:00 Networking Breakfast

 

9:00 -10:15

SESSION VII:  PANEL Re-membering Goddesses

Patricia Monaghan

Hail, Mary

Lydia Ruyle. M.F.A.

The Embodied Goddess of Anatolia

SESSION VII:  WORKSHOP

Holly Shere, M.A.

Wild Earth Shebrew:  A Devotional Chant Experience

10:30 – 11:45

SESSION IX:  PANEL Priestesses and Goddesses: Embodiments of the Female Divine in Judaism

Convener: Ma’ayana Gail Tishman

Sheila Shiki y Michaels

A Naos for Naomi

Rav Kohenet Jill Hammer

Traditions of Sacred Weaving Women in the Temple and Jewish Myth

Rav Kohenet Holly Shere

And We Will Be Shechina: Contemporary Jewish Priestesses and Paths, Possibilities and Pitfalls of Embodying the Goddess

Responder: Kohenet Mei Mei Sanford

SESSION X:  WORKSHOP

Serpentessa, dancer

Belly on Earth, Snake on Skin: Woman as Embodied Goddess

12:00-12:45

PLENARY Research and Scholarship

Patricia Monaghan:  Report on Goddess Studies Syllabus Project

Sid Reger, Moderator:  Six Essential Questions (open participation)

Link to presenters’ biographies with detailed descriptions of presentations.

 

MIDWEST SYMPOSIUM MAY 19, 2011 in MADISON, WI

Our Midwest Symposium with the theme Art and Inspired Scholarship is scheduled for Thurs. May 19, 2011,  in Madison, Wisconsin.

The keynote speaker at this event is Mary B. Kelly, textile expert and artist, who will present a 7:30 p.m. lecture entitled Goddess. Women. Cloth: Inspired Ritual Textiles from Around the World. This evening lecture will feature slides and hands-on experience with the textiles.

Within folk cultures across the world, women make textiles, inspired by goddesses, then use them in rituals to honor their deities, contact spirits or protect their families and communities.

In some areas these traditions continue today. This presentation features an overview of the textiles in the context of history, rituals and religious beliefs. Kelly explores cultures worldwide: Siberia, China and the Far East, India, Central and South East Asia, Eastern, Northern and Central Europe, Greece and the Balkans, Africa and the Americas, sharing her extensive knowledge and research on local textile traditions.

Mary B. Kelly is Professor Emerita at Tompkins Cortland Community College, an affiliate of the State University of New York, and holds advanced degrees from Syracuse University and the Rhode Island School of Design. She has published numerous books and articles in the United States and abroad, notably in Folk Dress in Europe and Anatolia, ed. L. Welters (1999 ); Making and Using Ritual Cloth ( 2004 ); Goddess Embroideries of the Northlands ( 2009 ); Kaspaikka Muistiilina ( Memory Cloth); ed. L. Sappi (2010); and Goddesses in World Culture, ed. P. Monaghan (2010).

Kelly’s research has been supported by several Fulbright grants, and recent articles have appeared in such textile publications as Piecework, Needle Arts,Bunad, and Vesterheim. She served as guest curator of the exhibition “Sacred Symbols, Ceremonial Cloth” at the Vesterheim Norwegian American Museum in Decorah, IA (2009). She has lectured at the Smithsonian Institution and the Textile Museum, in Washington, DC, the Mingei Museum of Folk Art,The Czech and Slovak Museum, the Ukrainian Museum, and at Oslo University, Norway.

Kelly makes her home on Hilton Head Island, SC, where she teaches, exhibits and maintains a painting/weaving studio.  Learn more about her art and books at marykellystudio.

Goddesses.  Women.  Cloth: Mary Kelly To Give Keynote Address at ASWM Midwest Symposium

ASWM is excited to present its 2011 Midwest Symposium Thursday, May 19, 2011 in Madison, Wisconsin. The keynote speaker at this event is Mary B. Kelly, textile expert and artist, who will present a 7:30 p.m. lecture entitled Goddess. Women. Cloth: Inspired Ritual Textiles from Around the World. This evening lecture will feature slides and hands-on experience with the textiles.

Within folk cultures across the world, women make textiles, inspired by goddesses, and use them in rituals to honor their deities, contact spirits or protect their families and communities.

In some areas these traditions continue today. This presentation features an overview of the textiles in the context of history, rituals and religious beliefs. Kelly explores cultures worldwide: Siberia, China and the Far East, India, Central and South East Asia, Eastern, Northern and Central Europe, Greece and the Balkans, Africa and the Americas, sharing her extensive knowledge and research on local textile traditions.

Lisa Paul Streitfeld, who presented a paper in Philadelphia on “The Embodied Goddess in 21st Century Art,” took some beautiful photos of the event and posted them to her thought provoking blog.  Check it out: (R)Evolution!  Catalyzing the Zeitgeist. And, see a clip of an interview with Lisa talking about the necessity for the emergence of women’s creative energy.

If you attended and took pictures, please let us know and we will be happy to post them as we have space!

by Dr. Miranda Shaw, keynote presenter

What an amazing organization and conference series ASWM has created.  I experienced the weekend by presenting as well as attending panels and performances.

My talk began with an exploration of how Buddhist women in Nepal embody Vasundhara, earth mother and goddess of abundance and wisdom.  I showed slides of rituals that invoke their identity with the golden goddess.  I could see that both the words and images were going deep.  The women present were also enchanted by the Kumari tradition, in which young girls embody the female Buddha Vajrayogini.  Talk about a receptive audience!  Beyond receptive—hungering and thirsting for knowledge of goddesses and women’s religion.

My mother Merry Norris spoke and showed slides in the next panel.  She not only showed her own mandala and goddess paintings, but those of her students, many of whom had never picked up a paintbrush before, commenting on the healing and transformations that were associated with various artworks, as women went through a particular challenge or life transition.

The images are so obviously empowered and empowering.  Many archetypal goddess images come through, even when women have had no direct exposure, and that was apparent in the slides.  One of her central themes was a difference she sees between ‘recovery’ and ‘transformation.’

The discussion afterward was great: how do we draw on goddess imagery and stories to transform our consciousness and lives.  One woman raised a concern about a tendency she sees—not in the speakers but more broadly in our culture—for women/feminists to turn the spiritual growth process into a kind of self-help therapy.  Entirely focused on self-improvement, this becomes another, albeit subtler, form of disempowerment, of never being good enough, never ‘arriving.’

The next panel I attended was on creativity, where Leesa Sklovar-Filgate talked about her work that combines psychotherapy, music therapy, and working with the Cetacean Society to find and save ‘lone’ whales that have become separated from their pods.  Continue reading “The City of Sisterly Love: A report from the Philadelphia Symposium”