Category: Events

“Waterbirds, Water, Women and Place in Archaic European Lore”

Dr. Barber’s works bring together scholarship from a wide range of sources to discuss such diverse topics as textile history as “woman’s work,” culture and migration, the origins of myth in cosmology, and the evolution of modern folk dance from beginnings in ritual and sacred story. Her books include Women’s Work: The First 20,000 Years; Women, Cloth, and Society in Early Times (1995), The Mummies of Ürümchi (1999), When They Severed Earth from Sky: How the Human Mind Shapes Myth (2004, coauthor with Paul T. Barber) and The Dancing Goddesses: Folklore, Archaeology, and the Origins of European Dance (2013).

The Dancing Goddesses: Folklore, Archaeology, and the Origins of European Dance won ASWM’s Sarasvati Award for Best Nonfiction Book in Women and Mythology in 2014. Publishers Weekly says of this book,

“Rich with anecdotes and compelling explanations of the origin of many modern customs (such as throwing rice at a bride), Barber’s is an informative and amusing read, often bringing together many diverse sources—traditional stories, illustrations of artifacts, and aspects of popular culture—into an illuminating whole that will serve as a nice introduction for those unfamiliar with the topic, and a valuable reference for scholars of European dance and folklore.”

Dr. Barber is professor emerita of archaeology and linguistics at Occidental College.

See Conference Page for Schedules, Registration, Program and Abstracts

“Scholarly Speculations:  Animal, Earth, Person, Story”

ASWM Conference March 16-17 2018

Gold Coast Hotel, Las Vegas NV

Our main theme is explorations of animal and earth mysteries, with an emphasis on Native American and indigenous scholarship.  This year our program will include a poster session for research in progress, in addition to panels, workshops, films, and plenary sessions.

Keynote presenters include:

• Elizabeth Wayland Barber: “Waterbirds, Water, Women and Place in Archaic European Lore”
• Dr. Gala Argent: “The Agency of Horses, Horses as Heroes in Eurasian Poetry and Archaeology”
• Sherri Mitchell, social justice attorney for indigenous peoples and land rights

And we will have a special presentation by Kathy Jones, founder of the Glastonbury Goddess Conference.

Join us to celebrate our first decade of inspiring and stimulating scholarly events. Come early for special pre-conference tour to the Temple of Goddess Spirituality Dedicated to Sekhmet (Thursday March 15).

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And stay over for a day of Modern Matriarchal Studies, also in the Gold Coast Hotel, on Sunday March 18.  Register here for Modern Matriarchal Studies:

For more information about Modern Matriarchal Studies Day, contact Joan Cichon 

We are pleased to announce that ASWM has received a special outreach grant for our 2018 conference. This will fund presentations and participation by Native American and indigenous scholars and researchers. Proposals will be read by an outside panel of scholars, and applicants may be asked to provide certification of their tribal membership. ASWM will consider successful grant projects and articles for inclusion in our forthcoming Proceedings series.

Our external grants committee invites Native American and indigenous scholars, researchers, artists, and activists to submit critical, creative, and practitioner proposals on topics that address the identity and empowerment of Native American and indigenous women, girls, families, and the environment through women-centered mythologies, earth centered mythologies, story-telling, healing practices, inter-generational exchanges, and traditional knowledge and practices.  We encourage work whose objective is to empower both women and the earth to alleviate violence and suffering in both women and the environment. We invite proposals that demonstrate the application of traditional knowledge and wisdom practices in rectifying social justice issues pertaining to women and the environment.

Grant funded presenters will present their work at the 2018 biennial conference. The final paper or presentation form of approved grant projects should adhere to a 20 minute conference presentation format.

The deadline for submissions has been extended until October 15, 2017.

2017 External Grant Call for Proposals

ASWM External Grants Proposal Submission form

MARCH 16-17, 2018

Las Vegas NV

Location TBA

Save the dates!  At last we will hold our conference in a place that has both a contemporary goddess temple and a rich heritage of Native American and women’s spirituality.  Fortuna is smiling on us this year.  Our program will be enriched by a grant  to fund presentations by Native American and indigenous scholars.  Watch for newsletters and website updates as this exciting program evolves.