Category: Events

ASWM-sponsored events: conferences and symposia and online events such as film series and scholar salons

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Matriarchal Studies Day, May 10, 2012

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
May 10, 2012: 9:00 am – 9:00 PM
Updated Matriarchal Studies Day Prospectus, March 31, 2012
MATRIARCHAL STUDIES DAY AGENDA
9:00-9:30 am  Opening Ritual
Altar making :  Lydia Ruyle / Goddess Icon Spirit Banners
9:45-10:30   Herstory Overview of Matriarchal Studies–Beginnings
Max Dashu / Suppressed Histories
Joan Marler / Marija Gimbutas’s Legacy
Lucia Birnbaum / The Future Has An Ancient Heart
10:30-Noon  Teaching Matriarchal Studies / Where We Are Today
Vicki Noble & students
Marguerite Rigoglioso & students
LUNCH 12:00-1:00
1:00-2:00pm  Matriarchal Creative Movement / Matriarchal Language / Matriarchal Households
Leilani Birely–Hula Traditions
Delphine Red Shirt–Lakota Language
MaShiAat Oloya Tyehimba-Ford –Matriarchal Household, Egyptian Yoruba Lineage
2:00-3:00pm  Matriarchal Studies Voices from Europe / Indigenous Cultures
Mariam Tazi-Preve–European culture, Austria
Malika Grasshof–Kabyle Berber culture, Africa
Deborah L. Neff–Nayar culture, Kerala, India
BREAK
3:30-3:45pm  Future of Matriarchal Studies
Max Dashu, Lydia Ruyle–Social Networking / Digital Herstories on Internet
3:45-5:30pm Open General Discussion moderated by Vicki Noble
 
DINNER / On Your Own  5:30-7:30pm
7:30pm
Janie Rezner
Heide Goettner-Abendroth
(Presented In Conjunction with the Association for the Study of Women and Mythology
Please Note: Agenda subject to change
For more information or to register see next page.
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Announcing the Sarasvati Awards for Best Books

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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Announcing the Kore Award for Best Dissertation in Women and Mythology

The Kore Award, offered through the Association for Study of Women and Mythology and made possible through the gift of a generous contributor, recognizes excellence in scholarship in the area of women and mythology. It is offered in even-numbered years, for dissertations completed in the previous two calendar years (including defense).

Applicants can be from any discipline, including but not limited to literature, religious studies, art or art history, classics, anthropology, and communications. Creative dissertations must include significant analysis of mythology in addition to creative work.   Applicants must be members of ASWM at time of submission.

Applications for the 2012 award may be made between November 1, 2011 and February 15, 2012.  Selection is made by a panel of scholars from a variety of disciplines.

_______

Application for Kore Award for Best Dissertation in Women and Mythology

Deadline for submission: February 15, 2012

Award announcement:  May 12, 2012

Name:

Mailing address:

Email:

Field of Study:

Title of Dissertation:

Date of graduation:

Degree granted by:

Dissertation advisor’s name:

Dissertation abstract:

Please submit this form via email to ASWM.KoreAward@gmail.com with Word attachment of dissertation.  Please have dissertation director email letter of support to same address.

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Seeking Proposals for 2012 ASWM Conference

Chalice (and hand) by Susan Minyard

CREATING THE CHALICE:  

Imagination and Integrity in Goddess Studies

The Association for the Study of Women

and Mythology

Biennial National Conference

San Francisco May 11-12, 2012.

Advancing our scholarship involves the evolution and refinement of our methods.  Suggested topics for this exciting conference might include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • 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?

Proposals for papers, panels, and workshops addressing these topics will be given preference, but other subjects will be considered.  Papers should be 20 minutes; up to four papers on a related topic may be proposed together.  Workshops (limited to 90 minutes) should be organized to provide audience interaction and must clearly address theme.

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, 2012.  Include bio of up to 70 words for each presenter, as well as contact information including surface address and email.

About the chalice:  see Susan’s work at www.SweetwaterPottery.biz

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2011 East Symposium in Philadelphia

The Embodied Goddess, our first East Coast Regional Symposium, took place on March 12-13, 2011 in Philadelphia.More than 50 scholars attended the event.

The first-ever Brigit Award for Excellence in the Arts was given to Layne Redmond. Her presentation was a highlight of the evening performances.Click here for more information on Layne Redmond.

Miranda Shaw, Ph.D.,  of the University of Richmond opened the Symposium on Saturday afternoon with a keynote speech on “Living Goddesses: Embodying the Divine in Buddhist Nepal.” Dr. Shaw is the author of Buddhist Goddesses of India and Passionate Enlightenment: Women in Tantric Buddhism.

 

 As with the spring 2010 conference at Kirkridge, Lydia Ruyle’s inspiring goddess banners graced the meeting space.  Lydia also gave two presentations on embodied goddesses of the Americas and Anatolia.

Saturday evening featured performances by vocal group SheWho as well as conference participants Shelley Graff, Serpentessa, and Tova Beck-Friedman. Sunday morning starts with a networking breakfast, and the program concludes before lunch.

Program

See titles and presenters.

Through talk, film, visual art, dance, song, poetry, and more, goddesses as diverse as Demeter, Ogbuide and  inspired the gathering.

Topics ranged from river deities in African spirituality to embodiments of the female divine in Judaism;  from primordial figures to goddess images in contemporary art; descent myths to encounters with serprents; and ancient earth goddess in art to embodied spiritual 
empowerment.

Experiential workshops included “Wild Earth Shebrew (chants),” “Belly on Earth, Snake on Skin,” “Evoking and Re-membering the Ancient Earth Goddess” (a clay workshop), and “Singing in Sacred Circle.”