Category: The Archive

We are pleased that Dr. Elinor W. Gadon will present the conference keynote entitled History or Mystery:  Fact of Fiction?   

Dr. Gadon is a cultural historian who has taught at Harvard Divinity School and the California Institute of Integral Studies. She is presently a Resident Scholar at Brandeis University’s Women’s Studies Resource Center.

Her major publication, The Once and Future Goddess: A Symbol for Our Time, is a visual chronicle of the history of the sacred female and her re-emergence in the cultural mythology of our time.

Her research has focused on the analysis of myth and imagery within their particular cultural contexts, especially with reference to issues of gender and spirituality. In particular she has focused on India and the contributions of women artists. With Shulamit Reinharz, she has written Tiger by the Tail: Women Artists of India Transforming Culture (2007).

Dr. Gadon has recently completed From Blood to Fire: The Changing Culture of the Village Goddesses of Orissa in collaboration with sociologist Rita Ray and has submitted it for publication. She is presently working on a monograph The Village Goddesses of Orissa.  Her next project will be her memoirs.

 In 2006 she received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Women’s Caucus for Art, an international organization that recognizes the lasting contributions of women artists and art historians.

In her article “The Secular Israeli Woman” for The Journal of Pedagogy, Pluralism, and Practice (Fall 2009), Dr. Gadon wrote,

“The highest level of a woman’s spirituality is the integration of internal and external voices, the integration between subjective and objective knowledge and the integration between intuitive, personal knowledge and the knowledge received from others. This stage includes waiving belief in a black and white world and developing an ability to live with conflicts, knowing how to maintain connections and responsibilities within the environment, and listening and respecting the body and feelings without shame.”

Open Registration for 2016 Conference!

(You will also be able to renew or join for 2016 at this link.)
Visit: aswm.conferencetime.com

April 1-2, 2016, Boston, Massachusetts 

Boston Marriott Burlington Hotel

Goddess Scholarship draws on historical, ethnographic and folk sources, among others, to document and honor the sacred and mundane stories which animate the traditions and spiritual lives of our global sisters and our foremothers.

This year’s conference theme embraces the heritage of location in the historical City of Boston, a harbor city rich in stories and symbols of First Nations of the Atlantic Northeast and the formation of the United States.

We are delighted to announce presentations by three outstanding keynote speakers.  Dr. Lucia Chiavola Birnbaum,  feminist cultural historian and author of  Black Madonnas, Dark Mother:  African origins and godmothers, The Future Has an Ancient Heart, and, forthcoming, black bird in a pear tree.  Dr. Elinor Gadon is a Resident Scholar of the Brandeis University Women’s Studies Research Center, and is author of  The Once and Future Goddess:  A Symbol for Our Time and Tiger by the Tail:  Women Artists of Indian Transforming Culture.  Dr. Margaret M. Bruchac (Abenaki), is an anthropologist, museum consultant, historian, and performer. Her work includes Indigenous Archaeologies: A Reader in Decolonization, and Dreaming Again:  Algonkian Poetry.

The program will include a special plenary session of authors featured  in the new anthology, Foremothers of the Women’s Spirituality Movement:  Elders and Visionaries, edited by Vicki Noble and Miriam Robbins Dexter.

Plan to come a day early to attend the Matriarchal Studies Day, held in the same venue, and watch for notices about post-conference events.

Watch this site for information and registration links.  See you there!

2016 Biennial Conference

Association for the Study of Women and Mythology

April 1-2, 2016, Boston, Massachusetts

Call for Proposals

“Seeking Harbor in Our Histories: Lights in the Darkness”

Goddess Scholarship draws on historical, ethnographic and folk sources, among others, to document and honor the sacred and mundane stories which animate the traditions and spiritual lives of our global sisters and our foremothers.

In past conferences, the innovative methodologies and scholarship of ASWM participants have served to problematize contemporary perceptions of civilization, “modernization” and “progress.” Multi-discipline research methodologies have focused on representing historical, thealogical, philosophical, mythological, symbolic, cultural, linguistic and aesthetic lineages.

This year’s conference theme embraces the heritage of location in the historical City of Boston, a harbor city rich in stories and symbols of First Nations of the Atlantic Northeast and the formation of the United States.

We invite papers and panels including, but not limited to the following topics:

• Harbor and hearth as women-centered metaphors
• Myth and lineage of the spirit of place, especially focus on the larger Boston area
• Indigenous stories, histories, and women’s communities of the Atlantic North East
• Paradigms of rebellion, freedom and independence
• Water, ritual and civilization, stories of aquatic goddesses
• Perspectives on First Nations/First Worlds
• Women’s sense of self, social agency, and their roles as citizens
• The female principle in ethics and ancient wisdom for modern times
• Cultural ecofeminism
• Animal mysteries and myth
• Ancestry, foremothers and methodology
• Changing experiences and definitions of the sacred and the profane

Papers should be 20 minutes; panels with up to four papers on a related topic may be proposed together. Workshop proposals should be organized to provide audience interaction and must clearly address the theme. All sessions and workshops are limited to 90 minutes.

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.

Send 250-word abstract (for panels, 200 word abstract plus up to 150 words per paper) in PDF or MSWord to aswmsubmissions@gmail.com by November 15, 2015.  Please use “2016 proposal” and last name in subject header. Include bio of up to 70 words for each presenter, as well as contact information including surface address and email. See www.womenandmyth.org for program updates and registration.