Friday March 13 and Saturday March 14, 2020 will be the sixth biennial ASWM conference. There will be two days of keynote addresses, panel discussions, workshops and roundtables. It will be a great time to share our passions for women and mythology, as expressed in our scholarship in research and the arts.
In 2020, we will meet at the beautiful Temaya Hyatt Regency, Santa Ana Pueblo, near Albuquerque, New Mexico. Visit the link to explore this gorgeous location.
For those of you who are interested in our friends in the Matriarchal Studies group, they plan to meet in the same location on Sunday, March 15, 2020.
Sadly, we report that Dr. Savithri Shanker De Tourreil (1935-2019) passed away from complications related to illness, in Montreal, Quebec, on 18 June 2019. She was 84. She was a beloved member of our ASWM community of scholars.
Dr. De Tourreil who held degrees in English literature and religious studies was an active member of the Association for the Study of Women and Mythology (ASWM) where she presented foundational and engaging studies on the matrilineal cultures and customs of Kerala. Her groundbreaking ethnographic doctoral research on women-centered social customs among the Nayar community, *Nayars in a South Indian Matrix: A Study Based on Female Centered Rituals* (Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, 1995) continues to serve as an inspiring model of feminist ethnography, feminist religious studies, matrilineal kinship, goddess scholarship, Hindu women, social change and social customs. Savithri cherished her colleagues and friends in the ASWM circle, and until failing health prevented her from traveling, actively participated in ASWM conferences. Savithri’s clear, original and engaging discussions on the ethnographic, sociological, and anthropological dimensions of women-centered religious practices, gift-economies, matrilineal studies, and goddess mythology have enlivened many ASWM conferences. Savithri’s research has been widely published in feminist religious studies and matrilineal studies.
Full of laughter and wisdom, Savithri was an inspiration to scholars everywhere. Her niece, Gayatri Devi, who co-presented with her, is a member of our ASWM Board. It was Savithri and Gayatri who taught us the wonderful Hand Blessing of the women of Kerala. To paraphrase the famous Jewish prayer, her memory is a blessing to us all.
"Feminism on the Borderlands" with Dr. Monica Mody April 16, 2019 moderated by Gayatri Devi PhD How do we move into the borderlands to reclaim our full relationship with modernity, secularization, and the shadow spaces in our own psyches? How do we relate to the shadow produced by European and western modes of being, thinking …
Tuesday, April 16, 2019, 3:00 – 4:00 pm Eastern Daylight Time
Neolithic Women’s Figures
ASWM is hosting conversations with scholars about issues relating to women and mythology. In order to be eligible to participate, renew your membership before April 13, 2019. We will send the Zoom call in information to all current members on April 14.
How do we move into the borderlands and reclaim our full relationship with modernity, secularization, and the shadow spaces in our own psyches? How do we relate to the shadow produced by European and western modes of being, thinking and relating to the world, to each other and to ourselves? What do we need to give up? What do we reclaim and bring to the surface?
Let’s have a lively discussion on these questions that transcend disciplines and affect our daily and creative lives as women. Join Dr. Monica Mody for an inspiring discussion on discovering the shadow projects of modernity and secularization from the perspective of feminist and borderlands spirituality and scholarship.
Monica Mody
Monica Mody holds a PhD in East West Psychology from California Institute of Integral Studies, where she worked on a cross-genre dissertation on the decolonized feminist consciousness in an Anzalduan framework of the borderlands. Monica is a trained dancer and an internationally published poet.
Our salon is moderated by Dr. Gayatri Devi, Associate Professor of English at Lock Haven University, and longtime member of the ASWM Board.
Featured ASWM artist Lauren Raine is holding a retrospective art show of her beautiful Masks of the Goddess Project. She describes her work this way:
In May I will be concluding the 20 year MASKS OF THE GODDESS PROJECT, which began as an Invocation to the Goddess at Reclaiming’s Spiral Dance in San Francisco in 1999. I have been so privileged to collaborate with Priestesses, Playwrights, Dancers, Ritualists, Community Organizers, Photographers, Choreographers, Writers, Singers, and Psychologists in sharing the “Faces of the Goddess”. The spirits of so many collaborators are in every mask and photograph. It’s my hope that as the masks leave me, they’ll go out to be used by others, to continue their work in some way.
Just want to thank you and all of the amazing women I met at the Women and Mythology Conferences I have attended. If you or anyone you know will be in SF at that time, please be most cordially invited to the Opening, or to see the show.
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