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2016 ASWM Conference: “Seeking Harbor in Our Histories: Lights in the Darkness”

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!

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Call for Proposals: ASWM 2016 Conference in Boston

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.

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We’Moon to Receive 2015 Brigit Award for Excellence in the Arts

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The Association for Study of Women and Mythology Board of Directors is pleased to announce We’Moon as the 2015 recipient of the Brigit Award for the Arts.  In so doing we recognize the artistic accomplishment and leadership of the many women who have contributed to and produced We’Moon and all it stands for through its visionary art, poetry, and prose, offered in the form of empowering multicultural, earth spirited publications and projects.

From the 1980s to the present and with the establishment of Mother Tongue Ink, We’Moon has produced an impressive stream of publications, including day and wall calendars, visually stimulating posters and art cards, and the impressive retrospective volume, In the Spirit of We’Moon: Celebrating Thirty Years (2010). More recently We’Moon has published Starhawk’s inspiring children’s book The Last Wild Witch: An Eco-Fable for Kids and Other Free Spirits! We’Moon has also created the We’Moon Land Communities in Oregon and We’Mooniversity, which trains women and girls to find their earth inspired creativity.

We’Moon’s varied works continue to inspire women and to raise women’s consciousness, giving us the strength to see ourselves, our sisters and daughters as whole, diverse, spiritual beings who can change the world. We honor We’Moon as a vehicle for documenting the aesthetic contributions of visionary feminist artists of our time and thank the women who create it for modeling the gathering of feminist community to bring women’s cutting-edge art into our daily lives.

The Brigit Award for the Arts is granted by ASWM in odd-numbered years at our bi-annual Symposium. It was initiated in 2011 when it was awarded to musician and performance artist Layne Redmond. It was awarded to Lydia Ruyle, creator of the Goddess Banner Project, in 2013.

We are looking forward to presenting the Brigit award to We’Moon representatives in person at the 2015 ASWM Symposium, “Tales and Totems: Myth and Lineage in Goddess Scholarship,” on Saturday, April 11, 2015, in Portland, Oregon.

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Celebrating “Mary: A Life in Verse” by Patricia Monaghan

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On April 10 in Portland OR, we offer “Can the Blessed Virgin hold the hearts of goddess women?” Led by Michael McDermott and friends, the special event includes readings from the late Patricia Monaghan’s Mary: A Life in Verse and first-person accounts of Mary’s influence on women’s lives.  Michael says, “If anyone has tales of the hold of Mary, come prepared to share.”

 

Michael was Patricia’s husband and creative partner in the Black Earth Institute, a think tank dedicated to re-forging the links between art and spirit, earth and society.

 

Reviewer Dennis Daly says Mary: A Life in Verse “magnifies a simple naïve young woman into a goddess of secular goodness and the preternatural hope of mankind.”

 

Annie Finch, American Witch poet and performer, calls Mary: A Life in Verse “A remarkable, absorbing, and quietly revolutionary book” that offers readers

the sweet and sublime fruit of an attentive and courageous spiritual life. It brings us a new Mary, a Mary for the world and for the ages, who stretches beyond the limits of the Christian story and partakes of something far more ancient, larger, and more glorious: Mary as a woman, and a goddess.

 

A celebrated writer and editor, Patricia Monaghan was our beloved co-founder of ASWM. Much of her extensive work focused on mythology and spirituality, especially Irish and women’s spirituality. Her books include The Encyclopedia of Goddesses and Heroines, Wild Girls, The Red-Haired Girl from the Bog. She also edited Goddesses in World Culture and The Encyclopedia of Celtic Myth and Folklore.

 

Join us for this celebration of Patricia’s work and an important reclaiming of Mary in the lives of modern women. The event is held in conjunction with our 2015 symposium.  It begins at 7:30 on April 10 at the Red Lion Hotel on the River in Portland, Oregon. It’s free and open to the public.

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About the Saga Special Recognition Award

The Saga Award: Contributions to Women’s History and Culture

The Saga Special Recognition Award in Women’s History was created by the Association for the Study of Women and Mythology (ASWM) in 2012.

Named for the Norse goddess of history and prophecy, the Saga Award honors contributions to women’s history and culture. The phrase “women’s history” came into prominence in the Second Wave of Feminism, as a corrective to patriarchal histories that excluded women’s experiences and accomplishments. The ASWM Board recognizes outstanding scholarship that promote a balanced understanding of what is possible for women, and men and children, as we write a new history.

In 2016 this award went to filmmaker and activist Donna Read, “one of the premier visionary artists of our time,” for her role role in making feminist scholarship and the history of spirituality visible and accessible to a wide audience. Her films that include Goddess Remembered, Burning Times, and Full Circle, Signs Out of Time, Permaculture: The Growing Edge, and (with producer/directorDonna Roberts) Yemanjá: Wisdom from the African Heart of Brazil. In particular the Women & Spirituality trilogy and “Signs Out of Time” document the history of the sacred feminine and its re-emergence in the cultural mythology and activism of our time.

The 2015 Saga Award recipient is Dr. Zsuzsanna E. Budapest, author, ritualist, and tireless teacher of feminist goddess spirituality.   Starting with the publication of The Feminist Book of Lights and Shadows (now called The Holy Book of Women’s Mysteries), she has inspired a vision of modern spiritual values. Z’s ideas have influenced women to explore both ancient and modern goddess scholarship and to develop their own connections with the divine feminine.  Presently she is also focusing on Femina Nation, her TV project that focuses on notable women.

Genevieve Vaughan was honored with the Saga Award in 2014, for her creation of and dedication to projects like the Gift Economy that promote economic and social justice. Her influential book, For-Giving, a Feminist Criticism of Exchange, has set forth feminist economic principles for creating a maternal economy as a basis for social change. She is also founder of the Temple of Goddess Spirituality, Dedicated to Sekhmet. Located in Cactus Springs, Nevada, near the Nevada Test Site, this Temple creates a sanctuary of feminist values of peace in a location where it is needed most.

In 2012 Dr. Heide Göttner-Abendroth was the first recipient of the award, for her work on Modern Matriarchal Studies. Göttner-Abendroth is the founder of Modern Matriarchal Studies and the International Academy Hagia for Matriarchal Studies and Matriarchal Spirituality in Bavaria. Her meticulous research demonstrates that matriarchies are egalitarian cultures based on gender equality and consensus decision-making. In 2005, Heide was nominated as one of 1000 Peace Women Across the Globe for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Other ASWM awards include the Demeter Award for Leadership in Women’s Spirituality; the Sarasvati book awards (in nonfiction and fiction); the Kore Award for Best Dissertation, recognizing excellence in scholarship in the area of women and mythology; and the Hestia Award for outstanding volunteer service to the organization. ASWM developed its awards program so that notable contributions to culture and scholarship would not fade with the passage of time.