The Association for the Study of Women and Mythology (ASWM) looks forward to welcoming you to Tucson, Arizona for our international conference:
“Sacred Stories of the Sentient Earth: Scholarship for Collaboration, Intervention, and Reciprocity”
March 27-29, 2025
At the Westward Look Inn, Tucson, Arizona.
The conference will be followed on Sunday, March 30, 2025, by a meeting of the Maternal Gift Economy Movement.
Opening the conference our keynotes speakers, Yeye Luisa Teish and Lelani Birely, presenting “On Holy Ground: Commitment and Devotion to Sacred Land” will invite the audience to experience the magic inherent in the mythology of Hawaiian and African diasporic culture. Luisa and Lelani will discuss the Oath to Mother Earth and how we can become more respectful and devoted to the land and Her people. The audience will meet such figures as Yemaya, the Goddess of the Sea, and Earth Mother Papa-Haumea. Our keynoters will share their wisdom around healing our relationship to Sacred Land and each other in these times of ecological crisis and the clear manifestation and impact of the disregard for Earth, her gifts, and her children.
The 2025 Conference Plenary Panel is entitled: “Encountering Inanna: Stories, Images, and the Poems of Enheduanna” and will feature distinguished speakers Judy Grahn, Annalisa Derr, and Pinar Durgun.
Additionally, the conference will host over 60 paper presentations ranging across topics like:
Artemis Healing Temples in Ancient Messenia.
Animism, Indigeneity and Memory.
YUTA Coming Home to the Land.
Foundational Myths, Witchcraft Accusations, and the Symbolism of Cats in Yoruba Cosmology.
The Sacred Earth in Kurdish Alevi Tradition.
The Serpent-Guardian of Watery Paradox: The Sonoran Desert Legend of La Cara.
The Panel titles include:
Reclaiming Animal-Human Relationships drawing on the Land, Myths, Wisdom and Companion Species.
Sacred Waters and Her Guardians.
Reclaiming our Earth-based Wisdom and Heritage from Colonialism and Patriarchy across the Globe.
Reclaiming/Regenerating Our Earth and Reptile Relationships through Eco and Ethnic Intelligence Conveyed in Myth, Art, Healing, and Astronomy.
There will be six 90-minute workshops, poetry readings, dance performances and a ritual theatre performance. On Thursday afternoon prior to the conference, there will be a field trip.
Finally, three of ASWM’s awards will be given at the conference: the Demeter Award for Leadership in Women’s Spirituality, the Kore Dissertation Award, and the Sarasvati Nonfiction Book Award.
Learn more here.
