Tag Archives: scholarship

Pagan Studies Call for Papers, AAR 2010

This post is for anyone who has not already seen the Contemporary Pagan Studies Group’s call for papers for next year’s AAR meeting in Atlanta posted on some e-list or other.

For details on paper submission, see the AAR’s page for that meeting. Note that some information will not be posted until later in December.

The Contemporary Pagan Studies Group invites papers that address one of the following topics:

1.  For session with Men’s Studies in Religion Group, Pagan Masculinities: Male Identity, Gender Injustice and Power Relations. Who are the Pagan men, how is their understanding of masculinity constituted, and how are they affected by the   emphasis on the feminine in Pagan spirituality?

2. Paganism, Ethnicity and Ultra-Nationalism. The Right has increased representation in the European Parliament and some of those elected are Pagans with concerns about boundaries, immigration and ethnicities. We welcome papers that investigate this growing phenomenon and the contentious issues that arise from it.

3. Idolatry and Tangible Sacrality: The Conversation Continues. This panel generated such excellent discussion at the 2009 meeting that we felt it important to explore it further.

4. For session with the New Religious Movements Group,  papers on African-inspired religious traditions, such as Santeria, Vodun, Yoruba, and Candomble,
especially as those in the southeastern United States.

In Which We Use ‘the I-Word’ at the AAR

Attendance at this year’s American Academy of Religion annual meeting was down somewhat, an AAR staff member told me: about 5,000 instead of 7,000-8,000. He attributed the drop to the economy, not to the fact that the meeting was held in Montreal. I certainly heard no complaints about the venue.

Although I spent the Saturday being a tourist of magic, I was still able to make the main Paganism-related sessions.

The Contemporary Pagan Studies Group had three sessions, and they were well-attended by AAR standards, with more than fifty people at each one.

Our shared session with the Indigenous Religious Traditions Group went well. Suzanne Owen took on the whole question of how “indigenous” is employed in a paper called “Indigenous Religious Expressions? Mi’kmaq Tradition and British Druidry,” that I would like to read more of.

Amy Whitehead offered an illustrated version of her paper published recently in The Pomegranate, but in retrospect, it really belonged in our standalone session with the theme of “Idolatry.”

Yes, the I-word, sometimes subsumed in the broader term “materiality,” as in Graham Harvey’s presentation, “Materiality and Spirituality Aren’t Opposites (Necessarily): Paganism and Objects.”

The presentations were good, but of necessity just nibbled at the edges of topic, so I think that we will be having a session on “Idolatry Revisited” next year in Atlanta.

Our other session, “The Book and the Practice: The Relationship between Literature and Contemporary Paganism,” reflected one of my ongoing concerns–let’s move beyond citing the relationship between Stranger in a Strange Land and the Church of All Worlds and look at a broader range of “artistic representations … and their influence on and the mutually interdependent relations with a variety of Paganisms as they are practiced today,” to quote the language of the call for papers.

There is a lot more to do there too. At least we are not running out of ideas for conference sessions.

Contemporary Pagan Studies in the New York Times

The upcoming sessions of the Contemporary Pagan Studies Group at the American Academy of Religion’s annual meeting are mentioned in the New York Times.

Some of us have been joking about “the I-word” (idolatry). I wondered if that would catch some journalist’s interest.

The Pagan Census, revisited

Three researchers are working to update Voices from the Pagan Census: A National Survey of Witches and Neo-Pagans in the United States, originally published in 2003.

Helen Berger, one of the researchers, writes, “This survey builds on an earlier one completed over twenty years ago, primarily in the United States, which was conducted by Helen A. Berger and Andras Arthen (of the EarthSpirit Community) entitled the Pagan Census.

“A number of scholars have noted that it would be helpful to have a follow-up of that survey to see if and how the community has changed or remained the same. The survey that follows uses many, although not all of the same questions that were in the original survey to provide that comparison. There are also new questions, for instance about the Internet, something that was of little interest 20 years ago but is now, and some from other studies, that again permit a comparison. This has resulted in the survey being somewhat long–we appreciate your taking the time to complete it.”

Please feel free to spread this URL around the Pagan Web to get as wide a variety of respondents as possible.

Online Reviews in Alternative Spirituality

The e-journal Online Reviews in Alternative Spirituality is now available. Quite a bit of it is devoted to occult and esoteric topics, downloadable as PDF files.

It is my understanding that this free model is only temporary, so look while you can.

The Political Pagan blog

Michael Strmiska has a started a new blog, The Political Pagan. Stop by and visit. He does not mention it, but he is also on The Pomegranate’s editorial board.

Hutton Named English Heritage Commissioner

Ronald Hutton, the history professor at Bristol University who is best known among Pagans for writing The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft and subsequent books on Druidism, has been named a commissioner of English Heritage.

From the news release:

English Heritage was established by the National Heritage Act 1983 as the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England. It is the Government’s statutory adviser on the historic environment. English Heritage (EH) receives around three quarters of its income from the Exchequer in the form of Grant in Aid (£129.4 million in 2007/2008). The remainder (£49.2 million) is self generated from commercial activities and fund raising. English Heritage’s role is to champion and care for the historic environment.

EH Commissioners receive an allowance which directly reflects the level of responsibilities undertaken, such as chairing an Advisory Committee and/or duties as a regional Commissioner. The remuneration range is currently £4,030 to £9,200 per annum.

Given all the controversies over ancient megalithic monuments in particular (although Hutton is equally an expert on the 17th century, the English Civil War, etc.), I am waiting to hear if he will be concerning himself primarily with the management of Avebury, Stonehenge, etc.

Druidry and Made-up History

Here is the YouTube trailer for a new documentary on British Druidry. Yes, that is Ronald Hutton at the beginning (long hair, glasses). (If the YouTube link does not work, try this one.)

And here is the video clip dissected with a sharp knife by a different British Pagan academic.

It’s true: there is nothing in the historical record on ancient Druids (which would fill about two typed pages) about land ownership or the rights of women. The one speaker is simply making it up.

It is the “crisis of history” again. Can your religion get respect when it is based on non-existent “history”? It works for the Mormons, true, but not without some pain.

Hutton’s Blood and Mistletoe: The History of the Druids in Britain offers the whole history of making up Druidic “history.”

My First-Draft Paper on the ‘Crisis of History’

My CESNUR paper, “In the Mists of Avalon: How Contemporary Paganism Dodges the ‘Crisis of History,'” has been published on line at the organization’s web site.

It is sort of quick and lightweight, but I want to work more on those ideas in the future.

In the immediate future, however, I need to come up with something for my guest-blogger spot at The Wild Hunt. Warning, it’s more likely to be snarky than deep.

Priestess Honored by Cherry Hill Seminary

Judy Harrow, Wiccan priestess and teacher, has been honored by having Cherry Hill Seminary’s online library named for her.

Don’t go looking for the libary yet–it is under construction. And it will be entirely digital, since Cherry Hill offers primarily online classes.

CHS blurbs thusly:

A Wiccan priestess since 1977, Harrow founded Proteus Coven in 1981, and held several leadership offices for Covenant of the Goddess, on both national and regional levels, including National First Officer in 1984. She founded the Pagan Pastoral Counseling Network in 1982, and served as the first editor of the Network’s publication. Harrow co-created a successful workshop series, “Basic Counseling Skills for Coven Leaders,” which grew into a series of intensive workshops for Pagan elders on a range of topics. She also founded the New York Area Coven Leaders’ Peer Support Group, and served as Program Coordinator for the first Mid-Atlantic Pan-Pagan Conference and Festival, as well as several other Pagan gatherings.

I would add that Judy has been preaching about the need for professional counseling education for coven leaders as long as I have known her, and she followed her own advice.

She is also the author or editrix of Spiritual Mentoring: A Pagan Guide, Devoted To You: Honoring Deity in Wiccan Practice, and Wicca Covens: How to Start and Organize Your Own.

One bit of bibilographic essay writing missing from that list is her contributions to the 50th anniversary edition of Gerald Gardner’s Witchcraft Today. Since we are still waiting for a scholarly biography of Gardner, her two essays included in that edition, “Looking Backward: Gardner’s Sources” and “Looking Forward: Gardner’s Hunches,” should be read by everyone studying Wiccan history.