Women & Power: Reclaiming & Reimagining Power in the World Today
Women & Power: An Online Course Online Event with Pat McCabe, Sister Euphrasia (Efu) Nyaki, Indra Adnan, Minna Salami, Chiara Baldini, Riane Eisler, Sophie Strand, Leila Billing, Sylvia V. Linsteadt, Amanda Yates Garcia & 5 more
A unique online course. Nine weeks of live sessions led by prominent historians, activists, matriarchs and indigenous leaders, running from Wednesday 21 September to Thursday 17 November 2022. How can we reclaim and reimagine power to create new cultures grounded in interdependence and liberation?
Wednesday 21st September to Sunday 20th November, 2022 Zoom
If women aren’t perceived to be within the structures of power, is it power that we need to redefine?
For centuries, power has been synonymous with men, forms of “masculine” power and narratives of domination that tend towards binary thinking and oppressive hierarchies. As long as women are silenced in public spaces, erased from collective memory and alienated from positions of authority, these paradigms prevail. For too many people, it has become difficult to imagine beyond the dominant narratives, and many women also struggle, at times, to build confidence in our sense of the world, our knowledge and our power.
It is easy to believe that the destructive narratives, systems and practices that are embedded in our everyday lives are inevitable or impossible to change. But power has not always operated this way, and women have not always and everywhere been powerless and oppressed. Ancient history and culture demonstrate very different paradigms, and we can see this resurface across history and cultures through the world. As long as there have been attempts to silence and oppress, there has been collective and personal resistance. Women-led movements have emerged globally, presenting alternative visions for society, ways of being and relating that draw from ancestral histories and life-supporting principles.
We will explore how reclaiming and re-imagining power can mean radically challenging the construction of power in society as a whole, making way for new ideas and ways of relating to emerge and take root.
About the Course#
Over nine weeks, we will explore how we can create new cultures of power that are grounded in interdependence and liberation.
We will centre global stories and knowledge of women who persist against the most challenging forms of patriarchal oppression, decolonising and reclaiming narratives, spaces and practices to nurture renewed consciousness and connection.
The course will consist of a series of dialogues, presentations and workshops designed to explore overarching themes while maintaining a relevant, personal and interactive atmosphere.
This collective enquiry is not about finding answers but exploring questions. There is no one experience or overarching narrative of ‘women’, nor one of ‘power’. We hope this course will stand, first and foremost, for diversity, complexity and nuance.
In the spirit of multiple truths, we invite perspectives that challenge us, and we also invite those that soothe individual and collective wounds. This journey will be educational, but its primary aim is to generate inquiry, and raise the signal on the questions that need to be asked about our relationships with and to female power in the modern world.
Session Dates#
Part 1: Histories and narratives:
* Week 1: Understanding Power and Alienation, and Reclaiming Memory (Wednesday 21 September, 6-8pm BST)
* Week 2: Radical Women & Stereotypes (Wednesday 28 September, 6-8pm BST)
* Week 3: Transformative Women Leaders (Wednesday 5 October, 6-8pm BST)
* Collective Enquiry Session (Thursday 6 October, 6-8.30pm BST)
Part 2: Relationship
* Week 4: Transformative Collectives & Movements (Wednesday 12 October, 6-8pm BST)
* Week 5: Reclaiming Self (Wednesday 19 October, 6-8pm BST)
* Week 6: Rerooting Relationships (Wednesday 26 October, 6-8pm BST)
* Collective Enquiry Session (Thursday 27 October, 6-8.30pm BST)
Part 3: Place and Practice
* Week 7: Rituals and expression (Wednesday 2 November, 6-8pm GMT)
* Week 8: Land and public space (Wednesday 9 November, 6-8pm GMT)
* Week 9: Transforming visions of power and society (Wednesday 16 November, 6-8pm GMT)
* Collective Enquiry Session & Closing Ceremony (Thursday 17 November, 6-7.30pm GMT)
Wednesday 21st September to Sunday 20th November, 2022 Zoom
Women & Power: An Online Course
Pat McCabe #
Woman Stands Shining (Pat McCabe), a northern New Mexico-based mother of five.
Sister Euphrasia (Efu) Nyaki #
Sister Euphrasia (Efu) Nyaki is a psychotherapist offering alternative forms of preventative health care and holistic healing to adult and adolescent women and their impoverished communities in northern Brazil.
Indra Adnan #
Indra Adnan is a writer, psycho-social therapist and political entrepreneur.
Minna Salami #
Minna is a Nigerian, Finnish and Swedish writer, feminist theorist and author.
Chiara Baldini #
Chiara Baldini studies Ecstatic Religious Experience, Psychedelics, and Altered States of Consciousness.
Riane Eisler #
Riane Eisler is a social systems scientist, cultural historian, and attorney whose research, writing, and speaking has transformed the lives of people worldwide.
Sophie Strand #
Sophie is a writer based in the Hudson Valley who focuses on the intersection of spirituality, storytelling, & ecology. But it would probably be more authentic to call her a neo-troubadour animist with a propensity to spin yarns that inevitably turn into love stories. Her first book of essays The Flowering Wand: Lunar Kings, Lichenized Lovers, Transpecies Magicians, and Rhizomatic Harpists Heal the Masculine is forthcoming in 2022. She is currently researching a mythopoetic exploration of ecology and queerness in the medieval legend of Tristan and Isolde.
Leila Billing #
Leila Billing is a gender and development consultant and co-founder of We Are Feminist Leaders. She has held leadership roles in a range of international NGOs, including War Child UK and Girls Not Brides: The Global Partnership to End Child Marriage. She is also passionate about championing anti-racism initiatives. She has a Masters Degree in Gender and Development Studies from the Institute of Development Studies.
Sylvia V. Linsteadt #
Sylvia V. Linsteadt is a novelist, poet, scholar of ancient history, animal tracker, and artist. Her work—both fiction and non-fiction—is rooted in myth, ecology, feminism & bioregionalism, and is devoted to broadening our human stories to include the voices of the living land.
Amanda Yates Garcia #
Amanda is a writer, artist, professional witch, and Oracle of Los Angeles. Her work has been widely reported in global press and she leads classes and workshops on magic and witchcraft at cultural institutions and universities. She is the author of Initiated.
Vandana Shiva #
Globally well-known intellectual and activist, Vandana Shiva has shown ongoing commitment in different fields, making it difficult to label her name under a precise and unique category. At the core of her activism there are: counter-development in favour of people-centered, participatory processes; support to grassroots networks; women rights and ecology. Author of numerous important books and articles, Vandana Shiva has shown a lifetime interest in campaigning against genetic engineering and the negative impact of globalisation, advocating for the crucial importance of preserving and celebrating biodiversity.
Willow Defebaugh #
Willow Defebaugh is the Cofounder and Editor-in-Chief of Atmos. She writes a weekly newsletter called The Overview which offers a holistic look at life on Earth through the lens of deep ecology. Her work has been featured in V Magazine, CR Fashion Book, L’Officiel USA, Vogue US, Vogue China, i-D, The Guardian, Them, BBC, and more.
Cinzia Arruzza #
Cinzia Arruzza is Associate Professor of Philosophy at The New School for Social Research and author numerous publications including Feminism for the 99%: A Manifesto.
Ayisha Siddiqa #
Ayisha Siddiqa is a Pakistani Climate justice advocate. She is a co-founder of Polluters Out and the Executive Director of Student Affairs at Fossil Free University. On Sept 20th, 2019 she helped mobilize and lead over 300,000 students onto the streets of Manhattan demanding their governments take climate action. Her advocacy focuses on climate justice and racial justice for BIPOC.
Céline Semaan #
Céline Semaan is a Designer, Advocate, Writer and Founder of Slow Factory Foundation. She writes for New York Mag: The Cut, Elle, Refinery29, Huffington Post, among others.