September 2022
On Wednesday, September 21st at 1pm ET/ 10am PT, Riane Eisler is leading the first session of Advaya’s new online course: Reimagining Women & Power.
What: Understanding Power and Alienation, and Reclaiming Memory, with Riane Eisler and Céline Semaan
When: September 21st at 1pm ET/ 10am PT
Where: Online Sessions (All recorded for future access to those who sign up)
A note from Riane Eisler on Reimagining Women & Power
Where does our power come from? What enables us to reclaim voice, choice and agency? How do we collectively cement a future that centers and celebrates the feminine as well as all aspects and expressions of life? How do we avoid reproducing the same systems and problems of the past (and present), and instead create fertile ground for new forms of life? What possibilities emerge for constructing regenerative systems, narratives and relationships when we do?
Reimagining Women & Power is an upcoming online course organized by advaya which I am so thrilled to be teaching on. The nine-week course starts 21st September, and consists of live sessions led by prominent historians, activists, matriarchs and indigenous leaders. We will look at how we can decolonize and reclaim narratives, engage in practices for nurturing renewed consciousness and connection, to create new cultures grounded in interdependence and liberation.
I would love for you to join me on this collective inquiry. Tickets can be purchased at womenandpower.co: concession prices are always available and bursary applications are still open. Finances should not be a barrier to participation. If you join us on this course, you will have access to all the live sessions (which are recorded and uploaded so you don't have to join us live), discussion forums, and materials to accompany and facilitate more learning. Please do join us!
Women & Power: Reclaiming & Reimagining Power in the World Today
A unique online course. Nine weeks of live sessions led by prominent historians, activists, matriarchs and indigenous leaders, running from Wednesday September 21 to Thursday November 17 2022.
How can we redefine narratives of domination and create new cultures of power grounded in interdependence and liberation?
For centuries, power has been synonymous with men, forms of “masculine” power and narratives of domination that tend towards binary thinking and oppressive hierarchies. 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. In this spirit, we seek to 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.
Please tag Advaya so they can reshare!
Instagram @advaya.co, Twitter @advaya_co, Facebook @advaya.co
Please also invite your friends and networks to the Facebook event page for the course!
Riane Eisler Teaches Opening Session of Online Course: Women & Power
"In this opening session we will explore how power operates within the dominant cultural paradigm along lines of domination, or power-over. We will look at the roots of that in ancient history, and how it became synonymous with a masculine power, patriarchy, and therefore men. We will explore how this form of power has permeated human relationship and society, and how it enables oppressive hierarchies and colonial relationships to continue. We will also look at other forms of power: forms based around partnership, power-with rather than power-over; the roots of these in ancient land based and indigenous societies; and how these forms of power became synonymous with feminine power, and therefore women. We will interrogate how women (and non-men) have been alienated from power and erased from collective memory historically, and what reclamation/restoration looks like. In this session we will discuss the politics of memory, restoring narrative justice, rewriting history, and how we can begin building cultural power.
Riane Eisler will set the stage for the course by providing a fresh look at our past, present, and the possibilities for our future through a systems perspective that includes the whole of humanity and no longer marginalizes the majority: women and children. She will show that the alternative to patriarchy is not matriarchy, but a Partnership System that no longer ranks men and the "masculine" over women and the "feminine." Eisler will emphasize how reality has been stood on its head with the shift to a Domination System, and how we can each help build the Partnership alternative, which is deeply rooted in the evidence we now have of more equitable, peaceful and gender-balances societies in our deep past.
Expanding on a previous series titled, “Women’s Bodies as Borders to Nations,” Céline Semaan will explore media’s role in altering societal perceptions of women from a design perspective. By applying a feminist perspective to the treatment of women in war, fashion, media, and other industries, Céline will unpack how it parallels our consumption and attitude towards the Earth and its resources. Céline’s unique perspective on the intersectional topics of feminism, fashion, sustainability, colonialism, and capitalism are informed by her lifelong career as an information designer, climate and social justice advocate, and through her lived experience as a woman from the Global South."
Women & Power Course FAQ
Who/ What: A unique, online course: Women & Power: Reclaiming & Reimagining Power in the World Today.
When: Nine weeks of live sessions from Wednesday, September 21st to Thursday, November 17th.
Where: Online at this link.
- Participants will have access to live weekly online sessions (which will be recorded and uploaded, in case participants cannot join live) and an online learning community.
- There will be two types of live online sessions:
- The main course sessions happen every Wednesday from Wednesday 21 September until Wednesday 16 November at 6pm UK time. These will consist of lectures and Q&A sessions with a unique lineup of teachers. Each week will be accompanied by optional readings, practices and resources for participants to deepen the work at home.
- To conclude each part of the couse there will be Collective Enquiry Sessions. These provide the opportunity to work in smaller groups to discuss ideas further. These take place on Thursday 6 October; Thursday 27 October; Thursday 17 November. These are led by the host of the course, Anwulika Okonjo.
- Tickets are available for purchase here. We have a tiered pricing structure: Concession, General and Supporter tickets are available, and provide the same level of access to the course. For those who cannot afford the course, we have a bursary scheme which anyone can apply for; we believe that finances should not be a barrier to participation.
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)
Read More: Reimagining Women & Power: A Conversation with Riane Eisler
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