New program introduced at ITP: Master's degree in Women's Spirituality
ITP is pleased to announce the creation of a new Women’s Spirituality MA Program, a weekend program beginning in September 2008. This exciting program provides a woman-centered innovative education for personal transformation and social activism based in the values of the Sacred Feminine.
This new program offers an advanced degree for women at a pivotal “crossroads” in their lives, women asking themselves: "How can I create a more meaningful life that is in alignment with who I am?" The program content and group experience empowers students to find direction, self-authorization, connection to female roots, authenticity and fulfilling life work. The curriculum is taught by supportive, diverse, leading practitioners in the fields of women's spirituality and spiritual activism, as well as leading authors, scholars, artists and ritualists. The program promotes intellectual and creative expression; explores and integrates global and historic intellectual, social, artistic and spiritual aspects of womanhood. We are also committed to preparing graduates to transform society through transforming themselves.
The innovative curriculum explores women’s roles in pre-history and history, women’s spiritual and religious leadership, women’s work in healing and social activism, and women’s ritual, literary, social and artistic contributions. Our feminist learning community offers dedicated mentoring, encouraging the development of new knowledge and theory through an integration of scholarly research, spiritual practice, embodiment, activism and the sacred arts. The Sacred Feminine and the values of justice and equality associated with Her are explored in multi-spiritual traditions including Asia, Europe, Africa, the Americas, the Ancient Near East/Middle East and Australia. Each student is also encouraged to seek, develop and honor her own unique path.
The Women’s Spirituality MA degree prepares women for leadership in the pluralistic global culture of the 21st century. The classes, which are small graduate seminars in a cohort model meet on weekends and the program can be completed in two calendar years of full-time study. Students living out-of-state attend by driving or flying in for classes one weekend a month. The program was given WASC approval on June 20, 2008.
Although the curriculum is new to ITP, the closely-knit faculty has been teaching Women's Spirituality together for ten years. Co-Directors of the program, Dianne Jenett, Judy Grahn and Deborah Grenn, co-teach our classes with adjunct faculty including: Yoruba Chief Luisah Teish, Vicki Noble, Leilani Birely, Shiloh Sophia McCloud, Marguerite Rigoglioso, Laura K. Brown, Anne Bluethenthal and Max Dashu.
Co-Directors and Faculty
Judy Grahn, Ph.D., Co-Director and Core Faculty, is internationally known as a poet, woman-centered cultural theorist, co-founder of lesbian-feminism, and early contributor to literature of women’s spirituality. Her work centers on reclamation of stories, values and methods of Sacred Feminine traditions. Her book, Blood, Bread, and Roses: How Menstruation Created the World (Beacon Press, 1993) outlines a new origin theory of culture blossoming from women’s peaceful blood rituals, especially menstruation. Her poetry collections include The Queen of Wands, The Queen of Swords, She Who, and The Common Woman Poems, considered foundational to the development of cultural feminism. Dr. Grahn is editor of the new academic journal Metaformia: A Journal of Menstruation and Culture (www.metaformia.com). She was recently invited to present her work on Metaformic Consciousness in Chile at Tremonhue, Centro de Espiritualidad y Salud Integral, where she met with women of varied backgrounds and religions from seven countries, who are engaged in remythologizing the feminine in society.
Dianne E. Jenett, Ph.D., Co-Director and Core Faculty, is a co-author of Organic Inquiry: If Research Were Sacred and her work has been published in the U.S. and India. Her research focus is on women-centered rituals in Kerala, India, qualitative research methods and women’s psycho-spiritual development. She is co-founder, along with Dr. Grahn, of Serpentina, which sponsors women’s cutting edge research (www.serpentina.com). Dr. Jenett's publications include “Menstruating Women/Menstruating Goddesses: Sites of Sacred Power in South India” in Menstruation: A Cultural History (ed. Andrew Shail, Palgrave Macmillan Ltd., 2005) and “A Million Shaktis Rising: Pongala, A Woman's Festival in Kerala, India” in Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, 21, no. 1 (2005). Dianne examines Pongala at Attukal Temple from the viewpoint of thirty Hindu, Moslem and Christian women. She used ethnographic material and the research methodology she helped develop, Organic Inquiry, to enable her to explicitly incorporate the sacred wisdom and practices of this tradition. She and Judy Grahn lead educational trips to explore sacred arts and rituals of South India.
D'vorah J. Grenn, Ph.D., Co-Director and Core Faculty, author of Lilith’s Fire, is founder and director of The Lilith Institute, and founding priestess of Mishkan Shekhinah. Dr. Grenn’s dissertation is an inquiry into South African Lemba and United States Jewish women’s religious identities, beliefs and ritual practices. Other writings include Lilith’s Fire (Universal Publishers, 2000); “How Women Construct And Are Formed By Spirit: She Who Is Everywhere In Women’s Voices” (She Is Everywhere, Volume I, Lucia Birnbaum, ed. 2005) and “Connecting with Deity through a Feminist Metaformic Theology” (Metaformia Journal, 2005). Her article “Lilith’s Fire: Re-reading Sacred Texts” appeared in the Feminist Theology journal in September 2007. She published Talking To Goddess, a collection of blessings, meditations and invocations in May 2007, and teaches Humanities at Napa Valley College.
Adjunct Faculty:
Yoruba Chief Luisah Teish, founder, School of Ancient Mysteries/Sacred Arts Center
Author Vicki Noble, founder, Motherpeace School for Shamanic Healing
Hawaiian Priestess Leilani Birely, founder & director, Daughters of the Goddess
Reverend Shiloh Sophia McCloud, artist and co-founder, Wisdom House Gallery
Laura K. Brown, Ph.D., Metaformic philosopher and founder, Oakland Feminist Women's Health Center
Anne Bluethenthal, MFA, dancer/choreographer, founder & artistic director, ABD Productions
Linda Chrisman, M.A., is a certified teacher of Continuum Movement, Rosen Method bodywork and Somatic Experiencing.
Mandisa Wood, M.F.A., dance priestess, poet and visual artist
Marguerite Rigoglioso, Ph.D., women's spirituality scholar and feminist activist
Max Dashu, independent scholar and founder, Suppressed Histories Archives
Guest Instructors and Visiting Lecturers:
Lucia Chiavola Birnbaum, Carolyn Brandy, Gillian Brown, Rita Casey, Savithri DeTourreil, Elinor Gadon, China Galland, Tricia Grame, Peggy Grove, Genny Lim, Joan Marler, Betty De Shong Meador, Mary Beth Moser, Silvia Parra, Evelie Delfino Sáles Posch, Jade Raybin, Jovelyn Richards, Patricia Rodriguez, Margaret Starbird, Barbara Tedlock, Afia Walking Tree,
Polly Wood.
