Max Dashu Max Dashu founded the Suppressed Histories Archives in 1970 to research and document women's history from an international perspective. She has photographed some 15,000 slides and created 100 slideshows on female power and heritages transhistorically, including Women's Power, Rebel Shamans, Female Rebels and Mavericks, Taming the Female Body, and Racism, History and Lies. (For more titles and descriptions, see the online catalog.) Read some of the enthusiastic responses to these dynamic presentations here. For nearly 40 years, Dashu has presented hundreds of slide talks at universities, community centers, bookstores, schools, libraries, prisons, galleries, festivals and conferences around North America. Her work bridges the gap between academia and grassroots education. It foregrounds indigenous women passed over by standard histories and highlights female spheres of power retained even in patriarchal societies. Dashu is known for her expertise on ancient female iconography in world archaeology, goddess traditions, and women shamans. She has also done extensive research on mother-right cultures and the origins of domination. Her critique of Cynthia Eller's The Myth of Matriarchal Prehistory (2000) has been influential in opening up space for consideration of egalitarian matrilineages. (“Knocking Down Straw Dolls" (2000) republished in Feminist Theology 13.2 (2005), Sage Publications, UK) The new Women's Power DVD has been screened in the US, Britain and Australia, and copies have been sold in many other countries. (View video clips here). Dashu is now completing a multi-volume sourcebook on women in European folk religion and legacies of the witch hunts.

A Partial List of Suppressed Histories Presentations 2009 Teach-In on Patriarchal Violence, for Rosas en el Mar (16 Days Toward the Elimination of Violence Against Women and Girls) at Dance Mission, San Francisco 2009 Suppressed Histories: Iran for the Iranian Student Alliance in America, UC-Berkeley 2009 Female Seers, Prophetesses, and Medicine Women Exhibit and presentation at Dimond Library, Oakland CA 2009 Rebel Shamans: Indigenous Women Confront Empire, Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian-Universalists 2009 Witch Hunts at Media Education Foundation, Northampton MA 2009 The Goddess Veiled at Sagrada Bookstore, Oakland CA 2009 Female Icons, Ancestral Mothers, in Sebastopol CA 2009 Suppressed Histories: Afghanistan for Code Pink, Berkeley CA 2009 Woman Shaman for Northern California Women Herbalists Symposium, Laytonville CA 2009 The Canaanite and Hebrew Goddesses, ITP Women's Spirituality Program, Palo Alta CA 2009 Sacra Vulva, California Institute for Integral Studies 2008 Keynote Speech: Chaos and the Restoration of Pagan Wisdom. Pagan Studies Conference, Claremont Graduate University, Pomona CA 2008 Rebel Shamans: Indigenous Women Confront Empire. Pantheacon, San Jose CA 2008 Premiere of Women's Power DVD, Redwood Gardens, Berkeley CA 2008 Goddess Cosmologies. Center for Divine Feminine, Palo Alto CA 2008 Female Rebels and Mavericks. M.I.T. Student Support Services, Cambridge MA 2008 Taming the Female Body. Andover Unitarian Church, MA 2008 Chinese Deasophy. The Women's Well, West Concord MA 2008 Rebel Shamans. Media Education Foundation, Northampton MA 2007 Woman Shaman at Queenswood Centre, Victoria, B.C. 2007 Woman Shaman at Alliance for Arts and Culture, Vancouver B.C. 2007 Rebel Shamans. Esperanza Peace and Justice Center, San Antonio TX 2007 Women Healers, Daughtry Center, Austin TX 2007 Woman Shaman at SheShamans Conference, Calistoga CA 2007 Mother-Right and Gender Justice, Landmark College, Putney VT 2007 Suppressed Histories: Arabia at UU Church, Springfield MA 2007 Suppressed Histories: the Philippines, at New College of California, San Francisco 2006 Female Shamans as Indigenous Liberators, National Women's Association Conference, Oakland CA (also presented at the Global Justice Conference in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, in July 2006) 2006 Women's Power, Center for Hawaiian Studies, University of Hawaii, Honolulu 2006 Suppressed Histories: Japan, at Ancient Ways, Oakland CA 2005 Conference Keynote at "Domestic Violence: Transformation Theory for Practice" at Rutgers, New Brunswick NJ 2005 Female Rebels and Mavericks, at M.I.T, Cambridge, and at The Fund for Women Artists, Northampton MA 2005 Mother Right and Gender Justice, 2nd World Congress on Matriarchal Studies, San Marcos, TX 2005 Women's Power, for Sigma Theta Psi, Multicultural Sorority, Stanford University, CA 2005 The Canaanite and Hebrew Goddess, at Belladonna, Berkeley CA 2005 Taming the Female Body, at Change Makers for Women, Oakland CA 2004 Icons of the Matrix, at Female Mysteries of the Substratum Conference, Rila, Bulgaria 2004 Women's Power, at M.I.T., Cambridge Massachusetts 2004 Women's Power, at Queens College CUNY, New York 2004 Suppressed Histories: Asia Minor, California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco 2004 Goddess Cosmologies, Isis Ancient Cultures and Religion Society, Los Angeles 2004 Priestesses, at Unitarian-Universalist Church, Andover, MA 2003 Female Rebels and Mavericks, at University of Connecticut, Storrs 2003 Female Rebels and Mavericks, U-Mass Amherst 2003 Women's Power, Washington State University, Bellingham 2003 The Goddess Veiled, University of Oregon, Eugene 2002 Women Elders, University of Connecticut, Storrs 2002 Women's Power, Princeton University Women's Center 2002 Witches and Pagans, New College of San Francisco, California 2001 Racism, History and Lies, San Francisco State University 2001 Women's Rites and Symbols, John F. Kennedy University, Orinda CA 2000 Drummers: The Women, Pantheacon Conference, San Francisco 2000 Series for Archaeomythology course, New College, San Francisco 2000 Racism: History and Lies, University of Creation Spirituality, Oakland 1999 Suppressed Histories Series, Museo de San Miguel de Allende, Mexico 1998 Keynote address on Women in Power, California State University at Chico 1998 The Fates, Goddess 2000 Conference, La Honda CA 1997 Woman Shaman, California State University at Sacramento 1996 Racism: History and Lies, San Francisco State University 1996 Women in Power, Stanford University Women's Center 1994 Racism: History and Lies, University of California at Fresno 1989 Witch Hunts, Lewis and Clarke College, Portland Oregon 1988 Women of Power, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 1987 Three slide lectures, Women's Center at University of Wisconsin-Madison 1987 Slide lecture series, University of Victoria, British Columbia 1986 Women of Power, Everywoman's Center, U- Massachusetts at Amherst 1986 From Women's Hands, University of Nebraska at Lincoln 1986 Three slide lectures for the Women's Center at Princeton University 1986-93 Six slide lectures, Northwestern University Women's Center, Evanston 1985 Suppressed Histories Series, Anchorage Fine Arts Museum 1985 Slide lecture series, Evergreen State College, Olympia WA 1984 Slide lecture series, San Francisco Women's Building 1984 From Women's Hands, Santa Rita Women's Prison, Pleasanton 1984 Lecture series, Center for the Study of Women, UC-Berkeley 1983 Indian Women Artists, Artista Ind’gena exhibit, Canessa Gallery, San Francisco 1982 Suppressed Histories: Sahara and Sudan, National Women's Studies Association Conferemce 1980 Women in Power, University of Washington, Seattle 1979 Suppressed Histories Slide Series, La Pena Cultural Center, Berkeley CA 1977 Women in Mexico, Elmwood Women's Facility, Milpitas CA 1976 Women of Power, Mountain-Moving Cafe, Portland OR 1975 Women of Power, Full Moon Coffeehouse, San Francisco 1974 Matriarchives, A Woman's Place Bookstore, Oakland CA   Dashu has acted as historical consultant for a variety of projects, including Donna Deitch's film, Woman to Woman (1973-4) and the San Francisco Women's Building mural project (1994).

 

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