SAC 2016 Annual Conference
“Wisdom Sits in Places:” Place, Space, and Consciousness
Annual Meeting March 31 – April 2, 2016
Location: University Place hotel and Conference Center
310 SW Lincoln Street, Portland, OR 97201
Thursday, March 31, 2016
Thursday March 31, 2016
Thursday Morning
9:30 Check-in
10:00 – 10:45 Opening Ceremony and Welcome with the Wolf Spirit Singers
11:00 am – 12:30 Colonialism and Community Identity: Geopolitical, Indigenous, and Archaeological Implications of Space
Session Chair: Lee Gilmore
- Julia K. Bilek: “Crossing and Dwelling”: Episcopal Hogans in Navajoland
- Alexandra Peck: Tamanowas Rock, Intertribal Conflict, and Settler Colonialism: A Sacred Coast Salish Site in Northwestern Washington and Its Contemporary Implications for Historical Archaeology
- Lee Gilmore: Turn the World Upside Down: Indigenous Activists at the Parliament of the World’s Religions
12:30 – 2:00 LUNCH
Thursday Afternoon
2:00 – 3:30 Mapping Individual and Cultural Space: Occultism, Inner Ecology, and Embodied Cognition
Session Chair: Sharon G. Mijares
- David Miller: Biocultural Bases of Places and Spaces
- Sharon G. Mijares: Inner Ecology and Liminal Spaces
- Brian Bartelt and Mr. Njakoi John Bah: Making the Invisible Visible: The Epistemology of Spatial Experience and the Efficacy of Occult Phenomena in Cameroon.
3:30 – 4:00 BREAK
4:00 – 5:30 Creation & Consciousness: Paleolithic, Archaeological, & Human-Centered Mappings of Place and Space
Session Chair: Andrew Gurevich
- Benjamin Campbell: Consciousness and Place Making in European Paleolithic Cave Art
- Mark Thomas Shekoyan: Partnering with Anima Mundi: From Enframing to Co-Creative Partnership through Shamanic Biomimicry
- Andrew Gurevich: The Wisdom of THIS place: The Paisley Caves and the Origins of Symbolic Consciousness in North America
6:00 – 7:00 SAC Board Meeting
Friday April 1, 2016
Friday Morning
9:30 Check in
10:00 – 11:30 Landscapes of Transformation – Encountering the Sacred
Session Chair: Bryan Rill
- Nancy Grace: Music and Ecopsychology: Making Place Through Sound in Space
- Dennis L. Merritt: The Soul of Glacier Country
- Bryan Rill: Making Sacred the Mundane: Transforming the Mountain
11:30 – 1:30 LUNCH
Friday Afternoon
1:30 – 3:00 Romancing the Philosopher’s Stone: Romantic, Pyrotechnic, & Architectonic Perceptions of Place
Session Chair: Jordan Burich
- Jordan Anthony Burich: Fire In the Mind: Kindling a Discourse On the Role of Pyrotechnics In Physical and Cultural Evolution
- John (Sean) Hinton: Subconscious Aspects of Place: Positivistic vs. Romantic Views of Place and Consciousness
- el-Sayed el-Aswad, United Arab Emirates University: Architectonic Space and Cultural Identity: A Case Study of the United Arab Emirates
3:00 – 3:30 BREAK
3:30 – 5:15 Session: Sacred Spaces of the Academic Mind
Session Chair: Jeff MacDonald
- Matthew Bronson: “Your Rubric Caged My Songbird”: Reclaiming Assessment as a Sacred Space of Reflection
- Jeff MacDonald: Recreating Sacred Space among Refugees
- Timothy J. Lavalli: Spaces Seldom Considered Sacred
- Mira Z. Amiras: Walk through that door, and something will emerge
Friday Evening
7:30 – 8:30 Ceremony: Sabbath Ritual/Lighting of Candles with
Mira Z. Amiras
Saturday, April 2, 2016
Saturday Morning
9:30 Check in
10:00 – 11:15 The Wisdom of Shamanic Initiations
Session Chair: Andrew Gurevich
- Susan Ross Grimaldi and John R. Lawrence, Jr.: Traveling in Tandem to Invisible Places: A Video Presentation
11:15 – 11:30 BREAK
11:30 – 1:00 Zen & the Art of Cultural Healing: Navigating Community and Cultural Boundaries through Human Ritual and Social Action
Session Chair: Justin Panneck
- Tara Gallagher: The Shamans of Riverwest: The Anti-power of Community Radio in Social Action
- Justin Panneck: Migratory Ascension and Human Potential: Decoding the Wisdom of Culture
- Donna Emsel Schill: Corporeal Navigation and Human Potential
Saturday Afternoon
1:00 – 2:30 LUNCH
2:30 – 4:00 Death and Resurrection: Exploring Mythological and Virtual Concepts of Death and Crisis
Session Chair: Sydney Yeager
- Greg Wright: The Sea of Trees of Suicide, Mental Health, and Place in Japan’s Aokigahara
- Sydney Yeager: Making Sacred in Virtual Space
- Stanley Krippner: Anomalies and Stigmatic Activity in Brasilia
Saturday Evening
6:00 – 7:00 Keynote Address – Tina Fields, PhD
“I am He as You are He as You are Me, and We are All Together”— Fostering Ecopsychological Relationship with Place
7:00 – 9:00 Closing Dinner and Celebration
