Presenters
Jeffrey Albaugh
received a bachelor’s in theatre, worked as an educator in primary
grades and special education in the public school system, and is
currently employed as a Workforce Investment Act Youth Employment case
manager and working toward a M.A./Ph.D. in depth psychology though
Pacifica Graduate Institute.
Armando D. Marini/Murtagh A. anDoile is
an independent scholar and researcher. He has a degree in anthropology
and has worked as an archaeologist for Brown University. Tagh has been
involved in the Pagan movement since 1968, and is a Druid and elder of
the Tuatha De Danann (NECTW), an Irish Celtic Mystery Tradition, since
the mid-70’s, and the founder of TDD: The Ninth Wave and Nemed na
Morrigna. He has been published in The Torc, Harvest, Circle Network
News, Fireheart and Obsidian Magazine (and on the editorial staff of
the latter.) Through talks given in the early 80’s, he is one of the
progenitors of the Celtic Reconstructionist movement. He was
interviewed in Keepers of the Flame: Interviews with Elders of
Traditional Witchcraft in America. He currently teaches courses in
magic, divination, mythology and witchcraft. Contact:
tagh@att.net.
Barbara Ardinger, Ph.D. (
www.barbaraardinger.com)
is the author of Secret Lives, a new novel about crones and other
magical folks, and Pagan Every Day, a unique daybook of daily
meditations. Her other books include Finding New Goddesses, a parody of
goddess encyclopedias, and an earlier novel, Quicksilver Moon, which is
realistic … except for the vampire. Her day job is freelance editing
for people who have good ideas but don’t want to embarrass themselves
in print. To date, she has edited more than 250 books, both fiction and
nonfiction, on a wide range of topics. Barbara, who is well known for
the rituals she creates and leads, lives in Long Beach with her two
rescued Maine coon cats, Schroedinger and Heisenberg. She is a CERT
volunteer and has been an AIDS buddy.
Gayle Brandeis is
the author of Fruitflesh: Seeds of Inspiration for Women Who Write and
the novels The Book of Dead Birds, which won Barbara Kingsolver's
Bellwether Prize for Fiction of Social Engagement, Self Storage, and
Delta Girls, as well as her first novel for young people, My Life with
the Lincolns. She recently released The Book of Live Wires, the sequel
to The Book of Dead Birds, as an ebook. She teaches in the MFA Program
in Creative Writing at Antioch University and lives in Riverside, CA
where she is mom to a son in college, a daughter in high school and a
toddler.
Marie Cartier, Ph.D.,
artist-scholar, activist, theologian, is active in many movements for
social change. Dr. Cartier teaches at UC Irvine in Film and Media
Studies, and California State University Northridge in Gender and
Women’s Studies. Her Ph.D. is in Religion from Claremont Graduate
University, with a major in Women Studies in Religion, and an emphasis
in theology, ethics and culture. She has published several articles on
the butch femme community at the mid-century. Her book, Baby You Are My
Religion- the Emergence of Theelogy in Pre-Stonewall Gay Women’s /
Butch-Femme Culture and Community will be published by Equinox Press,
2013.
Seth Clark is a M.A. student
in the Critical Comparative Scriptures program at Claremont Graduate
University and his hometown is Shelby, North Carolina. His research
interests include Christianity as trans-linear phenomena, Buddhism in a
trans-continental context, and the relationship between various
monotheisms and polytheisms with emphasis on how they shape religious
identity and answer existential questions concerning individual lives.
He completed his undergraduate degree from Mars Hill College, Mars
Hill, North Carolina.
Doe Daughtrey is
a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Historical, Philosophical, and
Religious Studies at ASU. Her specialty is religion in the Americas
with an emphasis on the New Spirituality, religion and popular culture,
and the gendered experience of religion. She teaches courses on
religion in America, religion and popular culture, Women and Religion,
and Mormonism at ASU and Mesa Community College. Her dissertation looks
at the ways in which women with backgrounds in Mormonism supplement,
combine, or replace Mormonism with New Age and/or nature-based beliefs
and practices from the New Spirituality.
Dr. Joseph Futerman has
a Ph.D. in clinical psychology with an emphasis is Jungian depth
psychology, a master’s degree in clinical psychology with an emphasis
in Family Therapy and a bachelor’s Degree in Media Criticism and is
licensed by the State of California as Marriage and Family
Therapist. He is also a certified neuro-linguistic programming
practitioner and hypnotherapist. He is the associate chair of the
Marriage and Family Therapy Department at The Chicago School of
Professional Psychology. He is also an adept of the Golden Dawn
Tradition, a founding member of the Fellowship of the Gods, and the
Kaotic Order of Adventurers, Seekers and Sorcerers his the leader of
the Magus Project. Joseph is currently working on a book titled
Descartes’ Depression and the Rise of Rationalism. He lives with his
daughter and wife on a hillside overlooking Pasadena, Ca.
Wendy Griffin earned
her Ph.D. in the interdisciplinary social sciences from UC Irvine.
Professor Emerita from CSULB and former Chair of the Department of
Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies, Dr. Griffin was one of the
first to publish research on contemporary US Paganism. Founding
co-chair of the Contemporary Pagan Studies Group in the American
Academy of Religion, she co-edited the first academic series in Pagan
Studies and has published numerous articles, book chapters and books.
Currently, she is Academic Dean at Cherry Hill Seminary for Pagan
Education.
Amy Hale (St. Petersburg College)
is an Anthropologist specializing in contemporary Celtic cultures with
an emphasis on Cornwall and esoteric cultural history. She is the
co-editor of New Directions in Celtic Studies (2000) and Inside
Merlin’s Cave: A Cornish Arthurian Reader (2000) in addition to writing
over 30 other articles ranging in topic from Neo Druidry to Celtic
cultural tourism. She is past co-editor of the Journal of the Academic
Study of Magic (with Susan Johnston Graf), and is currently working on
a biography and several other projects related to the life and work of
surrealist and occult theorist Ithell Colquhoun.
Kimberly Kirner
is a cultural anthropologist at California State University, Northridge
specializing in applied cognitive anthropology, cultural ecology, and
medical anthropology. She is interested in understanding the
interrelationships between cognition, emotion, and decision-making; the
construction of identity and community; and the way worldview and
religious systems impact human behavior. Her research has focused on
both the political ecology of the American West rangelands and on the
integration of spirituality and action in the Pagan community. A Druid
herself, she is also interested in Pagan community-building and
advocacy for Pagan rights.
Jonathan Korman
is a Pagan hermeticist, professional designer, occasional blogger, a
member of the Open Source Order of the Golden Dawn, and serves on the
board of Solar Cross Temple.
Sabina Magliocco, Ph.D. is
Professor of Anthropology at California State University, Northridge. A
recipient of Guggenheim, National Endowment for the Humanities,
Fulbright and Hewlett fellowships, and an honorary Fellow of the
American Folklore Society, she has published on religion, folklore,
foodways, festival and witchcraft in Europe and the United States. She
is the author of numerous books and articles, including Witching
Culture: Folklore and Neo-Paganism in America (2004). For more
information, visit her website at
www.csun.edu/~sm32646.
Elizabeth "Flame" Malamed, M.A., is
a psychotherapist in private practice in Los Angeles and the San
Fernando Valley. Educated at the University of Southern
California, is licensed as a Marriage and Family Therapist and a
Certified Integrative Body Psychotherapist. "Flame" has also been a
witch for two decades as a Priestess and Teacher in the Reclaiming
Tradition and as a student of the Anderson Feri Tradition.
Tony Mierzwicki
is the author of “Graeco-Egyptian Magick: Everyday Empowerment” and a
forthcoming primer reconstructing Classical Greek religion. He has
presented workshops recreating ancient magickal practices in the United
States and the east coast of Australia since 2001, drawing on his
practice of ceremonial magick which he began in 1990. Tony completed
three degrees at the University of Sydney - MA, BE and BSc. For more
information see http://www.hermeticmagick.com/
James Jacob Pierri has
devoted his life and work to The Goddess Isis. Through dedication,
love, study and various levels of initiation James reached Priesthood
in the Fellowship of Isis and served at the Temple in Geyserville
California. As an extension of that temple he has created The Iseum of
the Sacred Lotus. Besides James Jacob Pierri’s Metaphysical and
Spiritual pursuits, he is presently attending Cherry Hill Seminary and
pursuing his Masters in Pagan Studies and is an accomplished artist and
musician.
Ragnarulf got
his start in a strict re-constructionist sister religion of Asatru
called Theodism. He was elected to the Witan of the Sahsisk
Thiod. He has since strayed from the strict re-constructionist
route due to disagreement about the Hierarchy and has gone to
universalist Asatru. Ragnarulf's majoring in Anthropology at UCR
and undergoing a field work research project dealing with
Zoroastrianism and it's connection to psychology. Ragnarulf is
pursuing a career that combines the discipline's of Anthropology
Religious Studies and Psychology.
Ragnarulf though very much into the mystical also values skepticism
which he feels is essential the maintain stability in the
esoteric. Because of this he is also a firm advocate of the
scientific method.
Kat Robb
is a member of the Fellowship of Isis, Druid Clan of Dana and Hazelwood
Grove and the priestess of the Iseum of BunniHoTep. She is also a
founding member of Comma (http://mothermountain.org)
founded in 1984. She is also practices a family tradition and was
trained by her Scottish grandmother. She has a B.S from CSUN as a
Naturalist Interpreter. She has been a board member of the Pallas
Society, FERAL, and United We Circle. She is the author of The Heart
Town Witch and Other Stories, The Tales of BunniHoTep and Miss Kat’s
School of Genteel Witchcraft, a pagan etiquette guide. She also blogs
because she can’t stop writing at http://elfkat.wordpress.com and for the young at heart: http://thelittlestdruid.wordpress.com.
Alfred Surenyan, DMA (Doctor of Musical Arts)
is a composer and ethnomusicologist. He has composed for over 20
years for Chamber, Orchestral, and Electronic Music. He his
primary research as been in Folk Music and his doctoral dissertation is
the study of Armenian Folk Music. For five years he has
researched Neo- Pagan Music and has created rituals with the use of
chanting and musical instruments. He earned his Doctor of Musical
Arts from Claremont Graduate University in 2009. Currently he is
an adjunct faculty at the Art Institute of California in the Inland
Empire and teaches private piano lesson. He also works in the
music industry under his studio Pasha Media Group. for further
information, visit www.alfredsurenyan.org.
Dr. Dorothea Kahena Viale
is the creator and organizer of the Conference on Current Pagan
Studies. She is currently teaching at CalPoly Pomona where she enjoys
the opportunity to introduce her students to experiential activities
like being born into their new lives through mask making, dancing as
well as guiding them to be critical thinkers. Kahena is an ardent fan
of embodied knowledge and acquires hers through raqs al-sharqi,
referred to in the United States as belly dance. She shares this
knowledge through her classes and sacred dance dramas. Dr. K is
currently writing on lived religions as shared by women as well as the
validity of religion not based on revelation.
Sam Webster, M. Div., Mage,
has taught magick publicly since 1984. He graduated from Starr King
School for the Ministry in Berkeley in 1993. He is now a PhD candidate
at the University of Bristol, UK, studying Pagan history under Prof.
Ronald Hutton. He is an Adept of the Golden Dawn, and an initiate of
Wiccan, Druidic, Buddhist, Hindu and Masonic traditions. His work has
been published in Green Egg and Gnosis, and in 2009 his first book
“Tantric Thelema.” He founded the Open Source Order of the Golden Dawn
in 2001 (www.OSOGD.org), and serves the Pagan community principally as a priest of Hermes. Contact: samwebster11@gmail.com
Jennifer Palmer-Wong is
the organizer of one of Southern California's Witch and Pagan groups
online and is actively involved in the community with several groups.
She is a teacher and guide to many for more than 20 years,is a
certified crystal healer, Reiki master, and a practitioner and teacher
of tarot. She also holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology and is a
fifth degree black belt in Ju-Jitsu. Her extensive and multifaceted
experience allows her to bring an effective, unique and balanced
approach to her work.With her knowledge and expertise, Jenn is actively
involved in the Pagan community as a teacher, spiritual counselor, and
a healer. In addition to organizing the groups online, she teaches,
participates in Healing Fairs, ministers to those in need, and works in
concert with other practitioners to bring the alternative healing arts
into the mainstream. She is the owner and operator of Crystal Haven in
Glendora, CA, where she practices her healing arts. You can contact
Jenn at Crystal Haven, 534 E. Route 66, Glendora, CA 91740. Phone:
(626)534-3035 Email: jenn@crystalhaven.us
Pagan Conference