A comprehensive cross-cultural study of the nature of the sacred feminine and an examination of the position and roles of women within various religious and spiritual traditions. The functions of ritual and mythology and women's use of various symbol systems will also be explored. Click For Details

An interdisciplinary study of women in American society including such topics as women's social conditions, values, communication, power and symbols. This course seeks to put the concerns and contributions of the contemporary women's movement into a perspective that has value and meaning for today's student of women's studies. Click For Details

We will discover the many ways in which midlife is a time of great power and a time of passage in our lives as women.

We will explore the many dynamic new images of women at midlife and the diversity of midlife issues, including love and freedom, fear and longing, risk and security. We will also explore the historical and cross-cultural aspects of initiations and rites of passage for women entering menopause and midlife.

Midlife is a transition into potentially the most powerful stage in a woman's life, full of possibilities for metamorphosis and opportunities for change, growth and healing. For many women, it is a call to action. Gail Sheehey has named midlife the second gateway to adulthood.

Through guest speakers, slides, videos, individual activities, small group discussions, large group processing and lecture, we will listen and learn from our collective experience, support each other in our changes and inspire new and powerful visions for our futures.

Special guest speakers from the community include Judy Reynolds, M.A. sharing the four stages of midlife transformation and how these affect our midlife passages, Jacquie Parker, P.A. sharing insights and medical information about women's midlife health, Melinda Perlmann and Loni Phillips with the newly-published Crone Cards, and Danielle Light, Ph.D, leading us in interactive exercises about relationships at midlife.

You can enroll on line at www.siskiyous.edu/online, on campus or in the first class. We will meet in McCloud Hall, Room 11.

This is a new Women's Studies class taught by Beth Beurkens, M.A., and the course provides one unit transferrable credit.

For more information please call Beth at (541) 708-0473
or call the Office of Instruction (530) 938-5206

One woman participant said of this course that it was a Rite of Passage for her to be in circle with other midlife women and to discover her power at this special time in her life.

Instructor: Beth Beurkens

Beth Beurkens has a Master of Arts degree in Philosophy from the University of California, Santa Barbara, has taught Women's Studies courses for the past 26 years at College of the Siskiyous, Cabrillo College, Monterey Peninsula College, Hartnell College, University of San Francisco, and the School of Women and Earth, in Switzerland, Italy, and Germany. She is a published poet, author and travel writer, and is currently teaching the Women's Writing Program in Mt. Shasta along with sharing her skills as a Writing Coach. She is on the faculty at the Foundation for Shamanic Studies as well.