Diann L. Neu papers
Scope and Contents
The Diann L. Neu Papers consist of information about Neu's education, including her M.A. thesis and Ph.D. dissertation in theology; her work and activism re: articulating and advocating radical new forms of feminist theology, and in re-defining the role of women in the church; materials documenting her participation in numerous conferences about women in the church; and materials pertaining to her two books, Return Blessings: Ecofeminist Blessings Renewing the Earth (2002) and Women's Rites: Feminist Liturgies for Life's Journeys (2003). Neu's efforts to define and promulgate a feminist, woman-oriented perspective in Christian liturgy are particularly well-documented. Types of material include correspondence, email, interviews, lecture notes, agendas, minutes, sermons, speeches, transcripts, writings, and slides. there is also a significant amount of audiovisual material documenting interviews, lectures, and sermons by Neu.
Dates of Materials
- Creation: 1977 - 2011
Creator
- Neu, Diann L. (Person)
Conditions Governing Access
This collection is open for research use without restriction beyond the standard terms and conditions of Smith College Special Collections.
Conditions Governing Use
Materials in this collection may be governed by copyright. For reproductions of materials that are governed by fair use as defined under U. S. Copyright Law, no permission to cite or publish is required. Researchers are responsible for determining who may hold materials' copyrights and obtaining approval from them. Researchers do not need anything further from Smith College Special Collections to move forward with their use.
Biographical / Historical
Diann L. Neu was born in 1948. She earned her Masters in Clinical Social Work from The Catholic University of America, her Master of Sacred Theology degree from The Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley, and her Doctor of Ministry in International Feminist Theology from the San Francisco Theological Seminary. Trained in liturgy and spirituality, she has done extensive work in designing liturgies for national and international conferences as well as for her own women-church base community in the Washington, DC area. In 1983, Neu and her partner, Mary E. Hunt, founded the Women's Alliance for Theology, Ethics, and Ritual (WATER) in Silver Spring, MD. In private practice as a psychotherapist, as well as in her affiliation with WATER, she counsels women and men from widely divergent backgrounds in individual, couple, and group sessions. Neu lectures and conducts workshops throughout the United States, in Latin America and Europe, and has published numerous books of rituals and articles on the subject of feminist approaches to liturgy, spirituality, and therapy. She has received many awards for her work and is the author of two books, Women's Rites: Feminist Liturgies for Life's Journey (2002) and Return Blessings: Ecofeminist Liturgies Renewing the Earth (2003). Her publications from WATERworks Press are Peace Liturgies; Gathered at Sophia's Table: A Feminist Peace Seder; Women-Church Sourcebook; Women of Fire: A Pentecost Event; Women and the Gospel Traditions; Women-Church Celebrations; A Seder of the Sisters of Sarah; Miriam's Sisters Rejoice; and Together at Freedom's Table.
Extent
6.937 linear feet (7 containers)
54.48 Gigabytes
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
Theologian; Feminist; Psychotherapist. Papers document Neu's education in theology; her work and activism re: articulating and advocating radical new forms of feminist theology, and in re-defining the role of women in the church; her participation in numerous conferences about women in the church; and materials pertaining to her two books, Return Blessings: Ecofeminist Blessings Renewing the Earth (2002) and Women's Rites: Feminist Liturgies for Life's Journeys (2003). Types of material include correspondence, interviews, lecture notes, minutes, sermons, speeches, transcripts, writings, slides, and audiovisual material.
Arrangement
This collection has been added to over time in multiple "accessions." An accession is a group of materials received from the same source at approximately the same time.
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
This collection contains materials received from the donor in digital form that are not currently available online. Please consult with Special Collections staff to request access to this digital content.
Other Finding Aids
One or more content listings to individual accessions in this collection are available for download. Links can be found in the description of the individual accessions.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
The papers were donated to the Sophia Smith Collection by Diann L. Neu in 2005 and 2012.
Processing Information
Processed by Burd Schlessinger in 2005.
The contents of computer media in this collection has been copied to networked storage for preservation and access; the original directory and file structure was retained and file lists were created. Some floppy disks were unable to be copied. See the log files linked in the container list for more details.
Processing Information
Between September 2022 and February 2023, Smith College Special Collections renumbered many boxes to eliminate duplicate numbers within collections in order to improve researcher experience. The following changes were made in this collection: Accession 2005-S-0071, Boxes 1-5 renumbered as Boxes 3-7
Subject
- Hunt, Mary E. (Person)
- Neu, Diann L. (Person)
- Women's Alliance for Theology, Ethics and Ritual (Organization)
Source
- Neu, Diann L. (Donor, Person)
- Title
- Diann L. Neu papers
- Subtitle
- Finding Aid
- Date
- 2008
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Revision Statements
- 07/26/2017: This resource was modified by the ArchivesSpace Preprocessor developed by the Harvard Library (https://github.com/harvard-library/archivesspace-preprocessor)
- 2017-07-26T17:48:19-04:00: This record was migrated from InMagic DB Textworks to ArchivesSpace.
- 2020-05-27: Description added for born-digital content.
- 2021-07-20: Content description added from accession inventories
Repository Details
Part of the Sophia Smith Collection of Women's History Repository
