http://www.aarweb.org/About_AAR/Committees/Status_of_LGBTIQ_Persons_in_the_Profession/default.asp
Status of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex, & Queer Persons in the Profession
Charge: This committee recommends policies and good practices to assure the full access and academic freedom of LGBTIQ persons within the Academy and develops programs to enhance their status in the profession.
Composition: Up to five members.
Terms of Office: For appointments prior to 2011, three years, renewable once. After 2011, four years, non-renewable.
Current Members:
Melissa M. Wilcox (Chair) Patrick S. Cheng Horace Griffin Richard McCarty Kathleen T. Talvacchia Thelathia Young Aislinn Jones (Staff Liaison)
Status of LGBTIQ Persons in the Profession Committee is on Facebook!
Upcoming Annual Meeting Events
Please see below for a listing of the exciting events planned for our 2012 Annual Meeting in Chicago, Illinois, November 17-20. We hope to see you there!
A16-108
Status of LGBTIQ Persons in the Profession Committee Meeting
Melissa Wilcox, Whitman College, Presiding
Friday - 9:00 AM-5:00 PM
Meeting of the AAR's Status of LGBTIQ Persons in the Profession Committee.
A17-120
Gay Men and Religion Group
Theme: Behold the Book, the Author, and the Critics: Kent Brintnall's Ecce Homo: The Male-Body-in-Pain as Redemptive Figure (University of Chicago Press, 2012)
Patrick Cheng, Episcopal Divinity School, Presiding
Saturday - 9:00 AM-11:30 AM
Kent Brintnall's Ecce Homo: The Male-Body-in-Pain as Redemptive Figure (University of Chicago Press, 2012) draws on a range of disciplines to explore the complex, ambiguous meanings of the enduring figure of the male-body-in-pain. Acknowledging that representations of men confronting violence and pain can reinforce ideas of manly tenacity, Brintnall also argues that they reveal the vulnerability of men's bodies and open them up to eroticization. Locating the roots of our cultural fascination with male pain in the crucifixion, he analyzes the way narratives of Christ's death and resurrection both support and subvert cultural fantasies of masculine power and privilege and delineates the redemptive possibilities of representations of male suffering. This panel brings together a group of scholars from a variety of disciplines to discuss Brintnall's work and its implications for scholarship, activism, and ministry.
Panelists:
Björn Krondorfer, St Mary's College, Maryland
Aaron Klink, Duke University
Joseph A. Marchal, Ball State University
Karmen MacKendrick, Le Moyne College
Stephen Moore, Drew University
Responding:
Kent Brintnall, University of North Carolina, Charlotte
Business Meeting:
J. Terry Todd, Drew University
W. Scott Haldeman, Chicago Theological Seminary
A17-135
LGBTIQ Mentoring Lunch
Melissa M. Wilcox, Whitman College, Presiding
Saturday - 11:45 AM-12:45 PM
All students and junior scholars who identify outside of normative gender histories and/or sexualities are welcome to join us for an informal lunch. No fee or preregistration is required; please bring your own lunch. A cash-and-carry station will be nearby the room for those wishing to buy their lunches on-site.
Panelists:
Claudia Schippert, University of Central Florida
Cameron Partridge, Harvard University
Mary E. Hunt, Women's Alliance for Theology, Ethics, and Ritual
Rudy V. Busto, University of California, Santa Barbara
Kent Brintnall, University of North Carolina, Charlotte
Patrick Cheng, Episcopal Divinity School
Horace Griffin, Pacific School of Religion
W. Scott Haldeman, Chicago Theological Seminary
Rebecca Alpert, Temple University
Mark Jordan, Harvard University
Laurel Schneider, Chicago Theological Seminary
Jennifer Harvey, Drake University
Heather White, New College of Florida
A17-220
Lesbian-Feminist Issues and Religion Group
Theme: Queering Women's Religious History: Desire, Identity
and Religious Practice
Yvonne Zimmerman, Methodist Theological School, Ohio, Presiding
Saturday - 1:00 PM-3:30 PM
This session explores the queering of women's religious history through an examination of desire, identity and religious practice.
Judith Weisenfeld, Princeton University
“From Father in Me”: Celibacy and Same Sex-Desire in Father Divine’s Peace Mission Movement
Emily L. Silverman , Graduate Theological Union
Out of Line: Sarah Ahmed’s “Queer Phenomenology” Applied to Edith Stein’s and Regina Jonas’ “Out of Place” Religious Identities.
Marie Cartier, California State University, Northridge
Wendy Griffin, Cherry Hill Seminary
Herlands: Finding Goddess on Lesbian Land
Responding:
Heather White, New College of Florida
Melissa Wilcox, Whitman College
A17-322
Queer Studies in Religion Group
Theme: Queer Reorientations: Questioning Bodies and Futures
Claudia Schippert, University of Central Florida, Presiding
Saturday - 4:00 PM-6:30 PM
Exploring embodied queer experience in several contexts, papers in this session engage questions of queer futurity and are in conversation with Sara Ahmed’s Queer Phenomenology. Studying embodiment in religion, the first paper explores Charles Long’s definition of religion as orientation in/to the world in light of Sara Ahmed’s work while the second paper engages the ‘antisocial thesis’ in queer theory and argues that a theology of the sacrament of baptism can enable a shift in one’s political vision from a reproductive to an ecclesiological register, thus reframing kinship and dispossessing it from its fantasmatic investment in the future. Exploring the confluence of Maximus Confessor writing about the eucharist table and Sara Ahmed’s work, the third paper proposes a queer genealogy that can creates a new space to investigate the extension of contemporary queer religious bodies. The final paper examines how queer futurity is activated and intrinsic to Quaker Unprogrammed Liturgy.
Brandy Daniels, Vanderbilt University
Is Kinship Always Already Reproductive? Ecclesiology, Ethics, and the Antisocial Thesis
Brian Blackmore, Chicago Theological Seminary
Quaker Unprogrammed Liturgy as Queer Futurity
Sarah Bloesch, Southern Methodist University
Maximus Confessor and God's Queer Table
Heike Peckruhn, University of Denver and Iliff School of Theology
Bodies as Orientation in/to the World – Bodies in Queer Phenomenology and Religious Studies
A17-404
LGBTIQ Scholars/Scholars of LGBTIQ Studies Reception
Saturday - 8:00 PM-10:00 PM
LGBTIQ scholars of religion, scholars of LGBTIQ studies in religion, and friends are invited to a reception. Come network, see old friends, and make new ones!
A18-100
Sex, Gender, Sexuality, and Religion Cluster
Theme: Naming Our History, Rebuilding Our Alliances, Mapping Our Future
Jacqueline Hidalgo, Williams College, Presiding
Sunday - 9:00 AM-11:30 AM
Many AAR members are becoming increasingly frustrated with the fragmentation within the AAR and the self-fragmentation that results when different aspects of our identities are housed in different program units. Yet there are good reasons for the existence of the many gender-and-sexuality-related program units in terms of scholarly developments, access to the table, and generational differences. Panelists will look at the history of the development of the different units, including the ways that older units failed to meet new needs, but also acknowledge a shared history and try to imagine how the future could be less fragmented. The purpose of these sessions is to venture forth and see what we can do together.
Panelists:
Bjorn Krondorfer, Men, Masculinities and Religions Group; St. Mary's College, Maryland
R. Marie Griffith, Religion and Sexuality Group; Washington University, St. Louis
Stephanie Mitchem, Womanist Issues in Religion and Society Group; University of South Carolina
Jay Emerson Johnson, Gay Men and Religion Group; Pacific School of Religion
Jung Ha Kim, Women and Religion Section; Georgia State University
Marie Cartier, Lesbian Feminist Issues in Religion Group; California State University, Northridge
Karen Alliaume, Feminist Theory and Religious Reflection Group; Lewis University
Grace Ji-Sun Kim, Women of Color Scholarship, Teaching and Activism Group; Moravian Theological Seminary
Melissa Wilcox, Queer Studies in Religion Group; Whitman College
A18-110
Asian North American Religion, Culture, and Society Group
Theme: Asian North American “Conservative” Christian Communities, Masculinities, and Gender Issues
Michael Sepidoza Campos, Graduate Theological Union, Presiding
Sunday - 9:00 AM-11:30 AM
This panel session explores the “conservatism” of certain Asian North American religious communities, particularly evangelical and fundamentalist Christian ones, around gender issues. By gender “conservatism,” we refer to attempts to reinforce heteronormative, patriarchal practices both within Asian North American religious communities and without in civil society.
Our panelists will discuss 1) the usage of evangelicalism by Korean American men to restore a sense of empowerment, 2) the appropriation of Asian American tropes of mixed-martial arts and “linsanity” (following the recent stardom of Jeremy Lin) by conservative evangelicals at large to reconstitute masculinities, 3) the experience of a trans-male in a Korean American Christian community in New York, 4) the activism of conservative Asian Americans in opposing LGBTQI rights in America, and 5) the exploration of conservative Asian North American religious groups in a Canadian context who oppose sexual equality despite its federal legal status. A feminist ethicist will respond.
Panelists:
Steve B. Hu, University of California, Santa Barbara
Mark Chung Hearn, Azusa Pacific University
Sung Won Park, Union Theological Seminary
Justin K.H. Tse, University of British Columbia
Patrick S. Cheng, Episcopal Divinity School
Responding:
Grace Yia-Hei Kao, Claremont School of Theology
A18-282
World Christianity Group
Theme: Sex, Gender, Society, Faith: Homosexualities in World Christianity
Jane Redmont, Guilford College, Presiding
Sunday - 3:00 PM-4:30 PM
The scholarly study of World Christianity has thus far rarely included an examination of homosexualities or discourses about homosexualities. This session will bring together analyses of gender and sexuality in the rhetoric (sermons, speeches, and other speech-acts) of two ecclesial settings, a Zambian Pentecostal church and a group of South Korean fundamentalists. (Need to complete this, waiting on a third paper or respondent.)
Min-Ah Cho, St. Catherine University
The Other Side of Their Zeal: Evangelical Nationalism and Anticommunism in the Korean Christian Fundamentalist Antigay Movement Since the 1990s
Adriaan van Klinken, University of London
The Homosexual as the Antithesis of “Biblical Manhood”? Queer(y)ing a Zambian Pentecostal Discourse
A18-321
Gay Men and Religion Group
Theme: The Borders of Queer Religion
Jared Vazquez, University of Denver and Iliff School of Theology, Presiding
Sunday - 5:00 PM-6:30 PM
Where are the borders and boundaries, spatial and otherwise, in queer religious lives? How do borders matter, and how do they shape religious experiences? Is “religion” itself a border to be crossed? The session takes up those and other questions through its focus on three sightings in the cartography of queer lives: North and Central India, the African diaspora in the Black Atlantic, and the urban spaces of New York in the 1980s and 1990s. The session surfaces the existence of trans folk in the Afro-Diasporic traditions of the Black Atlantic, interprets the sexual and spiritual customs and identities of the Hijiras of India, and then turns to explore the theological possibilities in the work of David Wojnarowicz, whose own artistic transgressions fused gay male experiences with Christian imagery in explosively controversial ways.
Justin Tanis, Graduate Theological Union
David Wojnarowicz: Outsider Theologian
Jennifer Loh, School of Oriental and African Studies
Spiritual Practices Among the Hijras of India: Amalgamating Traditions
Elizabeth Perez, Dartmouth College
A 'Trans' Formation of Religious Experience: Transgender and Transsexual Subjects of Afro-Atlantic Traditions
Responding:
Peter Savastano, Seton Hall University
A19-227
Queer Studies in Religion Group and Transformative Scholarship
and Pedagogy Group
Theme: Vanguard Revisited: A Transformative Theology for/with/by LGBTQ Homeless Youth in the 1960s and Today
Megan Rohrer, Pacific School of Religion, Presiding
Monday - 1:00 PM-3:30 PM
This multimedia presentation will teach participants to use local histories as contemporary sacred stories and provide a space for LGBTQ homeless youth from Chicago’s Night Ministry to share their stories. Utilizing the transformative theology created by the 1960’s National Council of Churches (Presbyterians, Methodists, Episcopalians and Lutherans) to work with LGBTQ homeless youth in San Francisco, participants will learn how the Vanguard Revisited Project used oral histories of pastors and youth from the 60’s to inspire contemporary LGBTQ Homeless Youth across the country to talk about, respond to and create art about issues of faith, politics and poverty.
Panelist:
Megan Rohrer, Pacific School of Religion
A19-311
Special Topics Forum
Theme: Mentoring Across Sexualities and Genders
Horace Griffin, Pacific School of Religion, Presiding
Monday - 4:00 PM-6:30 PM
Mentoring is critical to scholars' success at all levels, from undergraduate students through mid-career and even late-career professionals. Rarely, though, do we talk about the special mentoring needs of LGBTIQ scholars. Please join the Committee on the Status of LGBTIQ Persons in the Profession in our discussion of mentoring across sexualities and genders. Our panelists represent LGBTIQ and ally scholars from many career levels and trajectories; we hope to see those demographics reflected in those who attend to hear the panelists and to share their own ideas about mentoring.
Panelists:
Cameron Partridge, Harvard University
Robyn Henderson-Espinoza, University of Denver and Iliff School of Theology
Thelathia Young, Bucknell University
Patrick Cheng, Episcopal Divinity School
Mary Hunt, Women's Alliance for Theology, Ethics, and Ritual
Alice Hunt, Chicago Theological Seminary
Laurel Schneider, Chicago Theological Seminary
A20-118
Gay Men and Religion Group and Lesbian-Feminist Issues and Religion Group
Theme: (Un)holy Bullies in LGBTQ Lives
Robyn Henderson-Espinoza, University Denver and Iliff School of Theology, Presiding
Tuesday - 9:00 AM-11:30 AM
Recent media coverage has focused on a matter of great concern: bullying and teen suicides. There have been many responses in the wake of this violence, some of them from celebrities and religious leaders, others from non-profit organizations and religious communities. As religion scholars committed to LGBTQIA communities, we know it is our responsibility to examine the rhetoric and realities of this violence. This joint session seeks to bring to light and interrogate the rhetoric, violence, and variety of realities targeting LGBTQIA youth. Papers included in this session will address various forms of violence, including the "soft" violence of ex-gay movement rhetoric. We will also examine the effectiveness of some community responses, including the "It Gets Better" project.
Benjamin Lindquist, Yale University
Touch and the Ex-Gay Movement
Carolyn Davis, Vanderbilt University
Bullying as Christian Practice? Homophobic Harassment and Christian Speech
Mauricio Najarro, Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology
"Your Son, Your Only One, Whom You Love": Sacrifice, Idolatry, and Reproductive Futurism
Jeanine Viau, Loyola University, Chicago
Does It Get Better? Considering the “Capacity to Persevere in a (Queer and) Livable Life”
Responding:
Kate Ott, Drew University
Opportunities
Job descriptions, calls for papers/proposals, and conference information relevant to LGBTIQ Studies in religion will be posted in this section when they come up. Have a story or idea you'd like to share, or a question about the committee? Please e-mail any of the members listed above, or use the e-mail form at the bottom of this page.
Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies in Religion and Ministry
Committee on the Status of Racial and Ethnic Minorities in the Profession
Committee on the Status of Women in the Profession
Queer Theory and LGBT Studies in Religion Consultation
Lesbian-Feminist Issues and Religion Group
Gay Men's Issues in Religion Group
