Queer Studies in Religion Unit

In addition to an open-call for papers and sessions that engage broadly with themes related to queer and trans studies in religion, as well as papers that address the 2024 presidential theme of “violence, non-violence, and the margin” in conversation with queer and trans studies in religion, we particularly invite paper and session proposals on the following themes and topics: 

• For a potential co-sponsored session with the African Diaspora Religions unit, we invite proposals on the power of our archive. The year 2024 marks the close of the United Nation’s decades-long proclamation to celebrate people of  African descent as representatives of a distinct group whose human rights must be promoted and protected.  2024 also heralds the 150th anniversary of Afro-Puerto Rican, Arturo Alfonso Schomburg, whose collection of Black literature, enslaved peoples’ narratives, artwork, queer artifacts, and diasporic materials has become foremost in the study of black life. Finally, Lydia Cabrera’s iconic work, El Monte: Notes on the Religions, Magic, and Folklore of the Black and Creole People of Cuba will turn 70, in 2024; and the first English translation is now available. Throughout African Diaspora history there have been archives that invite deeper exploration. Sometimes hidden in plain sight, including Obeah oaths in the narrative of Tacky’s Rebellion and Jamaica’s Baptist War; juridical, birth, and death records compared against oral histories, historical art and illustration of colonial encounters; stories and evidence of gender and sexual nonconformity subjected to the violences of colonization and shame; and the Colored Conventions Project, or the Early Caribbean Digital Archives. This panel seeks to explore the idea, presence, and importance of archives among us when all too often the archives were oral and aural, normatively shaped, or erased. 

• For a potential co-sponsored session with the Religion and Memory unit, we invite papers and proposals on the intersections of queerness, memory, and religion. How do queer and trans religious individuals or communities make memories? How have traditional religious pasts been queered in memory and memorials? What resources do queer and trans studies in religion offer to the study of religion and memory? We are interested in explorations of these intersections across religious traditions, geographic contexts, and time (both contemporary and/or historical).
• For a potential co-sponsored session with the Comparative Religions unit, we invite papers and proposals on the theme of violence against LGBTQ people and communities. In the contemporary context or historically, how have religious traditions and communities legitimated and/or resisted violence against LGBTQ people? How might queer and trans theories and/or theologies contribute to comparative religious ethical analyses of, and solutions to, these issues? We especially welcome proposals that address the raced, socioeconomic, and femme-based dynamics of some of this violence.
• For a potential co-sponsored session with the Religion and Sexuality unit, and, from the Society of Biblical Literature, Latina/o/e and Latin American Biblical Interpretation; Contextual Hermeneutics; Reading, Theory, and the Bible; and Utopian Studies, we invite papers that consider the impact and influence of the work of the late queer performance theorist José Esteban Muñoz on the study of religion and sexuality, especially since 2024 is the 25th anniversary of the publication of Disidentifications. Even so, we welcome attention to any facet of Muñoz’s work. We invite papers which engage with a variety of diverse creative genres, religions, and conceptualizations of ‘performance,' 'utopia,' or 'sense(s) of brown.’
• "There is another step…we have to take another step." – Nikki Giovanni. For a potential co-sponsored session with the African Diaspora Religions Unit, we invite papers and proposals on the topic of sustaining environmental change. In this applied performative session, we will address and engage catastrophe as a conversation with California’s shifting ecologies and Diaspora culture and knowledge. A catastrophe signals an event producing a sudden and violent change, producing a subversion of the order or system of things. Since the extraction from our homelands sent Africans to new environs, some chose ontological resistance and quickly “flew home”, lest we forget the souls who left Ibo Landing. Leaning into submission was not an option. Making sense of catastrophic situations invites critical engagement (= paradigmatic change), and radical solutions that acknowledge the situation’s gravity without succumbing to victimology by harnessing agency as a mode of survival. Given the threats and vagaries of the present, what futures can we imagine? How might a feminist, queer, trans, and/or decolonial lens illuminate the potentiality to be found, created, or transmuted in the face of change? We invite practitioners, artists, and activists to bear witness and help us imagine ways and means of surmounting catastrophe as African descendant peoples.
• For a co-sponsored session with the Reformed Theology and History unit, we invite papers constructively, historically, and/or critically engaging Hanna Reichel's After Method: Queer Grace, Conceptual Design, and the Possibility of Theology for an author-meets-critics panel.
• This year's conference follows the Trans Day of Remembrance (TDOR) on November 20, 2024, a day dedicated to honoring the lives of transgender individuals lost to violence. For a potential co-sponsored session with the Psychology, Culture, and Religion unit, we invite proposals that build on the Trans Day of Remembrance theme, exploring the intersection of psychology, trans and queer studies, and religion for trans and gender nonconforming persons. Possible topics include, but are not limited to: exploring queer and trans critiques of normative development in the context of psychology and religion; exploring psychological, theoretical, and spiritual insights related to the TDOR and its impact on communities; interrogating and reimagining normative models of psychospiritual development for trans and gender nonconforming persons and communities; and exploring resources at the intersections of trans lives, queer and trans studies in religion, and psychology and religion for flourishing in the midst of violence. Proposals may draw on a variety of disciplines and methodologies to deepen our understanding of the psychological dimensions of the TDOR and trans experiences more broadly.
• We invite proposals for papers or panels exploring contemporary issues–e.g., polyamory, the Sanctuary movement, reproductive justice, pop culture, Christian nationalism – in conversation with queer and trans studies in religion.
• We invite proposals for papers or panels exploring San Diego’s history and present as a site of LGBTQI+ oppression and liberation. In the Journal of San Diego History in 2019, renowned LGBTQI+ historian Lilian Faderman charted the ways in which LGBTQ San Diegans have long been victims of widespread discrimination, but also have been a pivotal force for LGBTQI+ rights, with San Diego being one of the first cities outside NYC to form a Gay Liberation Front group. We invite proposals that explore the role of religion in the city’s history and/or present LGBTQI+ rights movements or that consider that history and/or present from a queer and trans studies in religion lens.