Lesbian-Feminisms and Religion Unit
Hidden histories and occluded biographies
The Lesbian-Feminisms and Religion Unit invites papers on trans, queer, lesbian, feminists who have been ignored, suppressed, or radically misunderstood in the histories of religious activism, leadership, and representation. We are also interested in the ways that religious institutions and their archives have engaged or occluded interpretations of desire and deviance in gender, sexuality, religion, and their many intersections. Taking inspiration from Monique Moultrie’s Hidden Histories: Faith and Black Lesbian Leadership (2023) and Shannen Dee Williams’s The Hidden History of Black Catholic Nuns (2022), we are especially interested in papers that attend to how these hidden histories meet up with histories of white supremacy, racism, and colonialism. Underrepresented scholars, practitioners, and activists are especially encouraged to submit.
For a co-sponsored call with the Study of Judaism Unit:
Jewish lesbian, feminist, queer, and/or trans theories, theologies, and activism, for a co-sponsored session with the Study of Judaism Unit
For over 30 years this unit has been committed to lesbian-feminism in the study of religion. Whether pursued through religious studies, social-scientific, historical, or theological methods during the approach to the academic study of religion, lesbian-feminist scholarship challenges hegemonic discourse within gay, lesbian, and queer movements that function to privilege queer theory as capable of eclipsing theories and methodologies that are explicitly feminist in the face of entrenched patriarchy and self-consciously lesbian in the face of persistent maleness and heteronormativity. We are especially committed to scholars and scholarship that advance people of color, persons with disabilities, decoloniality, and economic justice. This is accomplished with diverse and timely themes, and by providing a theoretical space for probing and further developing the openings and opportunities afforded by changing sociopolitical and theoretical contexts.