Huber is working with Rhiannon Graybill, the Marcus M. and Carole M. Weinstein & Gilbert M. and Fannie S. Rosenthal Chair of Jewish Studies at the University of Richmond. Together, they developed “Sexing Scripture” as a platform for creative and boundary-pushing perspectives on gender, sex and sexuality within and around scriptural traditions. Titles in the series will focus on texts and traditions associated with Judaism, Christianity, and other scriptural traditions.

“Sexing Scripture” provides a much-needed venue for biblical and religious studies scholarship dedicated to topics that fall under the umbrella of 鈥済ender, sex, sexuality, and scripture.鈥� Related series either focus on women in biblical texts or on more narrow topics, such as sexual violence. There are, likewise, no academic book series dedicated to scripture and the study of sexuality. Moreover, in a global political climate in which scriptural traditions are used to justify increasingly regressive politics around gender and sexuality, Huber and Graybill believe there is a need for high-quality scholarship on these topics.

Huber and Graybill previously worked together, co-editing an anthology titled “The Bible, Gender, and Sexuality: Critical Readings” published by T&T Clark/ Bloomsbury in 2020.

The series is currently accepting proposals, and the first volumes are anticipated to be released as early as 2026.

Organized by Wellesley鈥檚 departments of Africana Studies and Religious Studies, the conference brings together prominent scholars from across the nation to address Black women鈥檚 spirituality, past and present.

Otieno鈥檚 talk, “Mama Said Knock You Out: Spiritual Agency, Power and Protest,” focused on women and naked protests on the African continent. In it, she sought to dispel some of the confusion surrounding naked protests in the public sphere by discussing the socioethical considerations related to exposing the nude female body to activate and harness spiritual power.

This talk is part of a larger research project addressing women’s roles in protests that inspire social change and in protests demanding communal transformation through Divine intervention and otherworldly power. In her work, Otieno argues that protests establish new moral orderings of communities that challenge longstanding ideals by reconstructing views and perceptions of morality.

Myers’ paper,聽鈥溾�極nce as Maid he Vowed鈥�: Gender Nonconformity, Female Same-Sex Erotic Encounters, and Divine Intervention in Ovid鈥檚 Metamorphoses,鈥� was based upon research conducted as part of the Multifaith Scholars Program.聽Myers is co-mentored by Huber and Professor Kristina Meinking.

Guided and informed by Saidiya Hartman鈥檚 framework of critical fabulation and Terri Givens鈥� ethos of radical empathy, Myers’ paper focused on the story of Iphis and Ianthe in Ovid鈥檚 Metamorphoses. The story follows a young Cretan youth, Iphis, who is assigned female at birth, raised as a boy, and, transformed into a male by the deity Isis so they can marry Ianthe. Read with other ancient accounts of same-gender-loving women, the story raises questions about how ancient Romans understood gender and sexuality and how ancient figures relate to modern conceptions of sexuality.

Huber presented “Queer Biblical Interpretation: A Glance Back” as part of a panel focused on the field of LGBTQ+ Biblical Studies. Specifically, Huber offered categories for understanding the various ways that LGBTQ+ interpreters engage biblical texts.

Lynn R. Huber presented a paper on “Female Seed, Metaphor, and the Woman Clothed in the Sun: A Response to Clarissa Breu” as part of the Society of Biblical Literature. Huber also helped organize a networking opportunity for LGBTQI+ scholars attending the聽meeting.

Andrew聽Monteith presented two papers. The first, offered in a section focused on Religion and Disability Studies, was titled “A Disorder of the Borderland Between Body and Soul’: Eugenics Era Epileptic Colonies, Religion, and the聽Medicalization of聽Morality.” The second paper “And To Tell the Truth I don’t See Anything Wrong With It Yet’: Three Boys’聽Marriage in a 1920s Boarding School.” Both papers were based on archival work conducted recently by Monteith.

Brian K. Pennington聽serves on the Board of Directors of the American Academy of Religion and will participate in Board deliberations during the meeting. Additionally, he will participate in two-panel discussions, one on the future of South Asian religions at the AAR and one on the recent publication of The Routledge Handbook of Hindu-Christian Studies.

Rebecca Todd Peters was a participant on three different panels held at the meeting. The first addressed polarizing topics in public conversation, such as Christian nationalism, abortion, gender, and sexuality. The second panel reviewed a new book offering Jewish, Christian, and聽Muslim perspectives on abortion, and on the third Peters discussed harnassing scholarly privilege to advocate for reproductive justice.

Pamela Winfield was a respondent on a panel focused on emerging聽research on Japanese Religions, specifically research related to doctrine, violence, and care.

Lynn R. Huber, Maude Sharpe Powell Professor of Religious Studies, offered a lecture titled “Reading the Bible from the Outside: Introducing Queer Biblical Interpretation” as part of the聽Carpenter Initiative on Gender, Sexuality, and Justice sponsored by Brite Divinity School and the Religious Studies department at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas.

In the public lecture, Huber discussed the ways LGBTQIA+ individuals and communities engage biblical texts, including those typically described as “clobber passages” which are used to exclude queer people and experiences within some Christian traditions. She also articulated some of the reasons why LGBTQIA+ individuals should be invested in queer biblical interpretation.

In addition, Huber presented her work on queer readings of the Book of Revelation to master’s degree students in a course on Gender, Sexuality, and the New Testament. Among other things, students read portions of her forthcoming feminist commentary on Revelation which will be published by in 2023.

Both Mock and Morrison have worked with Lynn R. Huber, Maude Sharpe Powell Professor of Religious Studies. Associate Professor in Art History Evan Gatti has also mentored Mock, and Morrison has worked with Lauren Guilmette, assistant professor in philosophy. Morrison has also been a Summer Research Fellow with 黑料不打烊’s Center for the Study of Religion, Culture and Society.

Mock’s paper is titled “Queering Ancient Sex Objects: Reading Representations of the Prostitute in Classical Greece.” In it she asks how the misuse of objects depicted in symposium scenes on classical Greek pottery help interpreters think about the human figures, mostly prostitutes, as queer. Mock, who graduated from 黑料不打烊 with a bachelor’s in art history, is currently applying to graduate programs to continue studying art history.

Morrison’s paper, “Apprehending the Goddess: Cybele鈥檚 Transition to Romanhood,” is part of their Honors thesis research. Morrison uses “critical fabulation,” an idea articulated by author Saidiya Hartman, to explore the trans-identity of the ancient goddess Cybele, as well as to interrogate historical re-tellings of queer figures.

This gathers together some of the field’s most prominent scholars in queer and trans studies of religion, as well as provides a generative space for emerging scholarly voices.

The volume, published by Bloomsbury, gathered already published essays and articles in the field that reflect a variety of approaches and perspectives, including feminist, womanist and queer methodologies. Graybill and Huber each contributed an essay to the volume and wrote an introductory essay on the state of the field and section introductions that highlight the insights made by each selection.

The previously published essay Huber contributed to the volume is titled, “Gazing at the Whore: Reading Revelation Queerly.”聽 Huber reads the Book of Revelation’s image of the “Whore” as a call to disengage with imperial ways of thinking and living. The essay is used widely by colleagues in classrooms as an example of a queer-lesbian approach to biblical interpretation.

The essay, which describes Huber’s experience of being an out queer lesbian in a predominantly straight and male field, was included in the journal Women in the Society of Biblical Literature, edited by Nicole L. Tilford. The volume invited contributions from a variety of female-identified biblical scholars asking them to reflect on their personal experiences and the state of the field. The project marks the 125th anniversary of the first female-identified member of the Society of Biblical Literature, a professional society dedicated to the critical study of the Bible from various academic disciplines.

In addition, Huber has two other essays being published in soon-to-be-released volumes. First is an essay on gender in the Book of Revelation in聽The Oxford Handbook of New Testament, Gender, and Sexuality, edited by Benjamin Dunning. In this piece Huber argues that studies of gender in this book not be limited to the analysis of specific gendered images; rather, the text as a whole engages in the formation of gendered subjects. Second, Huber’s essay “The City-Women Babylon and New Jerusalem in Revelation” will be included in聽The Oxford Handbook to Revelation, edited by Craig Koester. This essay draws upon Huber’s previously published work exploring Revelation’s use of city-women imagery to shape early Christian identity.

The article examines the reasoning behind American aid for the Argentinian dictatorship during the Cold War. Myers analyzed declassified government records about U.S.-Argentina relations to discover what political values individuals utilized to justify support for the military junta in Argentina or to justify their individual dissent.

When asked about advice she would offer other students interested in being published, Myers explained, “If you’re passionate about research or a piece of writing and the opportunity for publication presents itself, you should always take it, even if rejection is a possible outcome!” 

• As chair of the American Academy of Religion’s International Connections Committee, Amy L. Allocco will be presiding over a daylong meeting and chairing a grants jury, plus presiding at the reception for International Members.
• Sarah Bloesch will present a paper in a session on the Body and Religion titled “Neoliberal Bodies: Salvation as Commodity in the Prison Industrial Complex.”
• Lynn R. Huber is presiding over sessions on LGBTI/Queer Biblical Hermeneutics, including a panel on “Queer Futures: Futurity, Hauntology, and Utopia in and after Biblical Texts.”
• Ariela Marcus-Sells will be presenting her research in a paper titled “’Poised on the Higher Horizon’: Narrative Tafsīr and Sufi Practice in the Southern Sahara.”
• Brian K. Pennington will give a paper, “Questioning the Serpent King: Performance, Pilgrimage, and Memory in the Hindu Himalayas,” and speak on two panels, “Promoting Religious Literacy College-wide” and “Untouchability, Dalitness, and the Study of Hinduism.”
• Jeffrey Pugh will be participating in a book signing featuring his new publication, The Homebrewed Christianity Guide to the End of the World.
• Pamela Winfield will present a paper on “The Situated Mountain-Body of Eiheiji Zen Temple, Japan” in a session she convened on “Mountains in Asia and Beyond.”