Linn Tonstad of Yale University Divinity School will give a public lecture, entitled "Sexing Religion" as part of our Diversity and Inclusion speaker series, which focuses on issues of race and gender in the study of religion.
The lecture will take place on February 10th at 4pm, Swift Common Room (1st floor).
Abstract:
The study of gender and sexuality in religion often remains tied to simplistic models of symbolism, representation, and translation. As an often self-involving, sometimes justice-oriented field, the study of religion shares some important features with gender and sexuality studies. Yet scholars of religion and scholars of gender and sexuality often speak past each other in substantive and theoretical ways. What tools are needed to examine the sexed and gendered aspects of religious studies as a discipline? How do we think about the production of scholarship at the intersection of religion, gender, and sexuality, especially given the questionability of the category of religion to begin with? Using queer theological reflection as a case study, this talk considers the function of scholarly desire in the production of knowledge at the place where religion meets sex.
Professor Tonstad is a constructive theologian working at the intersection of systematic theology with feminist and queer theory. Her first book, God and Difference: The Trinity, Sexuality, and the Transformation of Finitude (link is external), was published by Routledge in 2016 and was named both as a best new book in ethics and a best new book in theology in Christian Century in the spring of 2017. Her second book, Queer Theology: Beyond Apologetics (link is external)was published by Cascade in 2018. She joined the Yale Divinity School faculty in 2012 after teaching at Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University and Valparaiso University. Her teaching interests include Christian theology, queer and feminist theory, philosophy of religion, and theological method. Professor Tonstad has made contributions to various journals, including Modern Theology, International Journal of Systematic Theology, and Theology & Sexuality. She is co-chair of the Theology and Religious Reflection unit and serves on the steering committee of the Queer Studies in Religion unit of the American Academy of Religion. She is also an associate editor at Political Theology. She is currently working on her third book, tentatively titled The Impossible Other: Theology, Queer Theory, and the Temptation of Human Redemption.
Event will be held in Swift Hall Common Room (1st floor).
Date: February 10, 2020
Time: 4:00 PM - 5:30 PM
Date: February 10, 2020
Time: 4:00 PM - 5:30 PM