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D.C. Queer Studies 2006: Queering the Spirit: Religion, Race, and Sexuality

A series created to tackle challenging questions about Religion, Race, and Sexualities.

Event Details

Tawes Hall
University of Maryland
College Park, MD

The 4th annual lecture series, “Queering the Spirit: Religion, Race, and Sexualities,” was spurred by several questions. What happens when religion, race, and sexuality-particularly non-normative sexualities-meet up in the public sphere? Or within the often conflicted heart or soul of an individual? In what ways and in what kinds of faith tradition are practices is it fair to say that the spirit has been queered or made open to sex and gender variation? How have racism and colonialism shaped attitudes toward homo-sexualities among, for example, religious African Americans, Hindus, Muslims, or the Afro-Cuban practitioners of Santeria? What roles has religion played in 20th-century movements for civil rights for racial and sexual minorities? This series attempted to tackle these and other challenging questions.

Events included:

  • February 23: “Political Perspectives on Religion, Race, and (Homo)Sexualities”: A roundtable discussion featuring Sharon Groves, Ruti Kadish, and Meredith Moise
  • March 6: Ruth Vanita, ““Together in Life after Life: Ideas of Same-Sex Union in Hindu and Christian Traditions”
  • April 5: Kelly Brown Douglas, “Testifying to the Blues: Sexuality and the Black Church”
  • April 12: Salvador Vidal-Ortiz, “Bodies Worshiping the Orishas: Sexual Minorities in Santeria”
  • April 27: Faisal Alam,“Hidden Voices: The Lives of Queer Muslims

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