[Discussion] Gendered Bodies, Religious Spirits

[sule tarakcioglu]

My colleague Gwendolyn Alker and I wanted to let you know about an
anthology we are co-editing. We would be very grateful if you could
forward our call for contributions to any listserves, groups, or
individuals you think appropriate. Please do not hesitate to contact me
should you have questions or comments about our project.

With best regards,
Julia Whitworth


CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS -- EDITED ANTHOLOGY

Gendered Bodies, Religious Spirits:
Performance and Power in the Faiths of Abraham

Gwendolyn Alker and Julia Whitworth, editors

This edited anthology will use performance studies to explore the
vibrant intersections between religious practice, gender, and politics
in the three Abrahamic faiths: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
Until now, no single volume has interrogated how performance studies as a
discipline might elucidate the connections between religion and gender,
or how religion interrogates the relationship between performance and
gender. This volume will appeal to anyone interested in the ways that
religion, gender, performance, and politics have converged.

Framing questions:
How have individuals and groups enacted the key historical
intersections between religious practice and feminist theory?

How has religion been used both to regulate and to liberate
performances of gender and sexuality?

Why and how are performative questions of gender and religion
relevant in the current political, social, and cultural moment?

How might using the lens of performance studies bring into clearer
focus the disciplines of religious and gender studies and their
intersections?


Possible topics:
The influence of religious thought in first and second wave feminism

Dybbuk Possession and Women's Religiosity: Elizabeth Cady Stanton and
The Woman's Bible; Anne Hutchinson and the antinomian controversy

Masculine identity and martyrdom: Religious prohibitions against
homosexuality in Christianity, Judaism, and/or Islam

Race and gender in the Gospel Church tradition: Zora Neale Hurston's
The Sanctified Church

Reeinvisioning female figures in the Qu'ran, Torah, Bible: Mary Magdalene,
the Gnostic Gospels, and The DaVinci Codes

Feminist theologies and rituals; Mitzvah regulations and the woman's body

Gendered and religious discourse in the current "war on terror"

Representation and the Burqa and/or Hijab

Madonna and the Kabbalah

Constructions of masculinity/femininity in televangelism, religious
media, and mass rallies

Homosexuality in the clergy

Jewish women and performance of domestic religiosity

Religious mysticism and the female body

Audience segregation in the performance of the Tazieh

Teresa of Avila, Catherine of Siena, Joan of Arc, Julian of Norwich

The Cyber-Fatima movement /Islamic women and the Internet

Clerical costuming and Drag

Staging of the Religious Right: Tammy Faye Bakker, the New
Abstinence Movement, Promise Keepers, Fred Phelps

Performance art and religious iconography in the work of Reverend Billy, the
Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, and others.


As this list is meant to be generative, we welcome scholars working on
a wide array of areas. All respondents are asked to think proactively
about expanding the disciplinary margins of performance, gender, and
religious studies.


Queries and suggestions may be emailed to Gwendolyn Alker, Associate
Teacher of Theatre Studies, Department of Drama, New York University,
at gwendolyn.alker@nyu.edu
<https://charon.bcc.bilkent.edu.tr/basilix/basilix.php?RequestID=CMPSNEW&premail=-1&is_ssl=&cmps_to=gwendolyn.alker@nyu.edu>, 

or to Julia Whitworth, Visiting Lecturer in
Theatre Arts, Mount Holyoke College, at jwhitwor@mtholyoke.edu
<https://charon.bcc.bilkent.edu.tr/basilix/basilix.php?RequestID=CMPSNEW&premail=-1&is_ssl=&cmps_to=jwhitwor@mtholyoke.edu>.
Please send article abstracts (500 words maximum) and C.V. by December 1st,
2004.


Julia Whitworth
Mount Holyoke College
Department of Theatre Arts
jwhitwor@mtholyoke.edu
<https://charon.bcc.bilkent.edu.tr/basilix/basilix.php?RequestID=CMPSNEW&premail=-1&is_ssl=&cmps_to=jwhitwor@mtholyoke.edu>
413-538-2658=


 From the Literary Calls for Papers Mailing List