By Jacob Perez and Zebulon B. Hurst. The escalating spread of COVID-19, the ways it has disrupted and transformed our communication and interactions with one another, reveals eschatological dimensions within our responses—our spiritual and embodied desires. Prayers for an end to the pandemic are filled with yearning, longing for a time when it will be […]
By Yohana Junker. [1] Over the past few weeks we have been forced to grapple with the ways COVID-19 has shaken our structures in profound ways. As the numbers rise exponentially, we are witnessing the disintegration of whole communities, cities, and systems. In the US, we are at the beginning of a long-term process that […]
By Sharon Jacob. In many cultures, mass-suicides have been used as a form of protest against foreign colonization. In India, the ritual of Jauhar was traditionally performed by upper caste Rajput women that immolated themselves by jumping into flames together. Lakshana N. Palat describes the ritual in detail writing, “At night, they would dress in […]
In the last few days and weeks, dozens of women have come forward accusing Hollywood director Harvey Weinstein of sexual harassment, assault, and in some cases, rape. Many of these women are actors whose experiences of sexual violence originate when they were getting their start in Hollywood. Although we might be tempted to limit the […]
By Sarah Emanuel. On June 10, 2017, I sat in a crowded theater to watch Gal Gadot’s portrayal of Wonder Woman on the big screen. At first blush, I was in awe of her. I admired her strength. I valued her persistence. I liked that she had thighs. It was as if I had been […]
Professors across the land are preparing to return to the classroom, beginning with the all-important discussion on first day: setting the ground rules. Sometimes I ask the class to generate guidelines, beginning with their top list of classroom dos and don’ts. And inevitably, after “listen to others,” “don’t dominate the conversation,” and “respect other views,” […]
Before there was a Katniss Everdeen of Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games, there were Offred and Moira of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale (1985). Both story-worlds imagine similar outcomes for a future post-American reality, exploring life within democracy-turned-totalitarian societies as expressed from the perspective of some of its most oppressed and vulnerable bodies: children and […]
It’s that time of the year again… yes, it is the beginning (or is it the middle already?) of the U.S. version of “the holidays.” But, in a related fashion, what I’m currently thinking about is that time of the semester again. Specifically, we just finished our ritual week in my introductory course, a week […]
What if “Godspell” (by Stephen Schwartz and John-Michael Tebelak) and “Jesus Christ Superstar” (by Andrew Lloyd Webber) had been based on feminist theologies? What if those songs performed in high school musicals reflected the work of a generation of feminist scholars in religion? What if the catchy tunes that stick in peoples’ heads and form […]
As much as the 2012 U.S. presidential election and issues related to it have been at the center of public debate in America, so too have the election of the 19th National Assembly members (April 11th) and the 2012 presidential election (December) occupied the hearts and minds of people in South Korea. Given the heavy […]