Listen and subscribe on the listening platform of your choice: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, iheartradio
Welcome to “Feminists Talk Religion” where feminist voice, religion-talk, and honest conversation intersect.
“Feminists Talk Religion” is a project of the LAB branch of Feminist Studies in Religion. The LAB facilitates in-person and online public engagement and creates space to share and develop ideas, resources, and tools that advance inclusiveness and feminist imagination. You can learn more about Feminist Studies in Religion at https://www.fsrinc.org/.
What is this podcast about, you wonder?
“Feminists Talk Religion” is a platform for feminist discussions about all things related to religion. It is an opportunity to hear from new and old voices, to be challenged to learn about and from the scholastic world of another, and to have discussions we might not have otherwise. It is a space where the historically marginalized, especially women, are taken seriously.
Comments or questions? Talk to us: [email protected]
Season 4: Intersectionality (2022-2023)
[Episode 5] SBL/AAR 2022 Panel: Feminist Studies in Religion and Anti-Asian Racism
Listen to this episode via Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or iheartradio.
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a surge of violence and hate against Asians, Asian Americans, and Pacific Islanders. Even so, anti-Asian racism remains largely invisible in academic, religious, and public spaces. On November 18, 2022, panelists at the SBL/AAR Annual Meeting in Denver, CO examined the complex ways feminist studies in religion are entangled with this problem and must decolonize in order to be effective in anti-racist work. Panelists also explored the ways Asian and AAPI feminist scholars of religion contend with race and racism in their scholarship.
This panel session is a part of the ongoing anti-racism initiative of Feminist Studies in Religion, Inc., the organization of scholars that publishes the Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion. Presided by Grace Ji-Sun Kim, other panelists include Rachel A. R. Bundang, Tamara C. Ho, Vijaya Nagarajan, and Najeeba Syeed-Miller.
[Episode 4] International Students and Scholars: An Honest Conversation – Part 2 With Esther Parajuli and Seong Huyn Lee by Naiara Leão
Listen to this episode via Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or iheartradio.
What do we wish we’d known before starting a Ph.D. as an international student? In what ways can higher education institutions better support international students and scholars?
In Part 2 of this conversation, Esther Prajuli, a Nāga-Nepalese professor of Christan Theology in Kentucky, and Seong Huyn Lee, a Korean pastor and academic coach based in New Mexico, offer insight into necessary changes for the international community. They are interviewed by Naiara Leão, a Brazilian Ph.D. student in the US and the UK.
[Episode 3] International Students and Scholars: An Honest Conversation – Part 1 With Esther Parajuli and Seong Huyn Lee by Naiara Leão
Listen to this episode via Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or iheartradio.
Part 1 of this vulnerable and sincere conversation about the ambivalences of being an international student or scholar explores the joys and the pains, the language and cultural barriers, the fragmentation of our identities, and the wisdom that emerges from these experiences.
This episode considers all of these themes and more in an interview by Naiara Leão (a Brazilian Ph.D. student in the US and the UK) with Esther Parajuli, a Nāga-Nepalese professor of Christian Theology in Kentucky, and Seong Huyn Lee, a Korean pastor and academic coach based in New Mexico.
[Episode 2] AAR 2020 Roundtable: Decolonizing our Fields – Women of Color on Transforming the Guild With Sailaja Krishnamurti, Merin Shobhana Xavier, Natalie Avalos, Oluwatomisin Oredein, Shana Sippy, and Deborah Rogers
Listen to this episode via Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or iheartradio.
What does decolonization or even postcolonialism and anticolonialism mean for WOC in our respective fields? How can these concepts be used to explore shared goals or possibilities for solidarity and collective liberation? This episode debates how women of color are decolonizing their fields.
[Episode 1] AAR 2020 Panel – The Importance of Engaged Feminist Scholarship: A Cross-Disciplinary Discussion of Juliane Hammer’s recent book, “Peaceful Families: American Muslim Efforts against Domestic Violence” With Kayla Wheeler, Saadia Yacoob, Traci West and Brittany Landorf
Listen to this episode via Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or iheartradio.
What is the purpose of a feminist scholarship? Is it possible to write about gender-based violence without being an activist against it? How can feminist scholarship produce socially engaged works? Departing from Hammer`s book, this group of scholars debate engaged scholarship and feminist practices.
Season 3 (Spring 2021)
[Episode 7] Feminism, Religion & Art Mini-Series | An Invitation to Transformation/”New Skin”: Interview with storäe michele by Dr. Elyse Ambrose
Listen to this episode via Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or iheartradio.
In this episode, black queer femme performer, storäe michele (they/she), reflects on themes of uncomfortable truth-telling and intergenerational healing in their “practice in black femme freedom-making” through film. Learn more at www.storaemichele.com
[Episode 6] Feminism, Religion, and Mental Health Mini-series | Pursuing wellness, building resilience, and combatting stigma through the utilization of religious texts, rituals, and traditions: Interview with Dr. Celene Ibrahim by Susan Woolever
Listen to this episode via Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or iheartradio.
In this episode, Dr. Celene Ibrahim reflects on her experience as a chaplain, educator, and scholar. Ibrahim challenges us to combat stigma around mental health and pursue wellness through authentic and curious relationships–with religious texts and traditions as well as with our fellow persons and students.
[Episode 5] Feminism, Religion & Art Mini-Series | An Invitation to Ancestral Healing: Interview with Isabel Mareş by Dr. Elyse Ambrose
Listen to this episode via Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or iheartradio.
In this episode Isabel Mareş shares her passion for the arts, community engagement, religion, and storytelling with attentiveness to accessibility and grounding in nature.
[Episode 4] Feminism, Religion, and Mental Health Mini-series | Healing Work: The Work of Integration: Interview with Brittany Powell by Susan Woolever
Listen to this episode via Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or iheartradio.
In this episode, Reverend Brittany Powell shares her journey and insights into holistic being through empowered spirituality. Reverend Brittany helps us think about how family, faith, and culture are essential to facing our traumas and developing a more integrated self.
[Episode 3] Feminism, Religion & Art Mini-Series | An Invitation to ‘Re-Wilding’: Interview with Monét Noelle Marshall by Dr. Elyse Ambrose
Listen to this episode via Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or iheartradio.
In this episode, Monét Noelle Marshall– director, playwright, actor, curator, cultural organizer, producer, filmmaker, and consultant– shares her commitment to her art in connection with her spiritual and black feminist lineage. Learn more at http://www.monetnoellemarshall.com/.
[Episode 2] Feminism, Religion, and Mental Health Mini-series | Empowering spiritual well being: Interview with Lynne Faust and Ilisia Kissner by Susan Woolever
Listen to this episode via Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or iheartradio.
For the first episode of our “Feminism, Religion, and Mental Health:” Mini-series, Chaplains Lynne Faust and Ilisia Kissner discuss their journey of becoming mental health chaplains and how identifying as feminist and womanist shapes their religious identity and work.
[Episode 1] Feminism, Religion & Art Mini-Series | Vessel of Mystery: Interview with Autumn Brown by Dr. Elyse Ambrose
Listen to this episode via Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or iheartradio.
For the first episode of our “Feminism, Religion, and Art” mini-series, Autumn Brown, self-described “mother, organizer, theologian, artist, and facilitator” discusses the intersection of her many identities, her storytelling process, and how feminism functions as a spiritual practice.
Season 2 (Fall 2020)
[Episode 3] Hermeneutics of Suspicion: Interview with Dr. Nikky Singh on Sikh Sacred Texts and Academic Culture
Listen to this episode via Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or iheartradio.
Dr. Nikky Singh describes her experience growing up in the academic world, moving from India to the United States, attending her first AAR conference, and reclaiming the liberative spirit of Sikh sacred texts.
[Episode 2] Immigration, work and faith in the Midwest: Interview with Kristy Nabhan-Warren
Listen to this episode via Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or iheartradio.
Working at a meatpacking plant can be dangerous and exhausting. That is the reality of Latino and refugee workers in this industry, who turn to their faith to cope with the difficulties of the workplace. In this episode, Kristy Nabhan-Warren discusses her research with a community of mostly immigrant workers in the Midwest. We also talk about the surprises, messiness, and nuances that emerge in ethnographical research, and about feminist scholarship and teaching as a tool for liberation.
[Episode 1] Covid-19 and the Academy: Interview with Susan Woolever, Dr. Amy Derogatis, and Dr. Mary Foskett
Listen to this episode via Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or iheartradio.
Research, Teaching, Service: this is the quintessential academic triad. But what happens when we add Covid-19 to one’s academic activity? From the personal to the political, three religion scholars—Susan Woolever (ABD), Dr. Amy Derogatis, and Dr. Mary Foskett—discuss the impact of Covid-19 on their work, their institutions, and their lives.
Season 1 (Spring 2020)
[Episode 7] Bonus Episode: “White Institutional Fragility: A Raw Protest!” with Angela N. Parker, Sharon Jacob, and Karri L. Whipple
Listen to this episode via Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or iheartradio.
Three New Testament Scholars, A Womanist, A White Feminist, and an Indian Postcolonial Feminist discuss the issues of our time and what it means to build a multi racial coalition within the academy to begin to dismantle the whiteness within our institutions, our scholarship, and the world.
[Episode 6] 2018 AAR panel: “Sharing Knowledge/Feminist Collaboration” with Mary Churchill, Sarah Emanuel, Jackie Hildago, Mary Hunt, Kwok Pui Lan, and Oluwatomisin “Tomi” Oredein (Moderator: Kate Ott)
Listen to this episode via Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or iheartradio.
This podcast features a FSR-sponsored American Academy of Religion panel from 2018 where panelists reflect on what they wish they’d know as students and early career scholars.
[Episode 5] Bonus Episode: “Evangelicalism, Homeschool, and Coming Into One’s Own” with Tori Paquette (Moderator/Interviewer: Sarah Emanuel)
Listen to this episode via Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or iheartradio.
In this honest and deeply human podcast episode, Colby College senior, Tori Paquette, tells the story of how and why she left evangelicalism. For more on the subject, in Tori’s own words, see her blog here.
[Episode 4] Bonus Episode: “Racing the Pandemic: Anti-Asian Sentiment in the COVID-19 Era” with Peace Lee and Lisa Beyeler-Yvarra
Listen to this episode via Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or iheartradio.
This week’s bonus episode interrogates the social effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, especially towards the Asian and Asian American population in the United States. Within the U.S. the coronavirus disease has not only uncovered how human systems and treatment of the world have historically caused earthly harm, but also how social strain exposes cultural brokenness, agitates interpersonal animosity, and incites racist violence.
[Episode 3] Liberationist Hermeneutics: Interview with Cynthia Chapman + Traci West (Moderator/Interviewer: Sarah Emanuel)
Listen to this episode via Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or iheartradio.
This podcast opens up space to talk about liberationist hermeneutics within the field of Religious Studies and the subfield of Biblical Studies. Some questions we ask include: what are liberationist hermeneutics? What are its lineages (within your respective speciality/area/focus)? What does it do? What does it limit? Can we be feminist scholars without maintaining a liberationist lens? Why/why not? Who gets to say? What are areas of tension or contention? What do you imagine are areas of promise within your discipline or religious study as a whole?
[Episode 2] Feminist Profile: Interview with Amey Victoria Adkins-Jones (Moderator/Interviewer: Oluwatomisin “Tomi” Oredein)
Listen to this episode via Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or iheartradio.
This podcast introduces narrative as crucial to the knowledge and support of feminist voices in the field of religious studies. This episode focuses on a scholar’s story including how who they are has shaped and/or helped determine their interests and feminist position, their emergence in the field, their hopes for the field, and their hopes for the direction of their work.
[Episode 1] Introduction: What is Feminists Talk Religion? (Co-hosted by Sarah Emanuel and Oluwatomisin “Tomi” Oredein)
Listen to this episode via Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or iheartradio.
Feminists Talk Religion is a podcast elevating the stories, scholarship, conversations, and impact of feminists, especially women, in the field of religious studies and beyond. This introduction offers a conversational glimpse into the imagination behind and hope for the podcast.