The Department of Religious Studies presents an Interdisciplinary Conference, Religious Genderings: The Socio-Spiritual [Dis-]Empowerment of Women and Men, Wednesday, February 26 – Friday, February 28, 2014.

Some of the speakers include, Rosemary Radford Ruether, Karma Lekshe Tsomo, Amina Wadud, Rachel Adler and Ken Stone.

This interdisciplinary conference will focus on religion as a powerful force in shaping our conceptions of gender, a force which can be simultaneously liberative and oppressive, its institutions more often than not mirroring but also reinforcing patriarchal social structures and oppressive definitions of gender and sexuality even as its teachings may call for equality and/or androgyny in the pursuit of spiritual transformation and for compassionate individual action. The religious traditions of the world have had to begin to confront their complicity in often violent oppression of women in the twentieth century. This has included self-critique but also the recovery of women’s voices and exemplary figures from the past as well as re-readings of scriptural traditions, reinvention of rituals and practices, and re-envisioning of institutions, leadership and teachings. This process is by no means complete. The twenty-first century brings the additional but related challenge of confronting religious attitudes toward sexuality, magnified for LGBTIQ individuals.

For a complete program, please www.chapman.edu/religoius-genderings.

For more information, please contact Professor Nancy Martin.