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2006 Conference Speakers This is a partial list of the speakers at the 2006 conference. These exciting sessions and presenters are why the God & Sexuality Conference stands out. To ensure that you get a chance to hear these great speakers, please register today (space this year is somewhat limited). Click Here to register.
Rebecca Alpert |
Reconstructionist Judaism and Marriage Equality |
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Rebecca T. Alpert is Chair of the Department of Religion and Associate
Professor of Religion and Women's Studies at Temple University. She is
a graduate of Barnard College and was ordained as a rabbi at the Reconstructionist
Rabbinical College. She is the co-author of Exploring Judaism: A Reconstructionist
Approach, with Jacob Staub; author of Like Bread on the Seder Plate: Jewish
Lesbians and the Transformation of Tradition, editor of Voices of the Religious
Left: A Contemporary Sourcebook and co-editor of Lesbian Rabbis: The First
Generation with Sue Elwell and Shirley Idelson. She is currently at work
on a volume about Jews, race and sports. She teaches in the areas of religion
and sexuality, the politics of race and gender, and religion in American
public life. |
Gayle Baldwin |
Liberation, Body and Spirit: Connecting Sensuality, Sexuality and
tradition in the Liberation in Truth Movement |
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Dr. Gayle R. Baldwin, Associate Professor and Acting Chair of the Department
of Philosophy and Religion, the University of North Dakota, holds a Ph.D.
in Religious Studies from Marquette University. Her current research concerns
the religious responses to the murder of Sakia Gunn. She plans to finish
the manuscript entitled: I Am Whosoever: Religious, Sexual and Political
Discourses of Response to the Murder of Sakia Gunn this summer. The work
which includes a critical investigation of the issue of race as a factor
in hate crimes and among Gay and Lesbian communities. |
David Dunn Bauer |
Celebrating the Body Judaic: Dancing with the "Evil Impulse" |
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Rabbi David Bauer is a graduate of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College.
In addition to his chaplaincy and congregational work, he has led Torah
study in Israel at the Open House (Jerusalem's gay and lesbian community
center) and served as a rabbinical intern at New York's Congregation Beth
Simchat Torah, the world's largest LGBT synagogue. |
Renee Bauer |
Blessing Sexuality in Judaism |
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Rabbi ReneLe Bauer was ordained by the Reconstructionist Rabbinical
College at which time she received the Ann Pinkenson Prize for Excellence
in the Study of Rabbinics. She received her B.A. in history and Judaic
Studies from Brown University. Rabbi Bauer also spent a year sutudying
at Leo Baeck College in London and while there served as a visiting rabbi
in Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Prague and Budapest. She currently serves as
the rabbi of Congregation Mayim Rabim in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Rabbi
Bauer is a member of the Wisconsin board of the Religious Coalition for
Reproductive Choice and was previously a member of the national board of
Kolot: The Center for Jewish Women's and Gender Studies. She currently
lives in Madison, Wisconsin with her partner Rabbi Laurie Zimmerman. |
Tamar Benzikry |
The Other-ing Discourse of
the Jewish Menstrual Laws |
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Tamar Benzikry is a student at the Jewish Theological Seminary working
towards an MA in Jewish Art and Material Culture. Having majored in
Art History and Jewish Studies as distinct disciplines at the
University of Washington, her current academic program creates a
fusion of her interests, while opening the doors to Columbia
University and the Jewish Museum, the institutions of this
joint-program. Tamar plans to continue to PhD and bring the academic
and museal worlds into closer contact. |
Perry Brass |
The Return to Greenwood: Identifying the "Gay Canaan" |
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Poet/novelist Perry Brass lives in New York City and has published 13
books, including Sex-charge and The Lover of My Soul, collections of poetry;
How To Survive Your Own Gay Life, a popular guide to a controversial subject;
and his novels of speculative, suspense, or fantasy fiction, Mirage, Albert
or The Book of Man, The Harvest, Angel Lust, and his newest novel, The
Substance of God, A Spiritual Thriller. Currently, he is working on another
novel entitled Carnal Sacraments. He has been a finalist 6 times for Lambda
Literary Awards, and won an gIppyh Award from Independent Publisher
Magazine in 2001 for Warlock, A Novel of Possession. His work has also
been included in over 20 anthologies, including The Columbia Book of Gay
Literature, from Columbia University Press, and Bend Sinister, Death Comes
Easy, and Serendipityp from Millivres-Prowler. He has taught writing workshops
in New York, San Francisco, and Provincetown, and is a recognized spokesperson
on gay and gender related topics. |
Marla Brettchneider |
Queer Studies Programs in the University |
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Marla Brettschneider is co-founder and Coordinator of Queer Studies at
the University of New Hampshire. She has written extensively in queer
theory and on queer issues, including her forthcoming book: The Family
Flamboyant: Race Politics, Queer Families, Jewish Lives. |
Kent L. Brintnall |
Erotic Ritual in Literature and Film / Literature and Film as Erotic
Ritual |
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Kent L. Brintnall is a doctoral student in the Graduate Division of Religion
at Emory University. His research and teaching focuses on visual culture
and Christian theology. Specifically, he is interested in contemporary
representations of the male body in pain and theologies of the cross. |
Stephanie Budin |
The Allure of Sacred Prostitution |
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I was born in the middle of the Mojave Desert in southern California,
and I started studying Greek mythology in the 5th grade when I got my hands
on D'Aulaire's book of Greek myths. After originally trying to major in
International Relations in Washington, D. C., I moved my focus back some
2,500 years and majored in history. I received my Ph.D. from the Graduate
Group in Ancient History at the University of Pennsylvania, where I focused
on Greece and the Near East. My main interests are sex and gender,
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Craig Cepler |
Same Sex Marriage and the Law |
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Craig Cepler is an attorney with the law firm of Kaye Scholer LLP here
in New York. He graduated from New York University School of Law with a
Juris Doctor in 2005 and from Cornell University with a degree in Policy
Analysis and Management in 2002. |
Michael Cohen |
Celebrating the Body Judaic: Dancing with the Evil Inclination |
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Michael Cohen is a Body Electric instructor who works as a gestalt and
couples psychotherapist and a life coach in New York City. A Body Electric-trained
Sacred Intimate, his interests also include exploring the healing power
of play and helping people create meaningful lives. |
Chris Cormier |
Same Sex Marriage and The Law:Religion and Activism |
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As Community Organizer, Chris Cormier develops and coordinates the Pride
Agenda's community outreach and public education campaigns for the Empire
State Pride Agenda.
He leads the Pride in the Pulpit initiative to create a network of supportive
leaders of faith throughout New York State who will advocate for the
LGBT community. He coordinates the Pride Agenda's work with numerous
LGBT and allied organizations across the state and mobilizes them to
take action around legislative priorities. He represents the Pride Agenda
at meetings, panel discussions and rallies. Chris also evaluates candidates
running for elective office in New York State for the Pride Agenda's
PAC.
Chris joined the Pride Agenda in 2004 after working as an internal architect
for Goldman Sachs & Co in New York. He received a Bachelor of Architecture
from Carnegie Mellon University and, after several years of residential
and corporate architecture, changed careers to dedicate all his time
to winning the fight for LGBT equality and justice. |
Patrick Evans |
LGBT Liturgies
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Patrick Evans is Senior Lecturer in the Practice of Sacred Music at
Yale and Associate Professor of Music at the University of Delaware. As
a singer, he has been a Fellow of the Tanglewood Music Center, the Cleveland
Art Song Festival, and the Pacific Music Festival, Sapporo, Japan. He appears
regularly in opera, oratorio, and recital performances, and has sung All
the Way Through Evening: Songs from the AIDS Quilt Songbook, a recital/liturgical
event, throughout the U.S. During a recent sabbatical year, he served as
Artist-in-Residence at Union Theological Seminary, and currently serves
in the same capacity at Broadway Presbyterian Church in Manhattan.
Minister of Music for ten years at Hanover Street Presbyterian Church
in Wilmington, Delaware, Professor Evans has worked with many urban congregations
seeking to renew their musical worship traditions, embracing the changing
cultural contexts of their cities. He is interested in the interaction
of the traditional Western canon with global hymnody, African-American
gospel traditions, and other musical and liturgical artistry in multicultural
communities of faith. B.M., B.M.E., University of Montevallo; M.M., D.M.,
The Florida State University |
Siobhan Garrigan |
LGBT Liturgies |
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Siobhan Garrigan is Assistant Professor of Liturgical Studies and Assistant
Dean for Chapel at Yale University. She is the author of Beyond Ritual:
Sacramental Theology after Habermas (2004) and a former Government of
Ireland Humanities Scholar. Before coming to Yale, she taught Religion
Today: Tradition, Modernity and Change at the Open University and, for
the previous three years, courses in Christian theology and worship as
part of the Religious Studies faculty at the Galway-Mayo Institute of
Technology. Prior to teaching, she worked extensively with homeless people.
Her ecumenical work led to her co-coordination of the first Irish interchurch
conference, Fís, and to several articles in Irish journals. B.A. Oxford
University; S.T.M. Union Theological Seminary; Ph.D. Milltown Institute,
Dublin. |
Cedric Harmon |
Sexuality, Sexual Expression and Gender Identity in 21st Century African
American Religious / Spiritual Practice |
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Cedric A. Harmon is the Associate Field Director for Religious Outreach
at Americans United for Separation of Church and State in Washington, DC.
Cedric is a licensed and ordained minister affiliated with both the Progressive
National Baptist Convention and the National Missionary Baptist Convention
of America.
Cedric is a graduate of Emerson College, Boston, MA and is pursuing
a theological degree from Wesley Theological Seminary, Washington,
DC. His past work experience includes the National Association of Broadcasters,
Dance/USA, and the Close Up Foundation. Cedric also serves on the National
Religious Leadership Roundtable, the Black Church Initiative DC Organizing
Committee, Advisory Committee of the National Black Religious Summit
on Sexuality and has worked in church led HIV/AIDS Ministry for over
eight years among many other community activities.
Cedric is a native of the St. Louis metropolitan area and currently
resides in the District of Columbia. |
Christine Hoff Kraemer |
Erotic Ritual in Literature and Film / Literature and Film as Erotic
Ritual |
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Christine Hoff Kraemer is a fourth year PhD student in Religion and Literature
at Boston University. She has particular interests in film, 20th century
literature, graphic novels, and new religious movements, and is currently
preparing a dissertation on alternative religion and sexuality in literature
and film. |
Bob Langjahr |
Seducation of Ritual: How Blind Acceptance of Same-Sex Marriage will
Ritualize Control, Not Love |
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Bob Langjahr is a Masters of Divinity student at Claremont School of
Theology in Claremont, California and is scheduled to graduate this coming
May. This is his third time presenting a paper at a conference and deeply
enjoys the conversations that each of the other events have engendered.
The connection between our understand of God and the manner in which we
express our sexuality is something he has deep interest and will continue
his research in the field starting this fall as PhD student at Chicago
Theological Seminary. |
Jeffrey Lidke |
Mystical Eroticism in the Trika-Kaula of Abhinavagupta |
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Jeffrey Lidke is Assistant Professor of Religion at Berry College. He
is a
specialist in the field of Hindu Tantra, particularly focusing on the
Sarvamnaya Tantra of the Kathmandu Valley. His publications include
“Interpreting Across Mystical Boundaries: An Analysis of Samadhi in the
Trika-Kaula Tradition.” ( Leiden: Brille, 2005) and “A Union of Fire
and
Water: Sexuality and Spirituality in Hinduism,” ( ABC-CLIO, 2003). Dr.
Lidke
is the chair of the Intefaith Council at Berry College and is also an
exponent of the Benares tradition of classical tabla. |
Ron Long |
It Will Make a Man of You! |
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Ron Long holds degrees from Kenyon College and Columbia University.p
A former Fulbright scholar, he has taught at Vassar College and Columbia
University, and is now an Assistant Professor in the Program in Religion,
Hunter College.p He was a long time member of the Steering Committee of
the Gay Men's Issues in Religion Group of the American Academy of Religion,
for which he also served as one of its co-chairs.p At the recent meeting
of the AAR in November, the group honored his recent Men, Homosexuality,
and the Gods with an entire panel devoted to the book.p Over the years,
his essays and reviews have appeared in such publications has the Harvard
Gay and Lesbian Review, The Journal of Men's Studies, Theology & Sexuality,
and the Journal of the AAR.p In the fall, he is scheduled to be the keynote
speaker at the "Between the Worlds" gathering of men itnerested in alternative
spiritualities. |
Stephen McDonnell |
Ritual As Container for States of Non-Ordinary Consciousness |
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Stephen McDonnell, M.Div., LICSW, CAC is a pychotherapist in private
practice in Washington, D.C. Stephen was ordained a Roman Catholic priest
and is currently the president of the Board of Directors of Dignity/Washington,
a local chapter of the national organization for LGBT Roman Catholics.
Stephen has worked in the addictions recovery field, and as a sexual trauma
specialist, and has worked in the field of HIV prevention. His interests
include holistic healing and integration, particularly bridging psychology
and spirituality, and applying body and energy knowlege to his psychotherapeutic
practice. More is available at http://www.stephenmcdonnell.com |
Michelle Mueller | Kore in Conflict: Feminist Neo-Pagans Look the Other Way As the God Rapes the Goddess | 
| Michelle Mueller is a first-year student at the Pacific School of Religion. She intends to complete an M.Div., M.A. and a Certificate in Sexuality and Religion.pA Bryn Mawr College alumna, Michellepinterned at the Center for Sex and Culture with Carol Queen in Fall 2005. Michelle's ambitions include developing sexual education for Pagan youth. |
Diann Neu | May Love and Justice Increase: Rituals for Same-Sex Ceremonies |
| Diann
L. Neu, D.Min., MSW, is co-founder and co-director of WATER, the Women's
Alliance for Theology, Ethics, and Ritual, in Silver Spring, MD.
A feminist liturgist and psychotherapist licensed in both Washington,
DC and Maryland, Diann specializes in liturgical and ritual planning,
group work, individual counseling and spiritual direction, as well
as conference consultation.
Dr. Neu received her Doctor of Ministry in International Feminist
Theology from the San Francisco Theological Seminary in San Anselmo,
CA. She earned her Master of Divinity and Master of Sacred Theology
degrees from The Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley, CA and her
Masters in Clinical Social Work from The Catholic University of America
in Washington, DC.
Trained in liturgy and spirituality, she has done extensive work in
designing liturgies for national and international conferences as well
as for her own women-church base community in the Washington, DC area.
In private practice, as well as in her affiliation with WATER, she
counsels women and men from widely divergent backgrounds in individual,
couple, and group sessions. |
Rachel Rosenthal |
Divorce in Judaism |
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Rachel Rosenthal is a third year law student at Columbia University.
She currently serves as Solicitations Editor for the Columbia Journal of
Gender and Law. Rachel graduated from Duke University in 2003 with a BA
in Program II: Jewish Text and Tradition: Ethical Implications in Contemporary
Society. |
George Popham |
Erotic Ritual in Literature and Film / Literature and Film as Erotic
Ritual |
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After a disastrous term of enlistment in the Navy, George Popham did
his undergraduate work at Evergreen State College and St. John's College,
where he also later wrote his master's thesis on Chapter 5 of Darwinfs
_Descent of Man,_ "On the Evolution of A Moral Sense." While working as
an instructor in composition and ethics in Portland, he put together a
course in legal and ethical issues related to the internet, as well as
organizing a series of community seminars on Plato, St. Augustine, Montaigne,
and Chuang Tzu. He is now in his third year of the PhD program in Religion
and Philosophy at Boston University, where he has recently edited an upcoming
volume of essays on Martin Buber. His paper "Sellouts, Poseurs and Suicides:
Punk Rock and the Pursuit of Secular Otherworldliness" is currently pending
publication. |
William E. Smith III |
Marriage Works in the Book of Margery Kempe |
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I am currently a doctoral student at Indiana University, Bloomington
in the department of Religious Studies. I did my undergraduate degree at
Albright College (B.A. History) and did my Masters of Theological Studies
at Harvard University. My main academic interests are centered on Medieval
and Early Modern Christianity, especially in relation to the histories
of gender and sexuality. More specifically, I have been investigating the
concept of Sponsa Christi and its deployment by certain women in Late Medieval
and Early Modern Europe. |
Melissa Wilcox | The spiritual Salad Bar: Religious Organizations as Resources for Queer Women | 
| Melissa M. Wilcox is Assistant Professor of Religion and Director of Gender Studies at Whitman College. Author of Coming Out in
David W. Machacek) of Sexuality and the Worldfs Religions, she is currently working on a book entitled Spirituality and Sex in the City: Queer Religiosities in Practice and Theory. |
Shaher-Bano
Nousheenh Yousuf | Erotic Ritual in Literature and Film / Literature and Film as Erotic Ritual |
| Shaher-Bano gNousheenh Yousuf is currently in the first year of her Masterfs Degree at Boston University. She is majoring in Religious Studies with a concentration on Women in Islam. She completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2005 with a major in History and a double minor in Religious Studies and Gender and Womenfs Studies. Nousheen studies how and why women negotiate their identities when trying to fulfill their cultural, societal, and religious duties, which often times conflict with one another. This interest led her to write gTo Live and Love in the Spirit of Christh on the mystical trend known as Bridal Mysticism, which was published in UICfs 2004-2005 History Journal, and won first prize in the Gender and Womenfs Studies Research Symposium in 2005. |
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