jaymichaelson.net » Academic Lectures

Queer Activism, Queer Scholarship

Jay — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 09:58:18 +0000

Queering Kabbalistic Gender Performance: Possibilities for a Contemporary Queer Theology

Jay — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 05:47:12 +0000

“Kabbalah” as a mass-media and New Age phenomenon has become a resource for spiritual seekers,
entrepreneurs, and many feminists and queers constructing postmodern theologies on the basis of non-normative
Western antecedents. Yet traditional theosophical Kabbalah is often sexist, heteronormative, and homophobic. This
paper presents a queer reading of three theosophical Kabbalistic themes on the relationship of masculine and
feminine, suggesting that, read through a queer lens, the Kabbalistic use of these categories can productively
undermine the very heteronormativity it reinscribes.

Part of the Queer Studies in Religion Consultation session at the American Academy of Religion.

Human Rights Campaign Summer Institute

Russ — Wed, 12 May 2010 06:54:30 +0000

The HRC Summer Institute is developed to encourage and promote LGBTQ and allied students pursuing religious studies and theological scholarship. It is open to students at the final stages of the MA, MDiv, and early stages of PhD and ThD work in the United States. Recognizing that all students doing advanced scholarly work in LGBT religious and theological studies do not fit conventional degree-granting institutional models, we will also consider those working outside traditional degree granting programs.

The Institute will function as an intensive workshop/course designed to encourage and empower students working on LGBT studies who are interested in seeing the connection between their work and LGBT justice. The program will bring together well-known scholars and theologians to serve as instructors and mentors on themes related to LGBT religious and theological studies and hermeneutics; public theology and advocacy; justice work at the intersections of identities; religious pluralism and queer studies.

Jay will be joining Institute directors Dr. Rebecca Alpert from Temple University and Dr. Ken Stone from Chicago Theological Seminary. More information: http://www.hrc.org/seminaryscholarship/summer_institute.asp

Homosexuality and Liminality, Israelites and Canaanites: The Queer Theology of the Boundary Crosser at Berkeley

margaret — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 05:23:16 +0000

Biblical scholars have speculated that Biblical prohibitions on sexuality — especially cultic homosexuality — may have been intended to demarcate boundaries between Israelite and Canaanite, as part of the creation of an “Israelite” identity amongst a collection of Canaanite tribes. At the same time, some queer theologians and thinkers in the “gay spirituality” movement have sought to (re-)invent a suppressed queer identity that celebrates the transgression of precisely those boundaries. Is the postmodern invention of the “Canaanite” a fertile source for queer theology, or but a fantasy? And what are the political connotations of a post-Judaic conception of Israelite identity for gender, nationalism, and religion?

Letter and Spirit: New Jewish Culture and the Archaic Revival

Russ — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 13:17:19 +0000

Among younger educated Jews, there is a renaissance underway of new Jewish culture, spirituality, and identity. Generally disregarding of conventional movements, ideologies, and labels, young Jews are congregating on their own for prayer, spiritual practice, and cultural Activities. In parallel, leading young Jewish writers like Jonathan Safran Foer, Michael Chabon, Nathan Englander, and Myla Goldberg are increasingly making use of religious themes in their work, in sharp contrast to a previous generation of secular Jewish writers. What do these new spiritual and literary movements mean for the Jewish future? Are there new forms of Jewishness being written and created today? In addition to the lecture, Jay will give a poetry reading and Q&A and the Lehigh Humanities Center, at 12pm.

Vedanta and Neo-Hasidism

Russ — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 13:06:28 +0000

Jay will be presenting a scholarly paper on “Vedanta and Nonduality in Contemporary Neo-Hasidism” at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion.

The Significance of the Body in Jewish Spiritual Practice

Jay — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 05:25:45 +0000

As a keynote to the Academy of Jewish Religion’s fall retreat, Jay Michaelson will speak on the significance of the body in Jewish spiritual practice. The address will contrast Jewish and Christian attitudes toward the body, talk about the soul-less-ness of Jewish law (as a good thing), touch on the way Jewish practice intersects with the non-Jewish practice of body-based mindfulness, and conclude with some radical ideas about enlightenment and being free from the notion of the “soul” as commonly understood.