Women, religion a focus in upcoming conference

By Anna Baldasty

Why is it that religious studies majors at Santa Clara are primarily female? Why is it that religion, something often criticized for relegating women to the bottom of its hierarchy, does not fail to engage women intellectually?

To address these questions, Jessica Coblentz, a junior religious studies and women and gender studies double major, proposed that Santa Clara send a group of students to a "Feminism, Sexuality and the Return of Religion" conference at Syracuse University in New York.

The biggest challenge was raising the $10,000 needed to send the eight students and two faculty members across the country. The group raised money by contacting various campus clubs and organizations, finding its primary donor in FSRAP, the Faculty Student Research Assistant Program.

"We've been really surprised by how much money we've made. Everyone has been very encouraging," said Coblentz.

The conference, second in a series of biennial symposiums on postmodernism, culture and religion, takes place April 26-28. An international assembly of scholars will consider the intersection of feminism, gender theory, religion and sexuality from a variety of philosophical, theological, political and anthropological perspectives.

They will address the changing discourse on women and religion that has been occasioned by a renewed interest in post-patriarchal religion and also by the special challenges posed by the worldwide resurgence of religious fundamentalism.

The distinguished French theoretician Hélène Cixous, professor at the University of Paris VIII, speaks on "Promised Belief" at the opening evening session. For 40 years, Cixous' studies in psychoanalysis, politics, philosophy, literature, history and law have been central to feminist scholarship. Cixous contends that social change requires linguistic change.

Women, through their writing, must work to free themselves from inherited rhetoric and myth that presumes their inferiority. Cixous has suggested the possibility of a future in which gender-based terms have been replaced by new descriptive categories that contain personal identity and are less inclined to restrict.

The four sessions on the second day of the conference range from addresses on the differences between secular and religious discourse on sexual politics to the ways God may be understood beyond patriarchy and homophobia. Sarah Coakley will speak at the first morning meeting, "In Defense of Sacrifice: Gender, Selfhood, and the Binding of Isaac."

Coakley, who is professor of divinity at Harvard Divinity School and an ordained priest of the Church of England, is a systemic theologian with cross-disciplinary interests in law and medicine. She is a recent recipient of the prestigious Templeton Award, and she serves as co-director of a Templeton Foundation research project on theology, evolutionary biology and game theory.

In her writing, Coakley has critiqued the burden that power -- whether political or intellectual -- places upon religious experience. She notes, for instance, that the celebrated 16th century Spanish mystic St. Teresa of Avila was required to satisfy clerical male interrogators before she was allowed to claim the truth of her own awareness of the divine.

The conference concludes on its third day with presentations by professors Saba Mahmood of the University of California, Berkeley, and Gianni Vattimo of the University of Turin in Italy. Mahmood, a cultural anthropologist, provides expertise on women's piety within Islam as well as the Islamist challenge to women's identity.

Vattimo, a noted postmodernist intellectual, contributes widely to European intellectual life inside and outside academic circles.

He writes regularly for Italian newspapers, speaks frequently on Italian television and has served as a deputy to the European Parliament in local and national Italian politics.

Upon their return, the students will lead a symposium on May 12 which will bring insights from the conference to our own campus.

"We hope that the symposium will create dialogue about what we took from this conference, how it's applicable to the Santa Clara community and about the role of sexuality and feminism on a Jesuit campus," said Christina Leone, a junior religious studies major and one of the eight attendees. "We also hope it shows our gratitude to the organizations that have funded us and supported us."

Indeed, the understanding of sexuality and feminism as key -- rather than peripheral -- aspects of religious life occupies an important place within the broader discussion of institutionalized patriarchy.

"Being at a Catholic Jesuit university means that religion is part of our university culture," said Coblentz. "It is important that feminism and sexuality enter into that dialogue, as well. These issues are relevant topics for young people, and when they are combined, they gain another whole layer of intricacy and controversy."

Contact Anna Baldasty at (408) 551-1918 or abaldasty@scu.edu.