Friday, February 7 / 12 PM / Oakes Mural Room
Feminist theologian Kathleen Sands is Associate Professor in the Program in the Study of Religion at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. She has risen rapidly to prominence as a scholar and professional leader in the field of Religious Studies. She edited the volume God Forbid: Religion and Sex in American Public Life (Oxford, 2000), a compilation of essays introducing scholarly religious studies perspectives on the family, gay rights, abortion, welfare, and prostitution. Sands earned her M.T.S. in theology from Harvard Divinity School and her Ph.D. in theology and ethics from the Boston College Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. She received a research fellowship from the Center for the Study of Values in Public Life from the Harvard Divinity School in 1997. During the academic year 2000-2001, she held a Radcliffe Institute Fellowship that allowed her to lay the groundwork for a critical study of religion, paralleling the critical studies of gender, race, and sexuality. She is currently writing a book that applies critical studies in religion to law and policy issues in the U.S., including “faith-based initiatives,” First Nations religious rights, and the rights of sexual minorities.
Sponsored by the Religion and Culture Research Cluster