Melissa M. Wilcox: Honoring A Decades-Long Commitment to Queer and Trans Studies in Religion

This panel will honor Melissa M. Wilcox’s decades-long contribution to the field of queer and trans studies in religion through her mentorship, service, advocacy, activism, and scholarship. In addition to co-founding a pioneering open-access journal, QTR: A Journal of Trans and Queer Studies in Religion, and co-editing the new book series, Hauntings: Trans, Queer, Religion, Wilcox has been the director of the Holstein Dissertation Fellowship in queer and trans studies in religion as well as the chair of the program committee for the UCR Conference on Queer and Trans Studies in Religion, which had its sixth successful annual meeting in February 2024. Panelists will not only talk about the profound impact that Wilcox’s scholarship and community building efforts have had on the queer and trans world of studying religion but also celebrate the labor and pivotal contributions of one of the most important and intellectually generous scholars writing/working today.