Contextualizing the Catholic Sexual Abuse Crisis Seminar

Sexuality, Violence, and Marginality

For our meeting in San Diego, the seminar seeks papers (re)thinking the study of religion and sexual abuse with attention to sexuality, violence, and marginality. Proposals engaging any of these three areas will be appreciably considered, including papers that are comparative in approach, papers that theorize one or more of these key terms, or papers that consider their entanglements. We also invite research exploring these terms within or beyond Catholic contexts, across multiple religious traditions, or by drawing upon interdisciplinary methodologies. To elaborate on the importance of each of these terms to our seminar:

Sexuality. Early research on clergy sexual abuse has made clear that we need to attend more broadly to gender, sex, and sexuality. Abuse cases are embedded, for example, in the sex lives of both religious leaders and laypersons. Abusive behavior constitutes only a corner of these lives, and they are more varied and complicated than acknowledged in extant literature. Areas we need to know more about include: children’s sexuality, moral and aesthetic understandings of “good” and “bad” sex, LGBT+ and queer religiosities, and the sex lives of religious leaders. We also ask: what are the consequences of using “abuse” as our entry point for considering sexuality and sex in these rich and varied forms?

Violence. Sexual abuse is entwined with other forms of violence. It converges with these other forms of violence in the realm of theology, and in places, bodies, and practices. Within Catholicism, for example, theologies of suffering have imagined and inscribed violence onto certain bodies (e.g. women, children, martyrs, Indigenous populations), while ascribing power over those persons’ bodies to others (e.g. men, priests, missionaries, the state). These theologies have also produced certain spaces as sites of violence (e.g. seminaries, Magdalene laundries, orphanages, boarding schools). Whether in a Catholic or non-Catholic setting, how do other patterns of religion and violence intersect with sexual abuse?

Marginality. As the 2024 AAR Presidential Theme recognizes, “The use of violence is directly related to the hierarchical understanding of beings and valuation of their lives.”  Towards this end, is religious abuse more acute in marginalized communities? How should studies of abuse incorporate the margins into future research? Does the value of studying within and even advocating for marginalized communities outweigh the risks these communities take on when opening up about their experiences of sexual violence?

Accepted proposals will lead to short papers (approx. 10 – 15 pages) due by October 30, 2024.

If you have additional questions about next year’s seminar, please reach out to the seminar co-chairs.