Hello All!
I am so excited to see the wonderful introductions posted so far and to
see how international we are.
You can get this list in digest format; I know, I am doing that now.
Just go to the web page (www.jiscmail.ac.uk/) and where it says “Browse
Alphabetically”, hit the “G” and it will take you to the Gender-Religion
list where you can change your options. I don’t know who administers
this list yet I thought I’d let you all know.
I’m a bit shy about introducing myself. Indeed, if the list is archived,
I’d like to know who has access to it. Only those of us on the list?
That is the way it has worked on other lists I belong to.
I feel reserved and excited. Excited, because so many of you are telling
us about yourselves and there are many places already where I’d like to
enter into discussion. Reserved, because I am working in academia again
in a one year position (after 4 years in hiatus) and I have been a
mostly solitary follower of the Goddess since 1990 or so. I see so many
of you on that path too and applaud your willingness to speak freely. I
am feeling constrained about my faith association and not knowing how
open I can be about that on my campus. There is much evidence that I
have no fears about practicing with the students and other staff (as I
do that already). I can also easily go to multi-faith services here and
am only identified as a person of faith. Yet I do not know how this will
be viewed by my department and other faculty members. Have any of you
had any experiences that you might share with me to embolden me? I don’t
mean to start with such heavy material, yet I don’t know how to enter in
here gracefully. Just as an academic? Just as a person of faith? Yet the
name of the list and all of your overlapping lives leads me to believe
that my own desire to integrate these parts of myself (instead of
closeting) on campus are mirrored here and I also hope that that
integration might have some space to develop here.
I am a U.S. anthropologist with specialties in Gender Studies and South
Asia. I am working on an article about a female South Asian activist and
her use of religious ritual to make broader social changes.
Thank you all for your bravery and willingness to witness each other
here.
Julia
|