This week IAM staff and board members joined researchers, students, and faith leaders for a deeply enriching time of reflection and thought-provoking dialogue at the annual Gender Unit conference at Stellenbosch University, held in collaboration with University of KwaZulu-Natal and supported by Act Church of Sweden.
The theme, Rekindling Humanity: Seeing the Self and the Other Through Story, created space for a diversity of narratives to be shared. This community explored contextual and contemporary challenges and opportunities for doing theology through narrative, poetry, art, and film to help rekindle the spark of humanity in both the self and the other.
The conference boasted speakers from Brazil to South Africa, with papers that ranged from the auto-ethnographic research on men and masculinities, to an alternative reading of the story of Sodom offering it as a redemptive text to the community. Another highlight included the screening of ‘Fleeing to God’ by South African creative Carl Collison, which captures narratives of LGBTQ migrants of faith, that was followed by a panel discussion that explored the potential of film in advocacy and change-making.
We were reminded that queerness is not only about identity or the present moment, but that queerness is “a mode of imagining a collective utopian future and about structural transformation. Queerness is not just about being—it is about becoming. It is about holding onto the hope that another world is possible, and that we are the ones who must create it.”
This conference leads up to a Knowledge Production Incubator that IAM will facilitate, a collaboration project for Masters students (MDiv at Stellenbosch University and MTh Gender, Religion and Health, University of KwaZulu Natal). This unique learning experience will explore the complex social, embodied realities located in the intersection of sexuality, gender identity, and faith, as we also partner with Ujamaa Centre for Biblical and Theological Community Development and Research for a contextual bible reading in Durban.
Thank you for all the partners who made this space possible.
