Jasper Serenity Myers '24 and Professor Lynn R. Huber presented at the annual Queer and Trans Studies in Religion Conference at the University of California, Riverside.
Jasper Serenity Myers ’24, who is majoring in religious studies and classical studies, and Lynn R. Huber, Maude Sharpe Powell Professor of Religious Studies, both presented research at the annual Queer and Trans Studies in Religion Conference at the University of California, Riverside. The hybrid conference was held Feb. 16-18.
Myers’ paper, “‘Once as Maid he Vowed’: Gender Nonconformity, Female Same-Sex Erotic Encounters, and Divine Intervention in Ovid’s Metamorphoses,” was based upon research conducted as part of the Multifaith Scholars Program. Myers is co-mentored by Huber and Professor Kristina Meinking.
Guided and informed by Saidiya Hartman’s framework of critical fabulation and Terri Givens’ ethos of radical empathy, Myers’ paper focused on the story of Iphis and Ianthe in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. The story follows a young Cretan youth, Iphis, who is assigned female at birth, raised as a boy, and, transformed into a male by the deity Isis so they can marry Ianthe. Read with other ancient accounts of same-gender-loving women, the story raises questions about how ancient Romans understood gender and sexuality and how ancient figures relate to modern conceptions of sexuality.
Huber presented “Queer Biblical Interpretation: A Glance Back” as part of a panel focused on the field of LGBTQ+ Biblical Studies. Specifically, Huber offered categories for understanding the various ways that LGBTQ+ interpreters engage biblical texts.