Complex Dreams for Women in Religious Studies

Abstract

Complex Dreams for Women in Religious Studies Mary E. Hunt (bio) Keywords beyond teaching, mentoring, A Guide for Women in Religion Given the current state of the world in which tiny percentages of people own majority shares of wealth in virtually every country, it is not surprising that the academy would have a similar ownership pattern. Even those who are hired in the most elite institutions are still working for systems in which they are not really stakeholders. The fate of the rest of us—especially women, people of color, queer folks, people living with disabilities, immigrants, and the like—is unlikely to be the tenure-track job about which we were taught to dream, work, and achieve. This is due in large measure to the issues feminist/womanists problematize, including racism, sexism, ableism, homo and trans hatred, that condition both our choices and our chances. Our dreams are co-opted by the same neoliberal, some would say now neofascist, context. So, we must begin by liberating, complexifying our dreams. The best work of feminists in religion, especially the content of our teaching, research, and activism, is critical of the established order, disruptive of the status quo, and meant to empower people to change the morally hideous context in which we find ourselves. As such, it is hardly the work that most educational institutions want to underwrite by hiring us. It did not take me or many of my generation long to find this out. It is all the more obvious now. I have participated in the American Academy of Religion mentoring project for several years. I have worked with over eighty-five interns at the Women's Alliance for Theology, Ethics, and Ritual (WATER), many of whom have gone on to graduate studies, so I have been in this conversation over several decades. I cannot report that things are improving. However, I can add some data to the mix that point to creative, useful ways forward. [End Page 89] Three guides by women in religion reflect the history of our efforts to do things differently. The first one, A Guide to the Perplexing: A Survival Manual for Women in Religious Studies by Judith Plaskow, Rita Nakashima Brock, and others (collectively referred to as the American Academy of Religion Committee on the Status of Women in the Profession) was just that—a primer for how to jump through the hoops in academia with the assumption that there would be a job at the other end.1 And for many in those early days there was a job. Mary Daly had several offers when she finished graduate school. The second, A Guide for Women in Religion: Making Your Way from A to Z (which I worked on with Rebecca Alpert, Karen Baker-Fletcher, Valerie Dixon, Janet Jakobsen, Rosamond Rodman, and Katharina Von Kellenbach), took account of the increasing diversity in the field.2 In addition to more women of color, queer women, and others on the margins, we noted that some women achieved emerita status as part of the "established" career trajectory (kindergarten to emerita status). But we also noted that the academic market was beginning to shrink and women would do well to broaden their scope of employment options. Ten years later, Kecia Ali, Monique Moultrie, and I published a revised Guide to reflect the many changes in the field.3 We emphasized the ways technology has altered the landscape. We insisted on the realistic need to cast a wide net in thinking about getting jobs and making career choices. Five years later, I can say that we were right—both technology and the market intertwine to shape options today. After many decades of thinking about the questions of how feminist scholars of religion can survive and thrive in academia, I offer three concrete practical insights that I have shared with my colleagues in religion in recent years. Think Creatively beyond Teaching Academics spend decades in school to become religious studies professionals. So, there is a tendency to think that we will become what we have had modeled for us—namely, teachers. The reality is that most lawyers do not go to law school expecting to become law professors; and...