Melissa M Wilcox
Biographic Data
| ID | 299765 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Melissa M Wilcox |
| GIVEN NAMES | Melissa M |
| FAMILY NAME | Wilcox |
| SIGNATURE | WILCOX M M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Whitman College |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-3898-6157 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 33 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 93 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 32 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2001 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
The Palgrave Handbook of Queer and Trans Studies in Religion
Two Words: Gender Theory
On April 9, 2024, NPR's Morning Edition covered the prior day's release of a new Vatican document entitled “Infinite Dignity” (National Public Radio 2024). Despite its title, the document denied the dignity of many people—in particular those involved in surrogacy or abortion, all trans people and allies, and no small number of academics—by terming our actions and perspectives “threats” to human dignity as the document defines it. Transness was ta…
(The) Discipline and the Confessional: Toward Methodological Numenism and an Engaged, Embodied Study of Religion
For all its transdisciplinarity, religious studies remains a field focused on boundaries, especially those between scholars and practitioners and between confessional and nonconfessional scholarship. The disciplinary use of the confessional in religious studies calls for a Foucauldian analysis that has not yet been central to our discussion of methods, despite important work on Foucault and religion from a number of prominent scholars. Disentangl…
Queer Religiosities: An Introduction to Queer and Transgender Studies in Religion
Queer Religiosities is the first comprehensive, comparative, and globally focused introduction to queer and transgender studies in religion. Addressing sophisticated topics in clear and accessible language, award-winning teacher and scholar Melissa M. Wilcox brings her engaging lecture style into conversation with the work of scholars around the globe to welcome students into these rapidly growing fields. Following an introduction to key concepts…
Sacralizing Sexualized Bodies
This essay invites readers to consider that full inclusion in religious spaces – including in religious education – may demand the sacralization of sexualized bodies. Noting that minoritization and sexualization often go hand in hand, such that the bodies of women, queer and trans people, and religious and ethnic minorities, among others, are perceived in the societies around them as sexually aberrant, I suggest that these bodies are most often i…
The Sex Obsession: Perversity and Possibility in American Politics. By Janet R. Jakobsen
In The Sex Obsession, Janet R. Jakobsen offers a masterful analysis of a question that has drawn the attention of many commentators on US religions: “Why sex?” Why, as Jakobsen puts it at the outset, “are gender and sexuality such riveting public policy concerns in the United States?” (1). Foreshadowing her argument, she goes on to remind readers that “the usual answer may be summarized: ‘Because religion’” (1). The usual answer is not what Jakob…
Religion, the Body, and Sexuality: An Introduction
How does religion relate to bodies and sexualities? Many people would answer, simply, "through repression," but the relationship is much more complicated than that. While many religions draw boundaries between what they consider to be appropriate and inappropriate use of the human body, especially in the realm of sexuality, the same religions often celebrate human sexuality and even expect sexual partners to provide each other with sexual pleasur…
Queer Nuns: Religion, Activism, and Serious Parody
An engaging look into the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, queer activists devoted to social justice The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence make up an unlikely order of nuns. Self-described as “twenty-first century queer nuns,” the Sisters began in 1979 when three bored gay men donned retired Roman Catholic nuns’ habits and went for a stroll through San Francisco’s gay Castro district. The stunned and delighted responses they received prompted these…
Queer Religiosities: An Introduction to Queer and Transgender Studies in Religion
Words Kill: Sex and the Definition of US Religion
This paper makes the case that scholars of US religions neglect the relationships between religion and sex, or at least those that exist beyond the spheres of interdiction and, recently, the sexual activities of white evangelical Protestants.This neglect takes shape, I suggest, because of a series of unspoken and largely unquestioned presumptions about religion, sexuality, and the secular.Arguing that scholars' resistance to engaging the intersec…
Religion Is Already Transed; Religious Studies Is Not (Yet) Listening
Religion is Already Transed; Religious Studies is Not (Yet) Listening Melissa M. Wilcox (bio) Keyword feminist, queer, religious studies, transgender studies Almost exactly fifteen years after our conversations, I still remember Corrine Garcia's stories. Corrine lived out multiple complex identities in multiple ways. A woman called Corrine at home, she lived outside those four walls as a man; she asked me to use her feminine name and pronouns whe…
After the Wrath of God: Aids, Sexuality, and American Religion, Reforming Sodom: Protestants and the Rise of Gay Rights Virgin Nation: Sexual Purity and American Adolescence Virgin Nation: Sexual Puri…
The year 2015 brought a rich trove of historical analyses dealing with Christianity, sexuality, and politics in the US and the UK. Published nearly simultaneously, these books—each the first monogr
Religio: The ties that bind
In this response essay, I borrow a page from Jack Halberstam to explore the ties that bind-ligates, as in re-ligio-the two sibling fields of sociology and religious studies
Globalized Religion and Sexual Identity: Contexts, Contestations, Voices
Globalized Religion and Sexual Identity: Contexts, Contestations, Voices." Journal of Contemporary Religion, 31(1), pp. 137–138
Introduction: Terrorist Assemblages meets the study of religion
On 19 November 2011, those present at the annual joint meetings of the American Academy of Religion and the Society of Biblical Literature had the opportunity to attend a book panel on Jasbir Puar
Religious and Sexual Identities: A Multi-faith Exploration of Young Adults
Sexuality, Gender, and Religious Attendance
Existing research on religious organizations serving lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, and transgendered people has noted a dearth of women in such congregations but has offered little explanation for this phenomenon. Working from a study conducted with 29 lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered women in the greater Los Angeles area, this paper demonstrates that race and ethnicity, feminism, a concern for LGBT rights, and interaction between the life-co…
Spiritual Sluts”: Uncovering Gender, Ethnicity, and Sexuality in the Post-Secular
Gender Roles, Sexuality, and Children in Millennial Movements
How the Religious Right Shaped Lesbian and Gay Activism
Journal Article How the Religious Right Shaped Lesbian and Gay Activism Get access How the Religious Right Shaped Lesbian and Gay Activism, by TINA FETNER. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2008, 200 pp.; $67.50 USD (cloth), $22.50 USD (paper). Melissa M. Wilcox Melissa M. Wilcox Whitman College Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Sociology of Religion, Volume 71, Issue 2, SUMMER 2010, Pages 251–253,…
Queer Inclusion in the United Methodist Church
Introduction: Queering the Study of New Religious Movements
Research Article| May 01 2008 Introduction: Queering the Study of New Religious Movements David W. Machacek, David W. Machacek Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Melissa M. Wilcox Melissa M. Wilcox Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Nova Religio (2008) 11 (4): 3–7. https://doi.org/10.1525/nr.2008.11.4.3 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supp…
Sexuality, Religion and
Long perceived as major sources of social, political, economic, and even esoteric power, sexuality and religion are logical partners for sociological study. Although each is individually the subject of a significant subfield within sociology, in combination they have received less scholarly attention to date than they are due. Nevertheless, there is a significant body of work already in place on their many and varied connections – enough to point…
Coming Out in Christianity: Religion, Identity and Community
Book Review| February 01 2006 Coming Out in Christianity: Religion, Identity and Community Melissa M. Wilcox Melissa M. Wilcox Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Nova Religio (2006) 9 (3): 120–123. https://doi.org/10.1525/nr.2006.9.3.120 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Share Icon Share Twitter LinkedIn Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Si…
Outlaws or In-Laws: Queer Theory, LGBT Studies, and Religious Studies
Many queer theorists, like many queer activists and perhaps many LGBT people in general, regard religion as so inimical to their purposes and lives that it is not even worthy of critique; references to religion in queer theory, queer studies, and even LGBT studies are usually sparse, brief, and generally derogatory. Likewise, within most of the field of religious studies, queerness is rarely an issue of concern or even consciousness except in the…
When Sheila's a Lesbian: Religious Individualism among Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Christians
Journal Article When Sheila's a Lesbian: Religious Individualism among Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Christians Get access Melissa M. Wilcox Melissa M. Wilcox * University of California, Santa Barbara * Direct correspondence to Melissa Wilcox, Department of Religious Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106-3031, e-mail: [email protected]. Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar …
Outlaws or In-Laws: Queer Theory, LGBT Studies, and Religious Studies
Many queer theorists, like many queer activists and perhaps many LGBT people in general, regard religion as so inimical to their purposes and lives that it is not even worthy of critique; references to religion in queer theory, queer studies, and even LGBT studies are usually sparse, brief, and generally derogatory. Likewise, within most of the field of religious studies, queerness is rarely an issue of concern or even consciousness except in the…
Of Markets and Missions: The Early History of the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches
“It seems to me, now,” reflected Troy Perry, four years after founding a successful new Protestant denomination, “that it must have been a matter of timing, and I think that it was fate, too! God chose me for my mission at a time when He knew the world would respond, once the need was made clear.” While the question of divine ordination is a bit outside the scholar's jurisdiction, the question of timing is a crucial one for historical inquiry, an…
Expressions of Ethnography: Novel Approaches to Qualitative Methods
Religious and Sexual Identities: A Multi-faith Exploration of Young Adults
Spiritual Sluts”: Uncovering Gender, Ethnicity, and Sexuality in the Post-Secular
(The) Discipline and the Confessional: Toward Methodological Numenism and an Engaged, Embodied Study of Religion
For all its transdisciplinarity, religious studies remains a field focused on boundaries, especially those between scholars and practitioners and between confessional and nonconfessional scholarship. The disciplinary use of the confessional in religious studies calls for a Foucauldian analysis that has not yet been central to our discussion of methods, despite important work on Foucault and religion from a number of prominent scholars. Disentangl…
Words Kill: Sex and the Definition of US Religion
This paper makes the case that scholars of US religions neglect the relationships between religion and sex, or at least those that exist beyond the spheres of interdiction and, recently, the sexual activities of white evangelical Protestants.This neglect takes shape, I suggest, because of a series of unspoken and largely unquestioned presumptions about religion, sexuality, and the secular.Arguing that scholars' resistance to engaging the intersec…
Introduction: Terrorist Assemblages meets the study of religion
On 19 November 2011, those present at the annual joint meetings of the American Academy of Religion and the Society of Biblical Literature had the opportunity to attend a book panel on Jasbir Puar
Queer Inclusion in the United Methodist Church
Murderers and martyrs: Violence, discourse, and the (re)construction of meaning
In recent years, the question of violence has drawn attention from religious studies scholars and public commentators alike. From schoolchildren with guns to terrorists with bombs, the perpetrators of violent acts have forced communities, nations, and even scholars to grapple with the nature and meaning of violence. But although significant attention has been paid to religious groups that foster violence and to those that resist it, the ways in w…
Murderers and martyrs: Violence, discourse, and the (re)construction of meaning
In recent years, the question of violence has drawn attention from religious studies scholars and public commentators alike. From schoolchildren with guns to terrorists with bombs, the perpetrators of violent acts have forced communities, nations, and even scholars to grapple with the nature and meaning of violence. But although significant attention has been paid to religious groups that foster violence and to those that resist it, the ways in w…
Of Markets and Missions: The Early History of the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches
“It seems to me, now,” reflected Troy Perry, four years after founding a successful new Protestant denomination, “that it must have been a matter of timing, and I think that it was fate, too! God chose me for my mission at a time when He knew the world would respond, once the need was made clear.” While the question of divine ordination is a bit outside the scholar's jurisdiction, the question of timing is a crucial one for historical inquiry, an…
Que(e)rying Religion: A Critical Anthology
Journal Article Que(e)rying Religion: A Critical Anthology, Gary David Comstock and Susan E. Henking (eds.). New York: Continuum, 1997, 552 pp. $34.50 (paper) Get access Melissa M. Wilcox Melissa M. Wilcox University of California, Santa Barbara Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Sociology of Religion, Volume 63, Issue 1, Spring 2002, Pages 118–119, https://doi.org/10.2307/3712546 Published: 01 March 2002
When Sheila's a Lesbian: Religious Individualism among Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Christians
Journal Article When Sheila's a Lesbian: Religious Individualism among Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Christians Get access Melissa M. Wilcox Melissa M. Wilcox * University of California, Santa Barbara * Direct correspondence to Melissa Wilcox, Department of Religious Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106-3031, e-mail: [email protected]. Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar …
Expressions of Ethnography: Novel Approaches to Qualitative Methods
Weathering Change: Gays and Lesbians, Christian Conservatives, and Everyday Hostilities
Journal Article Weathering Change: Gays and Lesbians, Christian Conservatives, and Everyday Hostilities, by Thomas J. Linneman. New York: New York University Press, 2003, 267pp.; $55.00 cloth, $19.00 paper Get access Melissa M. Wilcox Melissa M. Wilcox Whitman College Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Sociology of Religion, Volume 65, Issue 4, Winter 2004, Pages 421–423, https://doi.org/10.2307/3712326 Publi…
Sexuality and the World's Religions
Exploring one of the most controversial topics in contemporary theology, this scholarly volume reveals what the world's great faiths-East and West-preach about sexuality, with a special emphasis on American religion. What do the world's most important religious texts have to say about one of humanity's favorite activities? Editors David W. Machacek and Melissa M. Wilcox have brought together top scholars in the field of religious studies to ask a…
Coming out in Christianity: Religion, Identity and Community
Journal Article Coming out in Christianity: Religion, Identity and Community, by Melissa M. Wilcox. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2003, 232 pp.; $55.00 USD (cloth), $22.95 USD (paper) Get access Mary Jo Neitz Mary Jo Neitz University of Missouri-Columbia Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Sociology of Religion, Volume 66, Issue 3, Fall 2005, Pages 333–334, https://doi.org/10.2307/4153109 Published: 0…
Coming Out in Christianity: Religion, Identity and Community
Book Review| February 01 2006 Coming Out in Christianity: Religion, Identity and Community Melissa M. Wilcox Melissa M. Wilcox Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Nova Religio (2006) 9 (3): 120–123. https://doi.org/10.1525/nr.2006.9.3.120 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Share Icon Share Twitter LinkedIn Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Si…
Outlaws or In-Laws: Queer Theory, LGBT Studies, and Religious Studies
Many queer theorists, like many queer activists and perhaps many LGBT people in general, regard religion as so inimical to their purposes and lives that it is not even worthy of critique; references to religion in queer theory, queer studies, and even LGBT studies are usually sparse, brief, and generally derogatory. Likewise, within most of the field of religious studies, queerness is rarely an issue of concern or even consciousness except in the…
Sexuality, Religion and
Long perceived as major sources of social, political, economic, and even esoteric power, sexuality and religion are logical partners for sociological study. Although each is individually the subject of a significant subfield within sociology, in combination they have received less scholarly attention to date than they are due. Nevertheless, there is a significant body of work already in place on their many and varied connections – enough to point…
Introduction: Queering the Study of New Religious Movements
Research Article| May 01 2008 Introduction: Queering the Study of New Religious Movements David W. Machacek, David W. Machacek Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Melissa M. Wilcox Melissa M. Wilcox Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Nova Religio (2008) 11 (4): 3–7. https://doi.org/10.1525/nr.2008.11.4.3 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supp…
Queer Inclusion in the United Methodist Church
How the Religious Right Shaped Lesbian and Gay Activism
Journal Article How the Religious Right Shaped Lesbian and Gay Activism Get access How the Religious Right Shaped Lesbian and Gay Activism, by TINA FETNER. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2008, 200 pp.; $67.50 USD (cloth), $22.50 USD (paper). Melissa M. Wilcox Melissa M. Wilcox Whitman College Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Sociology of Religion, Volume 71, Issue 2, SUMMER 2010, Pages 251–253,…
Gender Roles, Sexuality, and Children in Millennial Movements
Spiritual Sluts”: Uncovering Gender, Ethnicity, and Sexuality in the Post-Secular
Sexuality, Gender, and Religious Attendance
Existing research on religious organizations serving lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, and transgendered people has noted a dearth of women in such congregations but has offered little explanation for this phenomenon. Working from a study conducted with 29 lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered women in the greater Los Angeles area, this paper demonstrates that race and ethnicity, feminism, a concern for LGBT rights, and interaction between the life-co…
Introduction: Terrorist Assemblages meets the study of religion
On 19 November 2011, those present at the annual joint meetings of the American Academy of Religion and the Society of Biblical Literature had the opportunity to attend a book panel on Jasbir Puar
Religious and Sexual Identities: A Multi-faith Exploration of Young Adults
Globalized Religion and Sexual Identity: Contexts, Contestations, Voices
Globalized Religion and Sexual Identity: Contexts, Contestations, Voices." Journal of Contemporary Religion, 31(1), pp. 137–138
Religio: The ties that bind
In this response essay, I borrow a page from Jack Halberstam to explore the ties that bind-ligates, as in re-ligio-the two sibling fields of sociology and religious studies
After the Wrath of God: Aids, Sexuality, and American Religion, Reforming Sodom: Protestants and the Rise of Gay Rights Virgin Nation: Sexual Purity and American Adolescence Virgin Nation: Sexual Puri…
The year 2015 brought a rich trove of historical analyses dealing with Christianity, sexuality, and politics in the US and the UK. Published nearly simultaneously, these books—each the first monogr
Religion Is Already Transed; Religious Studies Is Not (Yet) Listening
Religion is Already Transed; Religious Studies is Not (Yet) Listening Melissa M. Wilcox (bio) Keyword feminist, queer, religious studies, transgender studies Almost exactly fifteen years after our conversations, I still remember Corrine Garcia's stories. Corrine lived out multiple complex identities in multiple ways. A woman called Corrine at home, she lived outside those four walls as a man; she asked me to use her feminine name and pronouns whe…
Words Kill: Sex and the Definition of US Religion
This paper makes the case that scholars of US religions neglect the relationships between religion and sex, or at least those that exist beyond the spheres of interdiction and, recently, the sexual activities of white evangelical Protestants.This neglect takes shape, I suggest, because of a series of unspoken and largely unquestioned presumptions about religion, sexuality, and the secular.Arguing that scholars' resistance to engaging the intersec…
Religion, the Body, and Sexuality: An Introduction
How does religion relate to bodies and sexualities? Many people would answer, simply, "through repression," but the relationship is much more complicated than that. While many religions draw boundaries between what they consider to be appropriate and inappropriate use of the human body, especially in the realm of sexuality, the same religions often celebrate human sexuality and even expect sexual partners to provide each other with sexual pleasur…
Sociology (28 works) · Religion and Society Interactions (21 works) · Gender Studies (19 works) · Philosophy (19 works) · Political science (13 works) · Law (11 works) · Art (9 works) · Philosophy (9 works) · Religious studies (9 works) · Gender Studies (8 works)